Don't use wood ramrods!

[mooman76]

And be careful of those fiberglass replacement ram rods. I got one from TC. Within weeks I was spending more time picking fiberglass splinters out of my hand than shooting. wears the muzzle worse than metal too.

I light sanded mine and coated it with Poly and that took care of that. I wouldn't buy one, it just came with the gun I bought.

 

[don hepler]

Don't be fooled by aluminum either. I've had a couple TC wood rods break, so I replaced it with an aluminum rod, thinking I was safe. Wrong!!!! Last year I was reloading, in a hunting situation, and the ball was stuck half way down the barrel. I was standing under the edge of an old wooden shed, so I put the ram rod up against the building and in the process of pushing the ball down the barrel, somehow the rod broke, sending me flying into a wood pile. Now I got a ram rod broken off, in the barrel, I'm trying to get up out of a wood pile, and a turkey flopping around. Fortunately I got the turkey, and didn't get hurt.

I realize, this is not the proper way to use a ram rod, but in the heat of battle, or hunting, this can and does happen.

 

[BrownBear]

Good, hand-picked wood here. I'm choosy about the wood in mine, and it's paid off with nary a break in all these years. I have to add a couple of things. Got a whole stack of original factory ramrods from various popular brand guns. Unused, because there wasn't a one with good grain. Just huck them to the side and replace with good ones.

The other point is in getting good ones. You either have to buy them split from the orginal log rather than cut (and from a reliable source), or go through a lot of "blanks" from sawn sources. I got caught out and had to buy from a popular big name online part source, so I ordered 20 of them. Sorted through the whole stack to find 2- one perfect and one passable (I hope). The rest are.... well... dowels. I'll figger out some project to use them up.

 

[tenngun]

By

Glad to hear you weren't hurt. I use the delrin stuff, and if the HC/PC folks want to yell at me, i'll ignore them along with a bunch of folks to whom I pay little or no attention.

Keep calm and [strike]carry on[/strike] make good smoke!! :grin:

I use hickory as it works for me and is hc. I like as hc equipment as possible, however if you see a fake rod on a gun it's unlikely you will not notice until you look very close. Do you have modern steel barrel, or brass and modern steel furniture. Do you have wool with a little nylon or modern cotton, is any of your clothing machine sewn? Any one who comments you can give them a tissue to get the beam out of their eye.

 

[mooman76]

I have wood ramrods on most all my guns to keep it real but I use other things except for a very old 32 that came with a very old hickory rod but I don't shoot it much.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Muzzleloading is a skill to be mastered, and wooden ramrods are just part of that skill.

Anything less......is cheating, yourself of the knowledge and experience................

 

[tenngun]

Well I think I've expressed how I feel about hc equipment. How ever if someone is mostly hc who might not be as concerned about keeping hc and uses a fake rod I put that in with blue speckle ware and coil springs in a lock. I think CL got a sloppily made rod. I would tell her to get a good wood rod. However I would rather see her use modern fake rod then not shoot or feel uncomfortable with the wood. We all have some little thing we cheat with.

 

[Tom Compton]

I'm not going to read 45+ responses on this so my comments have probably been posted. But it won't hurt to reinforce this.

I don't like synthetic ram rods. Too flimsy and they wear on the muzzle ruining the barrel as do wood rods.

Good wood rods have their place when properly used. A steel range rod should be used except when reloading in the field or some primitive competition with silly rules. Using 2-4" strokes helps prevent broken rods in the field.

I load a tight .535 ball and patch at the truck with my range rod for my first load on a hunt but carry .530s for follow up shots. Haven't needed a follow up yet but always reload any way.

Aluminum leaves scrapings that make me think the crown is being damaged.

Yes I have seen muzzles egg shaped by wood rods and the resulting poor accuracy.

I started shooting these things in '73 an have been to a LOT of competitions. There's a reason most of the experienced shooters do things and I learned from them.

Load as you wish - it's your gun.
TC

 

[cynthialee]

well I contacted that guy on the 'bay who makes brass rods

Not too worried about HC/PC, the rifle I lug around is a T/C Hawken.....

 

[Rifleman1776]

Muzzleloading is a skill to be mastered, and wooden ramrods are just part of that skill.

Anything less......is cheating, yourself of the knowledge and experience................

