WTB RWS musket caps

[BLakatos]

I am new to shooting sharps and have had a difficult time using schuetzen caps. I was told that the RWS cap works best.
Anyone have some they would be willing to part with?
Thanks, Brian

[Maillemaker]

What is the problem you are having?

I had problems with my Sharps and Sheutzen caps. I replaced the nipple and the problem went away.

My problem was inconsistent failure to fire the cap. The Sheutzen caps are steel (brass plated) and as a result they may not deform onto the nipple under the hammer as readily as actual brass ones do.

I find the Sheutzen caps pepper my off hand fingers horribly. I don't know if this is because of increased brisance or just that the steel cap doesn't form as good a seal on the nipple as brass ones do.

[BLakatos]

That?s exactly the problem I?m having. I?ve tried positioning them various ways but not a whole lot of consistency. What type of nipple did you use?

[Maillemaker]

I'm not sure. I actually ordered one from Track of the Wolf that was said to be for the Pedersoli 1859 Sharps Rifle, thinking it would work for the Carbine, and it did not fit (wrong thread size).

I looked through my box of spares and found one that worked. I'm pretty sure this is a nipple I ordered from Lodgewood for my original Smith that ended up being the wrong one for the Smith.

Steve

[Jim_Burgess_2078V]

You need a hot cap for the spark to find its way through the Sharps breechblock. The Schuetzens work fine in my Shilohs. The RWS caps used to work well but about the same time the German caps began to come in plastic containers they seemed to lose some of their brisance. I started getting misfires. I switched to the hot CCI 6-wing caps but when they were discontinued, I went to Schuetzens which, happily, are a little less expensive than RWS.

One way to make the Schuetzen caps work better is to reshape the upper edge of the nipple. Wrap the threaded portion of the cone with tape to protect the threads and chuck it into an electric drill. Then carefully bevel or taper the upper outside edge of the nipple with a file as the drill turns. You should not need to take off much.

Jim Burgess
15th CVI

[Carolina Reb]

I picked up a Sharps carbine a couple years ago and had lots of misfires with RWS caps. Swapped out the original Sharps nipple with an original Springfield nipple, mostly because there was one in the spares drawer. No more misfires.

[TCLewis]

I started with Schuetzens and switched to RWS because they seemed hotter. I didn't have issues with Schuetzens and just made the switch with my own opinion.

Does your hammer fall squarely on your nipple/cone? If the hammer hits the nipple/cone on an angle then you will have miss fires. The miss fires may not happen every time. I had this issue when I put a AMPCO nipple on my M1841. I had miss fires and noticed the hammer was not hitting squarely. Also, this will happen if the nipple is not the correct height for the musket. When buying new nipples the standard nipple thread pitch will also have a height measurement next to it. will I used a file to square up the nipple face with the hammer. I also had to drill the cup so the spark would funnel down due to the filing removed the factory cup/funnel for the spark path to travel down.



I am new to shooting sharps and have had a difficult time using schuetzen caps. I was told that the RWS cap works best.
Anyone have some they would be willing to part with?
Thanks, Brian