Of caps and nipples

[Marshal Deadwood]

Do the replacement Tressco nipples help with the fragmenting problem with caps ? IS there any other 'tricks' ? I am shooting 25gr of 3f in my Armies...and have the osccasional 'lock up' from fragments. Using CCI's mostly,,some winchestess,,,althought I seem to have less probs when using Remingtions.

Iv been told that 10's and 11's are exactly the same diameter,,,only the 11's are longer. Is this true ?

Thanks, gents.

MD

[Montana Slim]

Iv been told that 10's and 11's are exactly the same diameter,,,only the 11's are longer. Is this true ?
MD

You've been given bad advice pard!

Cap fragments have to go somewhere, but vary depending on which cap, your gun, fit, etc. Check for burrs on the hammer face as this can help drag them back into the works. I'm speaking mainly to Colts. My Remingtons do not.  Firing technique can hurt ya, too.

Don't believe common "advice" to raise the revolver to cock it. This allows caps to fall back into the works.

Best,
Slim

[Roosterman]

Slim knows of what he speaks, I watch him whoop me several times a month. I find #10 Remingtons and TRESO cones to be ideal for me. Most of the time I can shoot an entire match with out jam ups. Then for no explainable reason things can go all to hell in a hurry. Light mainsprings will give you some trouble as will heavier loads, letting the hammer blow back and the cap frags to fall in the action.

[River City John]

I've posted this before in several forums, so pardon the repeat. But it does give a good visual reference.

From left to right:
Remington #10, Remington # 11, Dynamit Nobel #1075, CCI #10, CCI #11. Yes, for some reason Remington #10's are longer, but there is a diameter difference also. (I'm going to vote for the theory that some smart person at Remington decided it was needed to help their customers be able to handily identify the difference between their #10s and #11s when they're mixed together in a cap tin. )

The Tresso nipple compared to a stock Italian nipple. The Italian is tapered and has a rounded shoulder. It is designed that way so that it can accept all makes and sizes of caps, which allows for an often loose fit. The Tresso has straight sides and a squared shoulder that holds the caps more reliably, and are sized to fit either #10 or #11, depending on what you tell them you want when ordering them for your firearm.
Track of the Wolf also offers the Ampco bronze nipples in various sizes. I have not used them so do not have an opinion on them. (Tresso's are getting harder to find, but at the time when I switched to them I got enough to change out the two cap'n'ball revolvers that I shoot along with some spares.)

I did dress the face of my hammer on my Leech & Rigdon as it was dimpled with a slight 'donut'-ring outline of the nipple from firing before I changed out to the Tresso's. This scoring was occasionally causing caps to be pulled off.(The hammer face still shows a slight contact ring, but evidently not enough to repeat the problem.) Oddly enough, I also had to dress the angle on my Remington to make it parallel with the nipple face when the hammer was all the way down. Both of these slight modifications to the hammer face have helped insure consistent detonations and reduced cap fragments from going where you don't want them to go.  
Another thing to check is are you using too light of a hammer spring, allowing the hammer to rebound a bit with the blowback pressure and thus letting the cap fall off? Sometimes people do an action job on their cap'n'ball revolvers that lightens the spring to make the pull easier when cocking, but weakens the holding force against the nipple when fired. My Leech & Rigdon came with too light a hammer spring. I swapped it out for the spring in my cartridge Open Top, which was heavier a spring than it needed to be. Both Uberti and the easy fix was just one of those serendipitous things.
I've also reduced my powder load a bit - not only does it reduce the blowback pressure but saves on powder. I've found that at the typical ranges to the target we shoot I don't need to go with maximum loads.
RCJ