reasons broken nipple?

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shooterm

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Hello everyone,
I was at the range today, quite wet but worth getting out for a while. Anyways I fired about 6 shots through my traditions hawken when after loading my 7th I was about to put a nipple on when I noticed a v notch chunk out the side of the nipple. It shot fine right before this so not sure it had some kind of blow back but it looked fine. Or the hammer broke it. Either way i didn't think it was safe to shoot and painfully extracted the ball. ruined my day! So are there any reasons I should worry or maybe this happens? I think I may have put 30 rounds through this thing so I can't see it being worn out. I am going to pick some more nipples up at cabelas.
Any tips or help would be appreciated
 
I've never had a nipple actually break, and there could be several reasons why this happened, but anyone shooting BP arms carry spare 'stuff' in their possibles bag. Spare nipples is one of those items.
If it were me, I'd of shot the load with the broken nipple. If the cap will ignite, good chance the rifle will fire.
Shoot that!
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F**k that!http://1.bp.########.com/_eCyQAcQeWAs/TReR4Fk95OI/AAAAAAAAA6M/tmCuIFJ8aFw/s1600/IMG_1137-D.jpg
 
true never has it happen to me so wasn't sure if that would have been safe next time
i will because yes extracting the round sucks. what reasons would I need to watch for
 
the only broken nipples that I have seen have been old iron ones on antique guns. Stainless nipples usually mushroom out in my experience. In your situation I would have shot the load out but possibly at arms length

cheers mooncoon
 
didn't have spare ones didn't know it was a common problem I have been shooting black powder for about 2 to 2 1/2 years so still got more to learn
 
shooterm said:
true never has it happen to me so wasn't sure if that would have been safe next time
i will because yes extracting the round sucks. what reasons would I need to watch for
Click to expand...

...If for some reason the hammer is incorrectly sprung (too strong of a strike) or the distance the hammer has to travel before contacting the nipple is altered (either hammer too far or nipple too high) could cause problems I would think.
 
Nipples are thin tubes of hardened steel. It isn't unreasonable for the occasional one to break. As mooncoon has mentioned, stainless ones can mushroom. So can beryllium ones. I don't recall having a modern one chip, although I have broken originals. Having a spare and a wrench in your kit is a good idea. I don't think it would have been particularly dangerous for the OP to have fired the shot, but I suppose that more steel could have chipped off. Little bits of steel flying around can be problematic. Always wear glasses.
 
ok good to know, I wasn't impressed that it broke, I am really enjoying black powder and plan on getting more involved with it. I was just worried something serious ws wrong and didn't know if it would be dangerous to shoot like that. I guess this weekend I will be hitting cabbalas hopefully they have some. I heard hometown heroes is coming up this weekend:)
 
A broken nipple is a rare occurrence in my experience, unless there has been a lot of dry firing. Could it be that the hammer doesn't strike the end of the nipple flat on so a lot of the striking force is focused on one spot? Regardless, most of us carry a nipple wrench and spare nipple "just in case".
 
well it s a traditions hawken and i have been reading about hammer positions. the hammer doesn't sit perfect centre but from what i see online of other pics of the same rifle it looks about the same. I also believe i read somewheres that this is normal for traditions hawken. But on a good note I picked up a couple new nipples from cabbalas so I guess I will have to watch it and see if it happens again
 
shooterm said:
well it s a traditions hawken and i have been reading about hammer positions. the hammer doesn't sit perfect centre but from what i see online of other pics of the same rifle it looks about the same. I also believe i read somewheres that this is normal for traditions hawken. But on a good note I picked up a couple new nipples from cabbalas so I guess I will have to watch it and see if it happens again
Click to expand...

You are correct about the Traditions Hawken. It's a cheaply made gun, using a round drum bolster rather than the true Hawken style where the breech plug and bolster are integral. This means that the drum must be rotated into alignment so that the nipple face is parallel to the hammer face when the hammer is resting on the nipple. Also, the nipple must remain centered in the hollow hammer when this parallelism is correct.

I examined a few at Cabela's and found that none of them were correct, and also that it appeared that the hammer angle was such that correcting the angle of the drum and nipple, relative to the hammer, would not and could not result in proper centering of the nipple inside the hollow hammer.

Also, attempting to loosen or tighten the drum to adjust the alignment might result in the drum becoming too loose to remain in position.

Generally, when a hand-made rifle uses a round drum bolster, that bolster is positioned and installed with extreme care before the hole for it is drilled and tapped. This is only done when the rifle is nearly complete, with the lock, stock, and barrel completely inletted and assembled.

With the drum installed, a special jig is used to adjust the drill to the proper angle of the nipple required. Then, the nipple hole is drilled and tapped through the jig. It's all done by eye and it's a ticklish job to get the geometry just right.

So it isn't too surprising that Traditions gets it wrong.

A well-made nipple will deform but not fracture. Cheap one appear cast or very hard and made of poor steel.

If the misalignment isn't too much, you could buy quality stainless nipples and try dry-firing the gun a few times to peen them to the correct alignment of the hammer and nipple faces. Then you could dress off the side peening and the hole peening with needle files, emery cloth, a fine stone, and steel wool, such that caps will install and remove correctly.

Nipples need not be screwed in more than snugly, so the now-slightly angled nipple face should remain properly aligned with repeated removal and installation.

Either that or you could soften your nipples by buying some lanolin nipple cream for nursing mothers at the pharmacy.

(obligatory nipple joke.) ;)
 
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