Snail Capper woes.. some observations..

Dalton Masterson · June 03, 2008, 11:49:51 PM

I have had a TDC snail capper for probably 15 years now, and it has been a good friend. I could cap almost anything with it, even my Remingtons with a little bit of finesse and finagling.
Anyhoo, I bought a new one last night at Cabelas, just so I would have a spare in my gun cart, and lo and behold it sucks. Seems they changed the spring from being on the outside, to putting it on the inside. Now its so doggone stiff, that it either jams the caps back in to the capper body, or it knocks them on their side, and then they fall back into the capper body. Arghghg.

And they wont even start to cap my Remmies.
Everything else looks the same, other than the awesome patina my old one has.
So, has anyone here refitted thiers to the older style, moving the spring to the outside?
DM (who is up too late and needs to clean guns still)

Pettifogger · June 03, 2008, 11:57:25 PM

On one of the ones I have I had to slightly reshape the brass finger on the inside. After I stoned off some burrs and rebent it just a tad, it works perfect.

Dalton Masterson · June 04, 2008, 12:37:16 AM

Yes, I noticed the shape is a little different on the new one too.

Hey did you write that article in the Chronicle?? If so, its great. Cant wait for the rest. DM

Pettifogger · June 04, 2008, 01:11:06 AM

Yep, part two should be out next month. I shot the ones in the article at Buffalo Stampede. They worked perfect.

Noz · June 05, 2008, 09:50:29 AM

The cylinder modification has been repeated several times on the various forums to allow the Remington to use a snail capper.

Once more: Remove cylinder and place on a solid surface with the cap openings up. Remove nipples. With a 1/4 inch sanding drum on a Dremel tool, holding the tool parallel to the solid surface, make a single pass down each slot. This removes enough material from the sides of the slot to allow any of the snail cappers to work. It takes close examination of a so modified cylinder to be able to see it.

Dalton Masterson · June 05, 2008, 10:37:57 AM

Yep, did that many years ago to a few of my Remmy cylinders, long before my SASS days. Works good, but my snail capper didnt need it so much. The new one will. DM

Howdy Doody · June 05, 2008, 12:44:04 PM

DM, yup, the newer TDC snail cappers do need tuning. I have one of the older ones (about 5 years) and a couple newer ones (last year) and I had to tune both the new ones to work smooth on ROAs, which is all I use them for. The reason I have two now is that a while back I had trouble finding #10 Remington caps and bought some #11 Rem caps to shoot with. They fit my nipples fine and no problems, but they are shorter than #10s and in the snail capper they tended to flip over on their sides. So I took the lid off of one and with a flat file got the case trimmed down to where the #11s would not be able to flip and stayed bottom side up. I marked that snail well, so I know which is which and that works well, but I would never be able to use it for #10s again.
Being thrifty (well cheap) I found a way to use up the #11s, now that I have plenty of #10s. I will shoot the first day of a match with #10s and since I don't clean guns when I am on the road at a annual match, I use the #11s on the second day and they fit the dirty nipples better if even that they do not go on as far.
So, you are just going to have to tune your snail. I had to reshape the nose and take needle nose to gently bend the spring. No need to mount it outside. You just need to weaken it a bit. It will work just fine with a little work.

Larson, great article in the Chronicle pard. I can't wait for the second installment. Articles like that is what we need in there and less fluff. See if you can get that old codger Flint to write some too. He also gets my attention with the smithing he does on his shootin' irons.

Noz · June 06, 2008, 11:14:05 AM

You people are killing me. I've been waiting for that article in the Chronicle but mine hasn't made it yet.

Cuts Crooked · June 06, 2008, 01:16:50 PM

There is a thread in The Dark Arts regarding the modifications to cylinders for easy capping . Here: http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,1620.0.html There are pictures to help you understand the idea too!

Fingers McGee · June 06, 2008, 06:39:00 PM

Quote from: NozzleRag on June 06, 2008, 11:14:05 AM
You people are killing me. I've been waiting for that article in the Chronicle but mine hasn't made it yet.

OK - next person that mentions Larsen's article before my chronicle arrives will get a match DQ.

Fingers (whose CC hasnt arrived yet) McGee

Noz · June 08, 2008, 02:06:10 PM

Still ain't here.

Fingers McGee · June 08, 2008, 10:59:22 PM

OK - My chronicle came yesterday (Saturday) - you can talk about the article again.

Great article BTW.

FM