Mag Perc Caps vs Musket Caps

[rost495]

Can folks tell me the difference between the #11 mag percussion caps and going to a musket cap on a sidelock. Are the 11s as hot as the musket caps or should I still be thinking that a musket cap and nipple are the better setup on my Renegade 54?

Thanks, Jeff

 

[cayuga]

I believe I read somewhere that the musket cap produces 10 times the fire as a #11. Whether that is true I do not know. The musket cap was made in a time when some powders were very course and needed a lot of fire to ignite the poor grade powders.

That is not the case today. The new hotter #11 caps like the RWS 1075 and the CCI Magnum, and even the Remington Magnum caps they claim are far superior in the amount of flame they produce then the old ones.

The reason most traditional rifles have ignition troubles with #11 caps is they need to;

1. always start the shooting on a clean clear fire channel and barrel. Take the time to swab the barrel clean of grease and oil. Then make sure you have a nice dry barrel. Then fire a few caps through the nipple. This will blow the fire channel clean of grease and moisture, coat the sides somewhat with fowling, and insure the fire channel is open. When I am sure I am at that stage, I like to push a patch to the bottom of the breech and them pop a cap through it. Pull the patch and examine it and see if there are good burn marks on it. It there are, I am ready to load.

2. Use a hot shot nipple. Many of the factory nipples are not the best. Some of the hot shot nipples use the newest technology out there to channel the fire into the snail of the rifle for consistent ignition.

3. If you swab the barrel use only enough moisture on the swab to get the job done and keep the patch from getting stuck. Many times people use too wet of a swab, making a fowling wet crud mess in the breech of the rifle. This is near impossible to swab out at time. I like to use a 70% pure isopropyl alcohol to swab a traditional barrel. I get the patch damp and swab in short strokes. When I reach the bore the majority of the alcohol is dissipated and is drying out of the bore. After pulling the alcohol patch a couple dry ones will get the barrel dry again. If you suspect too much moisture in the breech, pop some caps before loading. This will help insure the fire channel is clean and dry.

One problem to make sure of when using the musket caps as your igniton source is that they do not have so much power that they re-cock the hammer. This will happen sometimes and you might be causing damage to the hammer spring. I shoot a lot of the .54 caliber renegades. With good fresh powder and a clean fire channel I have never had the #11 cap have problems setting off the rifle.

I personally hate to change anything on a rifle that the manufacturer put there unless I am sure it will not harm the rifle in any manner.

 

[richdeerht]

The musket cap throws a lot more fire than any #11. How much you need is up to you- try shooting some and see how ya like 'em.

 

[Anonymous]

Without exception I converted all my # 10,#11 cap rifles and shotguns to musket caps.

Musket cap flame temps are higher that #10 , #11., how much higher.....I really cannot recall. Musket cap flame volume is about 3 times more than #10, #11.

There is no substitute for proper cleaning and maintenance when it comes to ignition but musket caps are "hotter" and are more "forgiving."

Another great advantage for musket caps is that they are much easier and faster to handle, being about twice the diameter of # 10's or #11's along with the flanges minimizes fumbling.

 

[n8dawg6]

i prefer musket caps, especially if im shooting pyrodex. doesnt seem to matter as much with blackpowder. they really put out a significant amount more fire than do #11 caps, even the magnums. musket caps are easier to handle, that's nice. the one drawback i've had with 'em is, like cayuga said, they tend to blow the hammer back to half-cock on my t/c's. a good nipple helps alleviate that problem, though.

 

[Anonymous]

i prefer musket caps, especially if im shooting pyrodex. doesnt seem to matter as much with blackpowder. they really put out a significant amount more fire than do #11 caps, even the magnums. musket caps are easier to handle, that's nice. the one drawback i've had with 'em is, like cayuga said, they tend to blow the hammer back to half-cock on my t/c's. a good nipple helps alleviate that problem, though.

"blow the hammer back to half cock"?? Not an ideal occurrence! Maybe excessive load or weak hammer spring??

 

[RogerDailey]

i prefer musket caps, especially if im shooting pyrodex. doesnt seem to matter as much with blackpowder. they really put out a significant amount more fire than do #11 caps, even the magnums. musket caps are easier to handle, that's nice. the one drawback i've had with 'em is, like cayuga said, they tend to blow the hammer back to half-cock on my t/c's. a good nipple helps alleviate that problem, though.

"blow the hammer back to half cock"?? Not an ideal occurrence! Maybe excessive load or weak hammer spring??

For sure not a good thing. The hotter caps and large powder charges tend to "wear" nipples. That is the flash hole becomes large.

 

[n8dawg6]

ok, ill tell the whole story. i have two t/c's, a renegade .54 and a grey hawk .50. i've never shot anything other than roundballs out of either one. with the renegade, i started out shooting elephant ffg blackpowder, roundball, and used an ordinary t/c musket cap nipple. shot ok until i got up to 90 grains powder charge. then i started getting hammer blowback to half-cock. so i switched out the nipple and put in a knight hot shot musket cap nipple (threw away the t/c musket cap nipple). solved the problem.

but not wanting to leave well enough alone, i started trying 777 in the renegade. blew back to half-cock even with as little as 60-70 grains of powder. so i switched it back to the original t/c #11 nipple and that solved the problem.

so then i moved the knight hot shot musket nipple over to the grey hawk. i've only shot pyrodex RS out of the grey hawk so far, and it blows back to half cock with a 70 grain powder charge and roundball about 1/4 of the time. anyway, i'm starting to think that the nipple is eroded now, so i have a new hot shot musket nipple on order. hopefully that will fix the problem.

btw, the t/c black mountain magnum, which was designed for 150 grain powder charges, has a much stronger mainspring than the older t/c rifles for this very reason . . . to prevent the hammer from blowing back to half-cock.

 

[cayuga]

My theory is.. if it ain't broke, why fix it! I will stick with the #11's although I do shoot musket caps in some of my inline rifles with excellent results...

 

[n8dawg6]

My theory is.. if it ain't broke, why fix it! I will stick with the #11's although I do shoot musket caps in some of my inline rifles with excellent results...

cause then there wouldnt be anything to tinker with