First experience with Uberti 3Dragoon. Cap jams. Help?

[TCoops]

I'm back again and a little more experienced with my Uberti Dragoon. God damn thats a hoot to shoot. Admittedly I was heckled at the range while i was fumbling about, what with bore butter up to my elbows and swearing at dropped caps. But the smirks soon disappeared when all the plinkers were drowned out by the deep throated woofs of 50 grains of powder, leaving a smoke screen downrange. I soon had everybody lining up just to feel the weight of it and have a shot.

I bet a few gents know what I'm talking about! One heck of a shoot. I'm sold.

I found that reports of the Dragoon were somewhat BS. I heard it has no accuracy and feels wimpy. Yes its heavy and black powder isn't as explosive, but it DOES still produce a satisfying recoil. And I found it plenty accurate enough too (with 35g). I took it to the 100meter range and I was hitting in an area, I suppose a 12 inch gong could cover. Could definitely hit the man figures without too much marksmanship. Good enough. I also put through 6 cylinders without needing a clean. Never binded. The barrel looked pretty good too. I think the bore butter must have been a good batch.

Cap jams. Now this is the only area I was let down in. A couple of cylinders were jamming every shot. The caps seemed to be splitting, falling off and getting caught in the area behind the cylinder, in that slim gap, causing the cylinder to grind to a halt. Usuallly requiring me to field strip, shake, then continue. One or two Cap jams were catastrophic. One cap managed to get underneath the cylinder (what?) and work its way into the bolt hole(you know, the little thing that rises up and locks the cylinder) and completely halt the trigger mechanism. I had to strip the trigger mech to find a large cap fragment above the trigger and preventing the bolt from moving up and down. That kind of failure cant be good for the gun.

I'm willing to accept a certain amount of charm but is there a way to reduce cap jams? I really don't want to risk damaging my pistol again, or have every shot lock up so bad that I need to strip it each shot.

Once browsing I saw somebody talk about Cap Protectors(edit:Cap Guard). He said it completely solved this kind of problem. Infact, he achieved 100% reliability. I can only imagine it is some kind of covering you put on top of the cap to prevent it from shattering when its struck. I really wish I had bookmarked that thread! What are these things?

Any other methods you can recommend?

Better brand of caps?

thanks!

 

[mykeal]

Technique may be the key

Never heard of Cap Guard, so I can't comment on that. Might be interesting.

I generally use CCI caps, sometimes Remington. I am quite familiar with the phenomenon of caps splitting and falling into the works. I've not seen any difference between brands in the tendency to split and fall off the nipple.

I've found, like many others (in fact, reading other's experience taught me this) that technique is important. After the shot rotate the barrel up and to the right as you cock the hammer; the idea is to have the cap fall out of the loading gate area and away from the gun. With practice this becomes a natural motion, just part of cocking the gun for the next shot.

 

[mike101]

I haven't tried them yet, but I've heard several people say that Tresco nipples help a lot. This is supposed to be do to the smaller flashole allowing less blowback through the nipple. They look pretty cool on the gun, too, as they are made of copper.

 

[Gbro]

How many cylinder do you have for the gun? are all the nipples the same?

Caps, #10 or #11?

My C/B uses #10's and there is a trade off with cocking at a high angle, You will loose a loose cap but the spent one may fall free. You might get warned from the RSO about the high barrel. (like to keep them between ground and berm/backstop.

They are a Hoot to Shoot!

 

[K.A.T.]

Cap Protector

The only thing that I know of is a small piece of clear rubber tubing that is cut to lenght a little shorter than a #11 cap. I bought these at Bass Pro, they are made to slip down over the cap to seal it off to keep the rain out. I hunt alot with a Hawkins rifle, and you never know when you will be caught in the rain. I have not used one yet, I don't think they were made to use on a pistol, but they would do what you want. I believe it would be easier to just deal with the split caps,rather than put on caps and then slide on these little plastic sleeves also. I'll give them a try this week and see how they work on a revolver. I think I have seen them in Cabela's also.

 

[oneshooter]

I have found that my 2nd Model prefers #11 caps. They are easier to put on and do not tend to split. Try both and see which one works better.

