A Mystery

[wicket]

How bout this Richard:

chamber 1. hot cap, Black MZ, ball.
chamber 2. hot cap, Olde Eynsford, ball.
chamber 3. hot cap, Olde Eynsford, over powder wad, ball.

Chamber 1. tells you whether or not it's the Black MZ alone. Chamber 2. tells you whether it's "any" powder. If 1, 2, and 3 all fire, it's Black MZ and the wad working together. I don't see how Black MZ can dribble down each nipple, penetrate the sealant over the priming powder, and kill the cap every time. A vapor though, sealed tightly in a chamber with wads and a lead ball would take the path of least resistance and go right to the cap. A liquid would do the same, but would have to saturate the powder before arriving at the primer, and then penetrate the primer, I'd expect that to kill the whole charge, which didn't happen. Final possibility is that the hot caps have a very limited shelf life, and you're the first to notice it and post about it. It could also be the number of cats, don't know how i missed that possibility.  ???

[ssb73q]

Maybe I will really need to run this experiment: Load up three cylinders, one with Black MZ and CCI caps, one with Black MZ and the new Remington caps, the third one with Olde Eynsford BP and the new Remington caps. All cylinders loaded with .454 cast (at the same time) balls, Sagebrush lubed wads, and Walters 0.030" 45 Colt barrier wads.

Store for 6 months and then test fire the cylinders.

Hi, three Pietta 1860 cylinders were loaded up using the Tower of Power loading tool per the above schedule. Statistics suggests a sample of six for a confidence limit of ~70%. That will work out well for a cylinder with six chambers. The cylinders will be stored in my gun safe for a minimum of six months before testing.

While I was in my caps stash, I noticed a couple of old Remington UMC #11 cap 100rd cans that were never opened. I opened one of them to find caps that have a foil lining over the primer mixture, interesting. All new Remington and CCI caps have exposed primer compound.

Regards,
Richard

[mazo kid]

Maybe another test....how about a spritz of lacquer lightly in the unsealed cap? How many variables are we up to now?

[ssb73q]

Hi, today I handed my son-in-law eight 1858 loaded and capped cylinder for him to use with his 5.5" Pietta 1858 Remington. These cylinders were loaded at the same time as the Colt cylinders with the cap ignition problems. Four of the cylinders had one cap fail to fire and another cylinder had three chambers fail to fire.

While the fail to fire wasn't as severe as the 1851 or 1860 cylinders, there was still a cap contamination problem. Why the 1858 cylinders performed slightly better than the Colt cylinders is another mystery.

As a reminder, before this test I had never ever had a fail to fire after thousands of rounds using a 1858 Remington.

It will be over five more months before I can determine the cause of the cap failures. The loaded 1860 test cylinders that will be tested in six months after loading are put away in my gun safe.

Regards,
Richard

[wicket]

  Very perplexing Richard.  How do you keep the interior of your gun safe dry, and about how often was it opened while all these cylinders were stored in it?

[ssb73q]

Hi wicket, I keep a humidity test strip in the gun safe and only open the safe when wanting to remove or put in a gun. The humidity of the safe interior has never exceeded ~65% relative humidity. If the humidity ever reaches 70% I will put in 5lbs of silica gel that I keep charged. I use that silica gel when storing powder in the garage.

I never had the fail to fire using Black Mz and CCI caps. This problem occurred after capping with Remington caps. What I don't know is if the problem with storing precapped cylinders with Remington caps is the powder or the caps. That's what my long term test will show me. Keeping preloaded cylinders is really not necessary since I can probably load every cylinder I own using the Tower of Power loading tool in an hour or two. However, having the cylinders preloaded does provide a convenience.

Regards,
Richard

[wicket]

  Richard, if you had a can of damp powder in a sealed container, it would stay damp though, wouldn't it, being sealed away from the action of the silica gel?  Loading with it, and then storing the loaded cylinders in a dry gun safe would draw the moisture from the powder by way of the path of least resistance right to the priming composition in the caps.

[Hawg]

  Richard, if you had a can of damp powder in a sealed container, it would stay damp though, wouldn't it, being sealed away from the action of the silica gel?  Loading with it, and then storing the loaded cylinders in a dry gun safe would draw the moisture from the powder by way of the path of least resistance right to the priming composition in the caps.

If that were the case it would affect CCI caps too not just Remington.

[ssb73q]

Hi, I'm' guessing, but I think that the problem is that there is something in the Remington cap that doesn't like Black Mz powder. Some time ago I discovered that Black Mz is hell on brass, very corrosive for brass. The Remington caps I have are advertised as being hotter than previous Remington caps. That has me wonder if there is something new in the Remington cap that reacts with Black Mz making the cap go inert? The priming mixture is right against the Black Mz. I have some old UMC Remington caps that have a foil barrier that may prevent contamination. I think that the priming mixture contamination of the new "hotter" Remington caps is an unintended consequence for a new product not fully tested.

Regards,
Richard

[wicket]

Richard, you mentioned that it was only the hot Remington caps that went dead, so I'm basing my damp powder theory on there being something different in the Remington caps as opposed to CCI. Your guess is right about something that reacts with the Black Mz, but that thing is water and the Remington caps absorb it.

[ssb73q]

Hi wicket, you may be right about water being the culprit. While Black Mz is advertised as not taking up water, they have packages of desiccants in the powder bottle. A major product of combustion of Black Mz is water. I wonder if the copper cap metal causes a tiny bit of the Black Mz to decompose releasing water to inert the hotter Remington cap?

BTW, isn't using Remington caps in Colt revolvers sacrilegious? 

Regards,
Richard

[wicket]

  Richard, I got a special dispensation to use Remington caps, on account of the scarcity of Colt caps in my area. I gotta re-apply though since I cancelled the Remington I had on order and switched to a pocket navy, the Powder Pope ain't gonna like this.

[LonesomePigeon]

"Why the 1858 cylinders performed slightly better than the Colt cylinders is another mystery."

Just a guess but my Remington's generally have stronger mainsprings than my Colt's. If the primers were slowly losing their strength perhaps a blow from a stronger mainspring might set some of them off.

[LonesomePigeon]

Another theory could be that the new Remington caps will absorb moisture from the air. You might try leaving a few caps in an open container in the safe and see if those go bad too.

[45 Dragoon]

I know the answer to this problem.  It's very simple.  It's  .  .  .  .       







CARTRIDGES !!!!  Yep!       




Mike
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