Caps not firing?

M

Model12Win

Moderator
I shot my dad's brass frame Pietta .44 Colt Navy about 60 times, brand new gun, everything was going great. I was using a brand new tin of Remington #10 caps I got at Bass Pro a few days prior.

Well about the third shooting session out, the gun is now misfiring quite badly. The hammer is falling and making a dent on the caps, but for some reason, the caps aren't going off?? They were doing great but now this tin of caps are misfiring about half the time! FYI I am also using Goex FFFG and Crisco over Hornady .454 balls, which seem to fit great leaving a small lead ring when seated.

I even opened up a tin of CCI #10 caps and actually had some misfires with them to, what gives? I have been shooting in So. Illinois and it is quite humid here. My first thought was humidity had fouled the tin of caps after a couple days of exposure. Does this sound likely? Dropping the hammer on the caps again does not cause ignition.

I have cleaned the gun between shooting with Ballistol and made sure to get the nipples clean by using a safety pin to scrub them out etc. and used Breakfree powder blaster to degrease the cylinder. The issue is that the caps simply are not going off, but the other two days of shooting had 100% succesful ignitions with the Remington #10s. Just am not sure what is going on here!

I am at a complete and utter loss as to what to do. If someone, anyone knows how to help me, please do!
 
Buy another tin of caps, if possible another brand.
Other than that I'm at a loss to understand why the caps don't go bang.
Is there any way the caps got contaminated somehow?
 
Not unusual...

for Colt clones to eat spent caps. Look every closely at the hammer and channel itself to see if there are any flattened caps clinging to the medal. If so this will keep the hammer from falling with the force required to set of the caps. Next remove the trigger guard and possibly the grips to look inside for any spent cap fragments inteferring with anything inside. Check your main spring for proper tension. Last, try the caps on another gun - if problem is the same then try to take the tins back to Bass Pro. Good luck with that.
 
nipple problems

Take that Pietta into some place with good light and use a magnifying glass and look at the nipples. Mine had striations that the cap would catch on. I removed the nipples and used a wett stone to move the striations and it solved the problem and I use #11 caps.
 
If your caps are too snug a fit, the explosive material will not bottom out on the face of the nipple and thus won't go "bang". In essence, the hammer simply seats the primer better, instead of making it go off.

Try using a piece of wood or something to gently but firmly seat the caps prior to firing.

Or, use a slightly larger cap. CCI and Remington caps are not the same size, even if both are labeled as #10 or #11.

Steve
 
I'm curious, where did my post go & why?:confused:
I thought it was just a technical response why was it deleted?

All I said was that if you rotate the pistol to the right, or point it muzzle up (assuming its allowed by the range) the cap fragments will fall away from the gun's mechanism, not into it.:confused::confused:
 
Could be one of a number of things . . . .

1. Nipples not long enough and poor contact with hammer face - but, you've fired it and that pretty much rules that out.

2. Poor cap to nipple fit - as mentioned above - cap not seated all the way on the nipple

3. Bad batch of caps - I have always had good luck with Remingtons, Cci, German, etc.

4. Hammer fall getting hung up - i.e. a cap fragment causing drag not he hammer which would soften the blow to the nipple. Colt's are frequently affected by this if the cap fragments or falls off the fired chamber nipple. This is what wagon potter is talking about. On a Colt, as you cock, rotate the pistol to the right with muzzle canted up which will usually allow any fragment to fall free - not always - but usually. Everyone has their own term for it - I just call it the "Colt flip". It's just one of those little things you learn along the way and it soon becomes habit.

If you can't find what's doing it - you could try a different brand or tin of caps and see what the results are. You don't say how old or how much use the pistol has had - inspect your nipples and make sure they are all in good repair. You also might mark your chambers with a number (put a piece of small tape and number the chambers) - is it happening on the same chambers all the time? If so - that should be a clue to check the nipple contact with the hammer face.

Humidity could play a factor but I kind of doubt that's the problem if all you're doing is shooting and then closing the tin at the end of the range session. I normally use a Ted Cash "capper" and have for years. I've worn it around my neck and tucked into my hunting shirt when in snowy/wet weather and I often leave it filled with caps. Even in humid weather, I've never really had a problem with the caps not going bang.

Please let us know if you find a fragment down in the hammer channel, etc. or if it's something else. You'll get it figured out. Good luck! :)
 
The gun is a brand new Pietta .44 caliber brass framed Colt "Navy" replica.

I took the thing completely apart last night and thoroughly cleaned everything. Tomorrow I will shoot it with the same two tins of caps I was using, one Remington #10 and one CCI #10 and see what they do. I'll also open up a fresh pack of Remington #10s and see if they work better if the others still misfire. All these caps are new, I just bought them from Bass Pro about a week ago.

I'll let you all know what happens tomorrow, thanks for the help!
 
I have found that the smallest amount of oil or grease that gets inside a cap will cause it to just fizzle and not ignite the chamber and the longer your shooting session the more grease you get on your hands and all over the gun no matter how often you wipe your hands and wipe everything down.
It's just a thought from my short experiences.

Yesterday at the range I had 12 out of 12 all go bang first time.
3 out of 6 went fizzle, then 1 out of the 3 recaps went fizzle.
followed by 6 out of 6 that went bang first time.
Same gun, caps, powder, balls... same everything...

Cheers
Gaz
 
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In this day and age of shortage of caps, last week at Friendship there were all
the caps you could want. I picked up several thousand for my club. They were
Remington no 10 & 11 for 6.00 a hundred.
 
Caps are very hard to get hold of in NZ at present... as are most things to do with shooting, powder, brass, projectiles, especially primers, factory ammo etc, etc, and no sines of it easing up in the foreseeable future. Panic buyers and hoarders are causing most of the problems we have over here with shortages.

Cheers
Gaz
 
I think maillemaker hit the nail. It sounds like you've preened the nipples to where the caps do not set down all the way. Use a piece of dowel to firmly push them on and/or pull the nipples and use a file on the ridge created on the top.
 
The O/P did say.... "The gun is a brand new Pietta .44 caliber brass framed Colt "Navy" replica." ....so on that basis mechanical damage to the nipples/hammer is quite unlikely, not impossible but unlikely, a light strike isn't out of the question, or grease on the nipples or a piece of exploded cap dropped inside preventing full hammer contact, any of these (and more) could still be the probable cause but mechanical damage in a new gun is rather unlikely though not impossible.

Cheers
Gaz
 
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