Custom nipple of Black Diamond

[Confederate rifleman]

I've had a significant improvement in accuracy,velocity and a gratifing reduction in blowback in my Black Diamond XR .50 by switching to a regular Ampco musket nipple instead of the flamethrowers. However, cleaning the threads in the breechplug is a pain and if you get some tough klinker in there its a misfire for sure.The Knight American I had a few years ago had a similar small channel going back to the nipple and gave the occasional misfire if the patches were too wet...
Anyway, I'd like to have several custom nipples made.The basic configuration woud be like a fully threaded flamethrower with a single port on the end. I actually saw a picture of a similar nipple in Sam Fadala's Black Powder Handbook. Been looking for a long time but cant find anything like it commercially. Is anyone making custome nipples out there? Thanks for the help!

 

[cayuga]

I still shoot a 209 out of my Black Diamond XR and it works great. So if it is not broke, then why fix it.

 

[Confederate rifleman]

re invent the wheel

Cayuga
The nipple I described would make the plug alittle easier to clean but not much else.The flamethrower is a neat idea , but I never found it( or 209's) necessary with the loads I use.A 50% decrease in the amount of blowback is also a nice thing.By having the nipple face flush with the interior base of the plug, will give a more consistent compression of the powder and load density.I've found , in my rifles, that accuracy improves , sometimes significantly, with lower powered primers.My Omega gave groups roughly an inch smaller at 100 yords , when I switched from 209's to small pistols in Variflames. Musket caps turned my daughter's Traditions Tracker 209 into a tack driver compared to the same loads lit with a 209.
Besides, its ALOT of fun discovering new things and trying out oddball ideas.

 

[squirrelhawker]

Take some measurements and go see a machinist. :wink:

 

[Rhinelander]

Glad to see the interest in the Black Diamond (BD). I have been trying to figure out how to get the 209 BD nipple to prevent hang fires when using Black Horn (BH) 209 powder. I read this article http://www.hpmuzzleloading.com/Technical6.html and have just ordered from www.widgetsupply.com, three different drill bits sizes in .035, .036 & .037. I want to see if drilling out the flash channel in the 209 nipple (which is .028 in size) will prevent the hangfires that I am having with my BD when using BH. I am thinking and hoping that this could be a cure for the hang fire problem on my BD muzzleloaders. I will keep you informed.

Before I screw my nipple into the breech plug, I place a thin strip of teflon tape onto the threads of the nipple only before screwing in. Plus I use teflon tape on the breech plug threads.

By the way, has anyone else tried enlarging the flash channel hole???

Ben

 

[squirrelhawker]

Glad to see the interest in the Black Diamond (BD). I have been trying to figure out how to get the 209 BD nipple to prevent hang fires when using Black Horn (BH) 209 powder. I read this article http://www.hpmuzzleloading.com/Technical6.html and have just ordered from www.widgetsupply.com, three different drill bits sizes in .035, .036 & .037. I want to see if drilling out the flash channel in the 209 nipple (which is .028 in size) will prevent the hangfires that I am having with my BD when using BH. I am thinking and hoping that this could be a cure for the hang fire problem on my BD muzzleloaders. I will keep you informed.

Before I screw my nipple into the breech plug, I place a thin strip of teflon tape onto the threads of the nipple only before screwing in. Plus I use teflon tape on the breech plug threads.

By the way, has anyone else tried enlarging the flash channel hole???

Ben

The one I designed for my NEF huntsman and sidekick at first used a fixed .031" orifice. One of the important things is the hole directly below the primer pocket. I used 5/32" (.156") As long as the primer pocket is a good fit to the primer, you should not need any thing over.031-.032. If the hole is too large, I think too much pressure might blow back. Thought I read that somewhere when the savage was developed. The original NEF with the carrier design had a .036" hole sitting below about a .076" or so hole. With the carrier just sitting on the top of the plug..the flame path was flawed and inefficient. Good luck!

 

[Confederate rifleman]

not that simple...

Squirrelhawker,I wish it were that simple but nipples need to be heat treated so they dont peen or shatter and good steel is needed so they dont erode after a couple hundred shots. Good nipples are generally good for 4-500 depending on the load intensity.
Rhinelander, I've found that nipple/breechplug apertures greater that .035 tend to give measureable losses in both velocity and accuracy.Drilling out plugs and or nipples also will give more blowback.Proceed with care!

 

[Rhinelander]

It worked!!!! No, I mean it worked great!!!!! I drilled out the 209 nipple for my Black Diamond (BD) with a .034 drill by hand. This afternoon, I fired 20 rounds of Blackhorn 209(BH) and NO hang fires or miss fires (miss fires = prime went off but BH did not ignite). The BH was measured by weight 71 gr (100 volume). Ever round went off with zero hang time.

What was noticed by my friends and I, that the BD with BH and the .034 drilled out nippe hole, gave a more authorize report. I noticed that the found sabot pedals were more spread open, plus I had more recoil from my two BDs. I did all my shooting at 50 yards and all rounds grouped at under 1" (williams peep sight on both BDs) using a bench rest. The Remington STS primes looked like a normal fired muzzleloader primer.

I will follow up with additional reports. I think I am going to lower my charge for my 22 inch barrel BD down to 64 gr weight (90 volume).

I am very happy with the result so far.

Ben

 

[cayuga]

the Black Diamond Ignition is not meant to shoot BlackHorn 209. Its just one of them unfortunate facts. Because of the open breech, BlackHorn209 is not recommended. My Black Diamond shoots best with Pyrodex RS in pellet or loose form.

 

[turdpusher]

I played around with STS primers, BH209 and cast 347 gr. heavy conical h.p. bullets in my .45 xr Black Diamond. Fantastic accuracy, very consistant velocity, no hang fires at the range, but missed a buck of life time (cuz I FLINCHED) due to a hang fire in the field. I later got that same buck in shotgun season with OOO buck when he put the slip on my beagles.

 

[sabotloader]

Rhinelander

I have shot a lot of BH in one of my Remingtons, which is basically a falling hammer as is the BD, but I am not sure I would do it without a weather shield around the breech area. You could blow that primer and it's parts right back out of the nipple. Those flying arts might sting a bit..

You can see here that breech area is enclosed...

I also shot some BH in my White and did a couple of times push the primer and it parts back out of the nipple. On one particular shot I have know idea where the battery cup went but part of the primer and the anvils was laying on the reciever floor... just be careful shooting BH from an open breech gun.

 

[cayuga]

My Black Diamond XR did ignite BlackHorn, but I got a small chunk of primer stuck in my forehead when doing it, and a very slight hangfire.. The primer in the face was more then enough... that's when I called it quits. I was shooting Winchester W209 primers.

After that I used the stuff in my Genesis (which loves the stuff) and my Knight Disc which shot it with no problems.