Rubber Cap Protectors?

[Cemetery]

Since I'm new to cap and ball shooting, lots of time is spent online, and in the muzzleloading sections of the local gunshop.

Over the weekend, I noticed small rubber cap protectors.  Packaging stated they are designed to keep the cap on the nipple after being fired as a way to prevent fired caps from coming off, and working their way into the action, thus jamming the gun.

Anybody ever use these?  And if so, thoughts?

[Sgt.Jake]

Cemetery     If you are speaking of the little pieces of colored tubing,in a package. Ya they work to keep a cap in place on a rifle,but theres no way Im going to fuss with putting them on a C&B revolver. Not when I can use Tresso cones and Remington #. 10 caps. JMO    Adios  Sgt.Jake

[Mako]

Cemetery,
Sgt. Jake has hit on one aspect of the problem.  You have to put them on with your fingers. Ask Cuts Crooked to show you what can happen when you do that.

They actually work most of the time and about 10 years ago I knew several people who were using either the Remington "Cap Guards" or making their own from model airplane fuel line.  The problem is that they will not fit in any cap loader that will fit on a revolver.  I got the bright idea of using a Musket Cap tool until it became obvious that it wouldn't fit in the loading port of any of the Colt pattern pistols.

While we're talking about that let me show you what you need to use to cap that revolver of yours.  Use either a Cash "Snail Drum" Capper or an inline tool.  You can get them at the Jebediah Starr Trading Company you found the flask at.


http://www.jedediah-starr.com/closeup.asp?cid=73&pid=1105&offset=0


http://www.jedediah-starr.com/closeup.asp?searchWord=capper&pid=509&offset=0

And make yourself a seating stick from a piece of 3/8" diameter wooden dowel.  When you cap you use a capping tool and then after you have 5 chambers capped you go back with your dowel and push the cap softly but firmly home.  I cut about a 10° angled "baloney" cut on the end of the dowel to help you get the angle square to the rear of the cap as you push it home.  Don't listen to people who tell you you don't need to do this, just look at a picture of Cuts thumb and you will be a believer.

Back to the cap guards, they work, until they DON'T and when they don't it is a mess.  Instead of a smashed cap getting loose in your hammer channel you get a hunk of plastic tubing and a cap in your channel.  I will GUARANTEE you it locks you up. I have personal experience in this matter.  So it's almost a matter of "six one way half a dozen the other."  They work until they don't and then you have to ground that pistol.

Lets' talk about grounding a locked up percussion pistol...As a conscientious Cap & Baller you need to learn to recognize when your pistol needs to be grounded safely.  

• As you gain experience you will find cap fragments and  smashed caps in the hammer channel of Colt revolvers.  If you ever have a cap not fire it will usually be because there was a cap in the channel.  Often you will find you can cock the pistol and the remaining caps will fire.  That is because the cap was smashed flat enough to allow the hammer to strike the remaining caps.
• An experienced Pisolero after firing the remaining caps after the misfire will then "short cock" the cylinder around, advancing the chambers until they see that cap come up and then fully cock the hammer and fire it.  Don't just cock and snap...it's bad form and potentially mushrooms your cones.
• Some caps in the channel will literally lock your pistol up.  The hammer is just far enough back to keep the cylinder bolt from engaging the cam on the hammer and the cylinder will not release and the hammer won't go back.  Careful here, you can tear up the action if you are a gorilla.
• Ground that pistol!  Place it muzzle down range on a safe flat surface and move on.  If there is no flat surface, place it on the ground.  The R.O. after the stage will either direct you to retrieve it, or they will have it brought to the unloading table.
• At the unloading table the procedure is simple.  (With the muzzle down range) Simply push or tap your wedge out remove the barrel and pull the cylinder off.  99.9% of the time you will see an offending cap sitting there "mocking you."
• DO NOT replace the cylinder with the caps still on.  Remove them. NEVER put a cylinder with caps in place back on a pistol, I'll say it again, NEVER.


