? and thoughts on making short starters

[50cal.cliff]

I am looking to make a couple of new short starter for my rifles. I have the type with the ball on it but it is store bought and it looks it. Every time I use it I think I have got to replace this thing!

Where can I buy the brass ends to go onto the dowels?

Or would it more PC to use just the dowels with no brass ends? I worry about the end splitting after a few wacks of the palm to start a ball.

Any thoughts you might have on making short starters and care to share I would love to hear them.
Any pics of short starters you have made and would care to share, would be greatly appreciated?

 

[hawkeye2]

You can use ramrod ends or go to a hardware store and buy some K&S brass tubing to sleve the end. The tubing is thin wall and comes in telescoping sizes. An old catridge casing makes a good end too. I see short starters made with all kinds of "handles" made of antler and everything and I always wonder how comfortable and pratical they are. I perfer a round or doorknob shaped end. I do agree that they look too store bought and they are large enough to be distracting visually.

 

[BillinOregon]

Cliff: I agree on the store-bought starters. I have one that I swear I'll replace too.
You can turn one of a good hard wood on a lathe if you have one, or carve it out. I've see them with bone or antler handles as well. If you use a good, hard wood like oak, walnut, hickory, ash or maple you probably really wouldn't need the metal ferule, which you can easily make from a section of brass or copper tubing.
All this said, I'll raise the dreaded question about historical correctness. I confess I don't know when these devices first came into actual use as we use them today. I doubt they were very frequently used on the frontier, as they are another piece of equipment to carry (and lose!) and they only make sense with a very tight patch/ball combination, which could very well have cost you your life by delaying loading during a hot fight.

 

[ohio ramrod]

I like a simple antler handle (with powder measure in the handle ) and brass rod short starter. They are simple to make look and feel good. :idunno: :idunno:

If you want more information on making them drop me a p.m. and I can giove you detailed instructions starting with "shoot a buck deer . :idunno:

 

[50cal.cliff]

hotoSmile:

Any one got any pics they want to share of the short starters they have made. Not that I want to copy one I am just looking for ideas!
You know along the lines of PC it would have been had to be something that was extremely quick if the need arose. I sometimes think that is where coned barrels came in at!:wink:

hotoSmile:

 

[B.Habermehl]

Sorry, Im not confuser litereate enough for pics. However a piece of hammer handle about 3 or 4 inches long pluss a piece of scrap ramrod about 4 in long, makes a comfortable short starter. Drill the hammer handle to suit your piece of dowel, glue and pin. For a more durable starter tip your dowel with a brass or steel tip. A good hickory dowel will work well with out a tip, at least as long as it takes you to decide what is really most comfortable for you. A big part of the fun of shooting these guns is making all the tools to go with them. Plus till your done, they really work and fit with your own hands.

 

[lonewolf465]

I asked a similiar question a few months ago. One of the best suggestions I got for the brass ends was to use spent .40 cal and .38 brass. I cut the brass at the rim and used a large drill bit to bevel the remaining portion of the brass. I have made several "long" short starters for my flintlock pistols. They work great and cost nothing. I used deer antler for the handles. I used a .40 cal for the starter embed in the anter and a .38 cal on the end of the rod.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

50 cal. Cliff,

What time frame are you trying to be pc on with a short starter?

 

[roundball]

Any pics of short starters you have made and would care to share, would be greatly appreciated?

This may be more "store bought" than you're interested in but these are the short starters I made / use for hunting.

I cut 6" off the ends of some left over TC ramrods with their cupped ball seating tip, and epoxy CVA flat top Palm Savers on the other end...light, streamlined, and do a terrific job.

The ends are drilled & tapped 10/32" and for the .54 & .62cal smoothbores, I added flat face shotgun tips to start wads & OS cards square so their edges don't get bent over from a cup shaped seater.

 

[tg]

I used to make the handles from various chunks of antler that fit my palm well and often would incorporate a powder measure in the handle if it was the correct size, I do not use them any more as I have drifted back to the 1760's and cannot find anything to suggest they were in use then and I try to stick with what they used to do in my "time" when I can just to get a better feeling of the experience they had in then past. With the loads I have used the last decade I can get quite good accuracy and not need to use a short starter to get the ball started.Just one perspective on the topic, which also questions the need to have an item be PC for a period in time that the item was not used from what our evidence indicates if that makes any sense, if one does not care about whether the item can be placed in a particular time, making it PC is really rather pointless if one thinks about it from a logical position.

 

[wayne1967]

Ever see the clip on youtube where Hershel House uses the butt of his knife for a starter?

 

[Stumpkiller]

The only one I carry is whittled from a single piece of maple board and is just long enough to pop a ball out of a ball block; and is tethered to the block. Very light, small and handy. (Top center)

 

[hogslayer]

Using one of these might improve your handicap.

:wink:
(pete

 

[dbutch]

all hand made..longer ones used for a pistols.. I shoot 36-72 cal. antler,wood ball, throwing axe handle....tap and die and away you go.

 

[50cal.cliff]

Now that's what I am talking about.Great Pics.

Capt. Jas. asked what time period I was trying to be PC about. Well I don't reinact, but I always thought of myself as more of the mountain man type.

That is why I mentioned coned barrels. In the heat of a battle or a wild animal situation I doubt there was time for a short starter.

However since I am not in the middle of either I thought I would try to come up with a short starter that looked more PC than what they sell nowdays!

I love the pics and many thanks. I am thinking something with a piece of antler as a handle would look better than this one.
http://www.thegunsource.com/item/3...DARD_BULLET_START_ER_FITS_ALL_CALIBERS_6.aspx

 

[BillinOregon]

Pete: You're a crazy man!

:rotf:

 

[Stumpkiller]

You need one o' these all-in-one short starter, powder holder, cap grabbin, ball kicker and specimen jars.

Then there is the Load-O-Matic one with four tubes - revolver cylinder style - in case you have a shoot-out with a deer. I can't post the image because it contains evil plastic sabots as well. Oh, the horror.

 

[Macon Due]

'Sir Stump'
You almost burned out my eyes with that 'abomination'!!!
Macon :wink:

 

[Rifleman1776]

I have been making short starters from antler scrap and scrap ends of hickory ram rods. Nuttin' fancy, drill into the antler, fasten the rod with a good glue. Sometimes I cross pin with brazing rod. The ends of the rods are concaved and fire hardened, no brass. They hold up quite well. I have been using one for years. Mostly I give away or use for blanket prizes. BTW, the other items in the pic are powder measures I made.

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