eldequello - have you ever noticed that mag spark to cause any damage to the hammer springs? I talked to a fellow at a gun shop that used one, and he said he would fire the sidelock and it would cock the hammer from the back pressue. The gunsmith "suspected" a weak hammer spring. He said this never happened until he went with the mag spark.

the mag spark is nice but with cold hands or gloves on during the hunting season you have to unscrew the cap (and not drop it) to re-prime after each shot. i did notice when i purchased mine that they sell just the cover caps. i guess they already figured out your gonna drop and loose a few. all of my de-lay missfires with side locks i believe have come from firing off caps to get any gack out of the barrel.i was always told you have to snap a few caps off before loading. i dont think you have all the time. i believe the paper and primer debris gunk and clogs up the nipple hole and fire channel.now i just run the nipple pick through the nipple so you know it isint clogged up. with pyrodex you can hear and feel a crunching sound when the pick has a clear path to the pyrodex.

I was also getting a delay in my sidelocks with Prydex RS so I switched to Pyrodex P and reduced the load by 15% and it seemed to solve my delay problem. I am using a Hot Shot nipple with standard Remington #11 caps. If I could get some RWS 1075 Dynamite Noble caps I hear that they are great. Hope this helps.

RWS makes a mean cap.

I know that it is probably not recommended, but on my sidelock, when I am actually hunting, I load the rifle, then take the nipple out and sprinkle a few more grains in under the nipple then replace the nipple. Never had a misfire/ hangfire in the field doing this. As stated, the Magnum CCI primers helped a bunch too.

Nothing wrong at all with seeding a nipple on a sidelock. I do it myself often, just for that little extra assurance that when the time is right, all will work well.

rws musket caps rule!. my cci-s dont compare

Well, it hasn't happened to me. I franky don't see how it could happen with a Mag Spark,as the hole in the bottom of the Mag Spark nipple is every bit as tiny asin a No. 11 size nipple. In addition, the back pressure would only push the primer up against the firing pin inside the screw-on cap. In my Mag Sparks, there is no evidence of the primer moving at all...... And I have used some pretty hairy powder charges with them!

However, years back there were similar devices that permitted the use of small rifle primers. I've used a couple of these, and one had a constant-diameter hole straight through under theprimer cut. I DID get hammer blow-back with this kind, with every rifle I tried it on. So I suspect the nipple design was faulty, not a weak mainspring.