Oneshooter
Livin in Texas

 

[Calibre44]

I use Rem no 11 on my Navy .36 and squeeze them slightly for a tighter fit. If they split open like a banana skin after firing I use long nose pliers that I keep on the bench to pull them out before I cock the gun for the next shot.

 

[Bad Flynch]

I wrote this somewhere here before, but cannot locate it, so here goes...

Cap fouling with C&B revolvers is a fact of life; it is simply a matter of how much and how often it happens. The best can be kept at a tolerable level, but then the old-timers would cock the gun while raising it, upside down, over their heads to the rear. That was to release potential cap fouling; you'd get tossed off a range for muzzle waving if you did that. Still, the old-timers knew what they were doing.

I have an Uberti 1862 Police that fouled badly. It was a nuisance. I tried different brands of caps, Treso nipples (yes, they are quite good), and found two things that helped: on the recoil plate of the receiver, there is a groove that is cut into the frame so that fired caps drag less as they rotate towards the loading cut. My gun had a little casting defect that acted as a block to that channel. Once that was ground out, it helped. The second was a weak hammer spring. Nothing really cured the problem until I got a new hammer spring, because a weak hammer spring will allow the cap to back off the nipple during firing. Now that I have that fixed, it is a decent revolver.

 

[mec]

It may smooth out a bit with more extensive shooting. I watched a trick shooter on one of the Tails of the Gun episodes. He was shooting two colt types at the same time. It was obvious that he was not flipping the gun over his head like Jingles Jones used to do but was actually dipping the barrels toward the ground when he cocked.

My reliablility improved a great deal when I began cocking the revolver with it pointed downward. With a smooth functioning revolver, this tends to let the fractured caps ride the nipple past the breech and into the the cocking notch. A slightly leftward tilt encourages the cap to fall off.

When I have attempted the over head " gunfighter's flip," the frequent result is a cap fragment either riding the hammer face or firmly flattened against the notch in the breech preventing firing of the subsequent rounds.

 

[hildo]

Upside down cocking

I cock the dragoon holding it upside down more or less, with pretty good results. Keep a long nose plier in my bag for the real nasty ones that you can't shake, rattle or roll.
Never had one jamming the cylinder bolt. Don't think it's a regular thing to happen.
Don't like pointing the gun anywhere else but downrange when cocking it, think your fellow shooters may appriciate that too.

 

[Snaggletooth]

I got a new set of nipples and that cured my problem with the Dragoon. I have an 1851 that ruptures the caps when the hammer falls, Its supposed to be the notch on the hammer that fits on the pin between the cylinders. This only happens on the Pietta 51. I never have a fired cap come off. I have to pull everyone off. Does anyone else have this happen?

 

[TCoops]

Howdy just an update.

To answer a couple of stray questions - at the moment I have only 1 cylinder. I have ordered 4 more. he he.

I have also ordered 6 of those brass looking nipples that was suggested in this thread. Yes, they do have smaller holes. I am told this reduces the back blast and hence the number of caps that shatter.

I tried using longer caps (sorry I cant for the life of me see anywhere on the box what size they are) and it helped dramatically. I can get through full cylinders no problem. I think I only had 2 cap jams in 5 cylinders. However, I'm always looking to improve.

I wont be holding the pistol back over my shoulder when I cock. RSO would be mortified. Although what an interesting technique. I am reluctant to hold the pistol over to the side when cocking because I like to keep a consistent grip when shooting Ie: move as little as possible between shots. It feels a bit awkward, but I will consider doing it if I feel I am beat by the problem.

I have also made a set of my own cap guards and will report Sunday how they went. Depending on how proud I am of them, I will post photographs and instructions. Most likely I will only embarrass myself when they don't work, but its worth a shot. Basically they are very thick rubber sleeves which go over the cap tightly, and fasten on to the nipple. The back of the nipple is exposed to the hammer. Theoretically they will provide a really nice seal and perhaps contain the shattering (these mothers are THICK). Theoretically : )

After another shoot I was convinced this was my gun. I got funny looks when I ordered my cylinders but I don't care : )