Kentucky cap and ball rifle misfire

Kelly and Beth

Kelly and Beth

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So I just got a call from my nefew about his Kentucky cap and ball rifle that had a misfire and can't been to get it to fire. I did some research and can't find any info on these rifles for the life of me. Has anyone had this problem or is there any known causes for this or does anyone have a website I can visit to learn more about them?
 
Might sound silly but did he maybe forget to put powder down the barrel? Has happened before.
Maybe his percussion caps have something wrong with them--maybe got wet?
Is the hammer striking the nipple? Is the nipple or the flash channel plugged ?
 
No powder? Check the ball seating depth with a ramrod. Check the flashhole in the nipple, it maybe plugged/dirty

A ball puller attachment for the end of ramrod. Screw it into the ball and pull, may take a couple of tries..
 
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first thing to do is find out if there is powder under the ball. If he doesn't know the normal length that the ram rod goes to with normal loading like powder then ball with patch. Then take nipple out and see if you can see any powder, also check that nipple is not plugged.
in no powder seen you can try and dribble some in through the flash hole. If he can get some in reinstall nipple, make sure ball is all the way down on the powder he got in there, install cap, aim in safe direction and fire. If ball comes out he is good to go if not take nipple out again and try to get more powder in. the more he can get in the better. It will not be anywhere near what would be normal. The main thing with doing all this is to remember to reseat the ball each time as not doing so could be dangerous. normally it will take a few goes doing this but ball should come out. One thing is if he is using course powder he may have to find some finer stuff. And if all he has is pellets he is going to have to anyway. That's how I got a few balls out of mine when various people using it forgot the powder. should work the same if powder in there is wet. Otherwise it is trying to get breach plug out and old style plugs are not fun. been there done that.
 
Kelly and Beth said:
I did some research and can't find any info on these rifles for the life of me. Has anyone had this problem or is there any known causes for this or does anyone have a website I can visit to learn more about them?
Click to expand...

No offence but it sounds like neither of you should be working on it if the resources of the entire intranets has not given you at least a hint of where to start...

You can't find any info on a caplock rifle....really??

https://www.google.ca/search?q=caplock+rifle+misfire&ie=&oe=

It is almost guaranteed he squib loaded it.

1. use a ball puller, clean bore nipple flash hole etc,
2. repeat after me...first the powder then the ball
3. go to step 2

if no ball puller you can put powder in the touch hole but given your level of expertise this is a last resort and should only be done with someone knowledgeable around

Sorry for my condescending tone.

edit to add - it IS a simple fix - flame from cap is not reaching and igniting powder, this assumes cap is igniting and powder is present. Once those things are verified and assuming it has fired before that leaves pretty much only one thing, the path from the nipple to the powder is blocked. Think build up residue, oil from last cleaning, patch fell off jag and was not noticed etc. Once you have the ball pulled and everything cleaned up people have been known to blow down the bore to see if air comes out the nipple. I'd not advise this in your case, instead fire a cap only and look for evidence of the explosion of the cap sent gases out the bore...blows dust up or moves blades of grass etc. Then reload, all the while repeating first the powder then the ball.
 
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There's a reason why every C&B gun owner I know of carries a nipple wrench.

Very few I know of carry a ball puller. But they all have a nipple wrench. And when this happens the drill is pretty similar.

If a couple of caps and a nipple pick don't work then off the nipple. The nipple gets the evil eye to ensure it's clear. If it is then the side block gets its own share of the evil eye. If it's not blocked with something obvious then the next step is to dribble a bit of powder into the hole for the nipple and give the opposite side a few bumps. If the powder goes away down the nipple block then the owner cringes with the now certain knowledge that they forgot to put powder in first. A second and third hole's worth of powder is patiently bumped down into the barrel until they are pretty sure there is a good 5 to 10 grains worth inside. The nipple is replaced and a cap set and the trigger pulled in a safe direction. There's a little "phoot...." and then the bore should be clear as confirmed with the ram rod. The red faced owner then acknowledges all the laughs and taunts in a red faced but gracious manner by those that have done the same thing before them and life goes on.

All of this is why it's essential to know where the ram rod ends up for both an empty barrel and one which is correctly loaded. That way if the ball rams home more deeply than the loaded state it's an instant indicator of no powder or a "dry ball". Then it's time to put on the red face of abject embarrassment and haul out the nipple wrench that your nephew needs to buy this coming week.
 
BCRider said:
There's a reason why every C&B gun owner I know of carries a nipple wrench.

Very few I know of carry a ball puller. But they all have a nipple wrench. And when this happens the drill is pretty similar.

If a couple of caps and a nipple pick don't work then off the nipple. The nipple gets the evil eye to ensure it's clear. If it is then the side block gets its own share of the evil eye. If it's not blocked with something obvious then the next step is to dribble a bit of powder into the hole for the nipple and give the opposite side a few bumps. If the powder goes away down the nipple block then the owner cringes with the now certain knowledge that they forgot to put powder in first. A second and third hole's worth of powder is patiently bumped down into the barrel until they are pretty sure there is a good 5 to 10 grains worth inside. The nipple is replaced and a cap set and the trigger pulled in a safe direction. There's a little "phoot...." and then the bore should be clear as confirmed with the ram rod. The red faced owner then acknowledges all the laughs and taunts in a red faced but gracious manner by those that have done the same thing before them and life goes on.

All of this is why it's essential to know where the ram rod ends up for both an empty barrel and one which is correctly loaded. That way if the ball rams home more deeply than the loaded state it's an instant indicator of no powder or a "dry ball". Then it's time to put on the red face of abject embarrassment and haul out the nipple wrench that your nephew needs to buy this coming week.
Click to expand...

Agree; now I personally DO carry a ball puller but pushing powder in through the channel works SO much better (for me anyway, YMWV). Fighting with the ball pullers can cause a lot more grief and take more time than it's worth. And ya, it happens to everyone... usually 'cause you're jawin' with someone while you're loading instead of paying attention to what yer supposed ta be payin' attention to... :)
 
Problem solved. I pulled the nipple and put a small amount of powder in there, replaced the nipple and pow out came the ball. Thanks to those who were helpful in the suggestions that were given.
 
To add my two cents worth here. One time I could not get my cap lock to fire. Took the rifle home broke it down, and cleaned it with warm soapy water. When I removed the cap nipple I checked the flash hole as I always do with a pipe cleaner. The pipe cleaner would not go into the chamber. Something wrong here. On closer examination I saw that there was a patch stuck in the flash hole. How to get it out? I poured 4f holy black into the nipple hole, stuck the nipple back on and shot the cap. The patch came out easy peasy.
 
FWIW - IF this happens again, PLEASE ensure that the ball is firmly seated in the breech against however much powder you might have in it. The must be absolutely ZERO air-space between powder and ball. That ball MUST be pushed firmly down onto the charge, not matter how small it might be. Failure to ensure this simple fact MIGHT just ring the barrel [that means bulging it at that point, in which case, you'll have a wall decoration] or actually making an expensive and possibly catastrophic pipe bomb.

PLEASE buy the Lyman Black powder digest. Wisdom on every page guaranteed.

Take care.

tac
 
I'll throw this in here too.

Most modern made guns, use nipples that will match up the available thread sizes of grease nipples for grease guns used for greasing equipment.

Undo the nipple, install the grease fitting, connect the grease gun and pump grease until the ball and powder get pushed out the barrel. A bit messy to clean up after, but better than firing an unknown load of random powder that might be in there, esp. if someone has already taken pains to try to deactivate the load, like squirting oil or such in.

Cheers
Trev
 
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