• The chambers are fine to keep charged with powder, ball and lube (NOT CAPPED!); shoot them on the next stage, just make sure the R.O. agrees.

This is the price we pay for being in the toughest classes of a CAS match, we will have a failure every once in a while.  How you handle it will determine how accomplished of a Pistolero your posse, club and other shooters will perceive you to be.  More important than perception is that you will truly be a safe shooter.

I exclusively shoot C&B in CAS and I had a jam just this Saturday and lost 5 shots which count as misses to the jam.  I recognized the lock up, grounded the pistol on the stage prop which was a bar and moved on.  I still came in 6th place out of 36 shooters even with what is basically a 25 second penalty. That lock up is my first one this year where my pistol was disabled, I can't remember if I had more than one last year, but I used to average probably 2 a year.  To make matters worse on that very same stage I had just had a misfire on my left pistol.  I shoot gunfighter style and had both pistols out.  I had a misfire on round three (left gun) which I was managing by moving on and then I had the lock up on the 4th round (right pistol).  As I was continuing to shoot and fret about the grounded right pistol I had forgotten about the misfire on the left pistol when a spotter yelled "you have one left in your pistol!"  Fortunately for me I hadn't reholstered,  I immediately realized what he meant and I  was able to take my final shot without a penalty.  

So what does that mean?  It means you have to keep your head (or have a helpful posse and stage officials )!  With the help of your friends on the posse and an observant R.O. they will guide you through it.  That is the worst combination I have had to date in my seasons of CAS shooting C&B in the gunfighter style. If I shoot long enough I'm sure I will top that.  It will probably be a double lock up on rounds 3 and 4.  Means grounding both pistols and spitting at the targets...  Being aware that it can/will happen means I can prepare for it.  It's just a 40 second penalty, a small price to pay for the fun of shooting C&B.  Cartridge shooters will never understand the smug little grin we give when we successfully negotiate a malfunction.

Best of luck Cemetery,
Mako

[Noz]

"This is the price we pay for being in the toughest classes of a CAS match, we will have a failure every once in a while."


Yeah, but ain't it fun?

[Mako]

"This is the price we pay for being in the toughest classes of a CAS match, we will have a failure every once in a while."


Yeah, but ain't it fun?

NOPE!!!   Not fun,  absolutely exhilarating!  Even Frontier Cartridge seems a bit tame...

~Mako

[kflach]

If everything goes well should the caps still be stuck on the nipples after you've shot them? Sometimes mine are but most of the time they aren't. Obviously if they aren't that means there's a potential that they'll get stuck somewhere, but my understanding is that the Remmies have less problems with that than the Colts.

Since I've only shot my Remmie at a range, I haven't had someone who could tell me that "this time the gun is sticking because you need to clean the cylinder pin but this time it's sticking because you've got a used cap stuck right there." When I shoot, I give the cylinder pin a quick wipe (with moosemilk) at least every other time I reload, but over the course of a shooting session it still tends to get stuck sometimes while I'm cocking it and not want to advance fully to the next chamber. I'd been thinking maybe it was something to do with the fact that the gun's hotter and the metal has expanded, but I guess it's possible that there's some kind of cap issue going on. If I hold my left hand *underneath* the cylinder (so it's not anywhere near the front of any of the chambers) and jiggle it a little (all the while maintaining *very careful* positive control of the hammer) I can usually get it to advance properly.

This was one of the things I was going to ask about at my first NCOWS meet this weekend but since cap jams might be involved I'm going ahead and asking it here.

[Fingers McGee]

NOPE!!!   Not fun,  absolutely exhilarating!  Even Frontier Cartridge seems a bit tame...

~Mako

I could not agree more.  Broke one of my Navy Arms Frontiersmen this past weekend (bolt would not retract) - fortunately had a Pietta Marshall in 36 as a back up.