Thanks for the welcome. I am new to black powder shooting. On an impulse I bought a kentucky pistol kit and put it together within a week. Now I am hooked!

The Hawken is new first outing today. No miss fires even when breaking the nipple. The hammer looks to be center over the nipple. Within 5 shots I broke the new nipple that came with the Hawken. I pulled the nipple from my pistol (has had maybe 30 rounds trouble free through it) and put it on the hawken. Same thing after 5-8 rounds. The nipple will split down to bolt section. It does not reset the hammer and the cap stays on the nipple. I am using #11 cci caps.

The hammer pull doesnt seem extreem to me, but I am certain it could reliably ignite the cap with much less force. Is there an easy way to adjust the tension on the hammer spring. It is the garden variety side lock.

And thanks for reading my post! Looking forward to reading more here.