Edgar, I'm not convinced that broken hammer is the exclusive result of dry-firing.

No, I wouldn't condone dry-firing as a normal routine practice either but I wouldn't dry-fire a hammer gun even once.

I am.
That hammer came out of the 32" DHE Fulford Trigger gun. The guy I got it from claimed he dry fired it, the right side sounded "funny", and then he couldn't open the gun. I got it as-is, and had to take the trigger plate off to see the problem, then a total disassembly. Rebounding or not, the hammer goes further forward than if there was a shell resisting it.

Some snap caps have lead for the striking surface. I would think as long as the material is softer than the firing pin you should be OK.

Edgar, Do you have any pictures of the DHE?

Thanks Dean.

Tap Plastics sells it for 4.95 for ten feet! I'll stop by and just have them do the diameter reduction for the outside half of the rod and cut a bunch to the proper length.

I bet you are right as there was not much plastic about in 1930.

when I used to do re-enacting - one of the craftsman that made horn products used to call horn the plastic of the 18th century

he made spoons, combs, boxes all out of cow horn by heating it and molding

the British and more so the continental makers used buffalo horn for striker boxes, buttplates, and even trigger guards.

by the 1930, gutta-percha was in use, but i think that would have been to brittle for snap caps,

i do not have any buffalo, but if you want to try your hand at fitting a set in solid black cowhorn, i should be able to find some scraps you can try it with

Delrin or nylon should work equally well. One may crater more than the other, or maybe neither one will crater. It's been so long since I worked as a machinist, I can't remember the specific properties of each. Google them.

All ways hated turning plastic. Hard to clean out of the machine and it seemed like a wast of a really expensive machine.

Wayne, you are wrong. Turning nylon and delron is a piece of cake. There is absolutely no clean up. It is a piece of cake. I spent years working with this stuff and know what I am talking about. Your turn.

A good snorkel vacuum cleans up nicely.