There are a lot of dead men who were having the "experience" of doing things the old way. :shocked2:

 

[hanshi]

Back then "the old way" was "the new way" to them. :rotf:

 

[pondoro]

All my muzzleloaders have beautiful hickory ramrods. When I shoot them I use a range rod. This may be sacrilege to some, I know.

 

[Black Hand]

Muzzleloading is a skill to be mastered, and wooden ramrods are just part of that skill.

Anything less......is cheating, yourself of the knowledge and experience................

There are a lot of dead men who were having the "experience" of doing things the old way. :shocked2:

And hundreds of thousands more who didn't die....

 

[William O.]

Pricey...but here's another option:
http://www.periodramrod.com/[/quote]
Not a good option in my experience. Poor quality control, shipping methods and customer service. You're better off getting a brass or aluminum rod made specifically for your gun barrel's length.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Easy to make your own from a piece of lumber store hickory, a plane, scraper and some sandpaper. Pick a board where the grain runs parallel to the board edges, split/cut the board and go from there - minimizes grain issues.

Few have the woodworking experience or skill to do that and end up with a safe rod.

Safety trumps pc all the way. Go synthetic as much as possible.

I think you are selling others short by far. If you can shoot a muzzleloader without removing a limb, you are likely qualified to make a rammer...
After all, it really is only a glorified stick.

Strongly disagree. Based on some of the questions posted on this forum, I believe some ml shooters should never be allowed near anything sharp or what goes "bang". That is why stuff that comes packaged in plastic packages for mls sells so well in discount stores. A ram rod is not a "glorified stick". It is a specialized tool for a specific job. These days we expect to live past age 45 and plan to come out of the woods on our own feet at the end of the day. Take yer muzzle gun into the mountains in the fall on yer own. We will look for yer bones in the spring. I like 'authentic' but choose life. Respectfully, Bro, ye gave bad advice. :nono:

 

[Rifleman1776]

Muzzleloading is a skill to be mastered, and wooden ramrods are just part of that skill.

Anything less......is cheating, yourself of the knowledge and experience................

There are a lot of dead men who were having the "experience" of doing things the old way. :shocked2:

And hundreds of thousands more who didn't die....

Lucky them. I prefer common sense over luck to get me back out of the woods alive.

 

[cynthialee]

Muzzleloading is a skill to be mastered, and wooden ramrods are just part of that skill.

Anything less......is cheating, yourself of the knowledge and experience................

huh....
I should worry about making sure my ramrod is HC/PC for my T/C Hawken?
:rotf:
That hunting rifle is gonna be lucky if I don't put more modern sights on it by next fall......

 

[Rat Trapper]

Muzzleloading is a skill to be mastered, and wooden ramrods are just part of that skill.

Anything less......is cheating, yourself of the knowledge and experience................

huh....
I should worry about making sure my ramrod is HC/PC for my T/C Hawken?
:rotf:
That hunting rifle is gonna be lucky if I don't put more modern sights on it by next fall......

The ram rods offered by TC for the Hawken rifle have always worked well for me. Lighter than a brass rod, but not flimsy either. The Lyman 57 rear sight along with a fiber optic front makes a nice hunting set up.

 

[Snakebite]

Muzzleloading is a skill to be mastered, and wooden ramrods are just part of that skill.

Anything less......is cheating, yourself of the knowledge and experience................

huh....
I should worry about making sure my ramrod is HC/PC for my T/C Hawken?
:rotf:


That hunting rifle is gonna be lucky if I don't put more modern sights on it by next fall......

I really don't want or mean to stir the pot, and anyone can do what ever they want with their guns, modern sights, metal ramrods, powder pellets, etc., but that's getting away from what I think most of us think is "traditional". I guess it's how far you want to go, but sooner or later, it seems to me you end up with the inlines and synthetic stocks and so on.

For me, I have both a metal range rod and a wooden rod for use at the range when I'm just shooting for fun or practice, but at a primitive type shoot, I use the same wooden rod in my Hawken that came with it 35 years ago. It's never been an issue. In my experience, I've never seen a wooden rod break when used correctly. I hope no one take offence because there is none intended. Just my observations.

Chris

 

[cynthialee]

brass, steel and wood were all used for ramrods

You don't have to have a wood stick.

After having my 25+ year old ramrod break on me and narrowly miss impaling my hand I think that I am not tempting fate again.
After inspecting the broken rod I suspect that years of exposure to black powder residue on it caused the thing to weaken over time in a particular part of the rod.