Better Rod for Lyman GPR?

[BrownBear]

I've made plenty of rods using Track's blanks. I specify in instructions that I need a straight rod without grain runout. Occasionally I get one bowed or with bad grain. I just e-mail Linda at Track & she sends out a free replacement.

Same experience. I order them half a dozen at a time every year or two. It's rare for me to find even one in a batch that has problems. They always make good on it though. If I knew anyone splitting wood for ramrods I'd go that route, but for now I've been happy with Track.

 

[Kansas Jake]

There is a local saw mill that will be cutting up some hickory in the near future. I visited with them and they will give me the trimmings. They still haven't gotten to it, but I'm going to try my hand at making some rods if the grain is straight.

 

[BrownBear]

Atsa way.

I don't even know enough about hickory logs to be dangerous, but dim memory is nagging me that for splitting, it's best to get to it before it dries. Someone correct me since I'm likely wrong, but if the memory gland is on track, I recall that the stuff gets really hard to split after it dries.

 

[In Over My Head]

Trouble with most synthetic rods, they don't "stick" well in the Lyman stock, especially if you're in the habit of leaving a jag on the rod. Dunno what's the problem between the plastics and the retainer clip in the Lyman channel, but the rod is going to be sticking out half a dozen inches after you fire a stiff load, and I've had them slip almost all the way when you carry a rifle muzzle-down in rough country.

I believe my Cabela's/Investarms Hawken is the same gun and I certainly experienced the same problem. I have a brass range rod but wanted a rod to take hunting that had zero chance of ending up stuck through my hand. I bought the 'exact replacement' brown plastic rod from TOW and found it wanted to fall out. It was kind of perplexing because there is maybe a scant thousandth of an inch difference between the two rods.

I never could figure out what held the stock rod in place. Where is that clip located? I concluded the original rod was held in by suction!

I made a kind of flat spring from heavy strapping and fitted it into the routed channel under the barrel where the ramrod is visible. There was a bit of a ledge/edge in the routing that supports the spring and a narrow finger bends down and presses on the ramrod. I filled the rest of the channel above it with a flat wooden plug.