There's not much sense in getting an oversize rod. It has to fit in your rod pipes, after all. And the shaping of your nosecap will dictate how much flare you can or can't put on the tip of the rod (generally, NONE), so getting a larger rod won't do much good, you'll just end up scraping all that extra size right off. Now, you can taper down the lower end, of course, and I often do just a little, but there's generally no practical reason to do so.
On the rare occasion when one sees an original ramrod tip, they look like that shown by Jackley. Long and tapered down (often tapered down to clear a front lock bolt that cuts into the ramrod hole...). As much as I like a flared upper end for the ramrod, it seems that it is EXCEPTIONALLY rare to see any flare whatsoever on the end of an American rifle ramrod (the nosecaps will show you that they were not made for flared tip rods). As I recall, I have seen photos of one, and only one, American rifle with an apparently original rod that has an applied horn tip (with very little, if any, flare). I presume this was at least somewhat common, but the original gunsmith-made ramrod would almost certainly eventually be broken and replaced with a field-expedient hickory shoot.
A gun can be cleaned just fine without any tow worm or other implement. You can make up a wad of tow and tie a string or piece of heavy linen thread around the middle, and push it down the bore with your plain rod. Pull on the string, and you can easily withdraw it all from the bore. If you hold the string tight against the rod, you can manipulate everything as a single unit, just as if you had a jag or worm.
As far as dryballing... just don't do it! Seems simple to me....
That said, if you look at many old guns, you'll quickly find lots of them that very obviously have had their breechplugs roughly removed and replaced, apparently to get out an uncharged ball.
