Capper Problems

[DougB]

I recently went on a 3-day "Mormon Pioneer Handcart Trek" - essentially a moving re-enactment with around 130 teenagers plus adult leaders. I dressed more or less in 1850's clothing and carried a Hawken-style replica rifle and a Colt 1860 Army revolver. Anyway, I had eveything I needed to shoot and maintain my rifle and revolver in a leather shoulder bag and a belt pouch. Everything worked fine, except neither of the two new brass cappers I used for the first time were of any use.

I have one straight-line and one of the semi-round ones. Both jammed almost every time I used them and I had to remove the caps by hand. I used the straight-line with #11 caps for my rifle, and the rounded one with #10s for my revolver. Generally, the caps would get sideways or othewise jam in the feed end. It would have been easier to just carry them in their original tins.

So, is this typical? Was I doing something wrong? Do I have bad cappers (they were pretty inexpensive - both well under $20 I think)? What the handiest way to carry caps in the field? I find that with my rifle, even when I could get the capper to feed one properly, I need to pull it off the nipple, squeeze it, and then replace it to get it to stay on (obviously not the capper's fault).

Doug

 

[mykeal]

I've never found a good, reliable capper. At the range I just take them out of the tin directly.

My problem isn't usually jamming up in the capper, it's getting the caps on the nipple - the 'jaws' of the capper simply don't fit in the recesses in the cylinders of any of my guns.

Jamming was a problem until I very carefully and slowly fed each cap into the capper the right way up, and kept pressure on the slide with my thumb. All of which is much too much trouble to go through - it's easier to just pick them out of the tin, even with my arthritic thumbs.

 

[mec]

I bought one of those round paterson cappers. It looks nice in pictures but will not fit into the nipple recesses. A lot of these accessory items are decorator only.

 

[ED21]

cappers

Years ago I used to shoot BP a lot. I had the latest and greatest of course
For most of the rendezvous and shoots I used a Ted Cash capper like http://www.trackofthewolf.com/(S(b5...CATID=1&SUBID=1&STYLEID=1&PARTNUM=CAPPER-TC-B

They would hold about 50 caps and were pretty handy. Sort of a pain to fill but worked good. For hunting I used a piece of leather with holes around the edge the size of caps. Caps were stuck in the holes. When capping the gun, the cap would be put on the nipple with thumb on cap and forced out of the capper/leather. Could also make a slit in the leather from the edge to the hole for easier capping. I did not like this as the slit would make the hole too loose and I would lose caps.