Hammer issues?

[gearheart]

At the range today trying to sight in the TC Hawken 54 that I got last month. Had 5 occasions where the cap failed to go off when I pulled the trigger. Pulled her back and try again and kaboom. Now a paper target will patiently wait for you to try again but a deer would not.Is the hammer travel adjustable? I noticed that at half cock the nipple is still inside the hammer cup. On my WMC there is a half inch clearance over the nipple at half cock. Any ideas appreciated.

[thumper50]

Gently take your lock apart, you can adjust the spring tension, but it is probably in need of a good cleaning!! Be careful when you unscrew the lock screw! I broke one off in the lockplate, thats how I know!! It is on its way to TC as we speak, (write).!!

[Underclocked]

Also, make sure the caps are fully pushed down on that nipple when you cap it. Could be a case of the cap not properly fitting the nipple.

[lemoyne]

All of the above is good advice you may also want to check that your nipple is not battered or to big for the caps you are using, especially if you have some of those Dixie caps or some chinese caps. If the nipple is to big for the caps you can either get some bigger caps or pad the threads and hold it in the Chuck of a 3/8 inch drill motor while it spinning take a file and turn it down slowly and carefully until the cap will just set against the prim in its top when it is squeezed on. Lee

[cayugad]

All of them are right on the money. If the nipple is old, they become flattened a little. You can take a file and edge that nipple. What's happening is the first blow of the hammer is actually setting the cap. The second one is setting it off.

Pull the lock and scrub the back of that lock with some good solvent and an old toothbrush. Then a spray with a light coat of quality gun oil or silicon. And if you have another new nipple, put that in.

In the mean time if you have none of these things.. here is a trick. Put the cap on first, cock the hammer and fire it. If the cap fails to fire it will the next time you shoot, and because the cap is so tight, it is pretty water proof to boot. Now load the rifle like normal. Sometimes you will waste a few caps doing this, and remember, set that cap on an empty rifle..

If you have some Emory cloth, you can put that nipple in a drill, and then hold the cloth to the nipple and reduce it. It will help seat the tight caps. What brand of cap are you shooting? CCI magnums?

[gearheart]

CCI magnum. How'd you guess? Is there an issue with these? I put a new nipple on the gun when I got it as someone had dry fired the old one into a mushroom top.

[Underclocked]

The new Remington #11s might work much better for you. They are all slightly different in size and I believe the Remingtons are a bit larger.

[cayugad]

Yes, if you can find Remington, they tend to be a little more forgiving of a new nipple.. The worst are the RWS 1075 but they are also the hottest in my opinion.

CCI Magnum.. if they fit, theyare a great cap. If I can not find the RWS then I go after the CCI Magnums.

[gearheart]

Thank you all for you insight and advice. I took the lock out and noticed that the screws holding tha back of the hammer and innards togetherwere loose. Naturally I tightened them and found that they were loose with a purpose. The works could be felt to grate together when the screws were tight. Not liking that at all I took the whole thing apart and found various rough spots. This was a "kit gun" and the builder might have been unable or lacking in tools and knowledge to polish those bits that rub against each other. Couple of minutes with a dremel and a small emery disc and all the sharps and bumps were gone and the works reassembled. no grating even with the screws tight. OK. I put the gun back together and noticed wear on the wood where the hammer had lacked clearance during its travel.A cabinet scraper did short work of that area.6 caps in a row went off just fine. I hope i got it licked.