Favored Materials for Field Ramrods

[Ferryboatcaptain]

When hunting I use a CVA unbreakable ramrod I got from midway for 8 bucks . FBC

 

[French Colonial]

The Muzzleloading Forum.
Keeping Tradition alive.

I guess it all depends on what you call traditional.

 

[rodinal220]

I ditch wood ramrods for field use and replace them with a custom Delrin equivalent. I keep a heavier aluminum or brass range rod in the vehicle or at camp.

 

[flconch53]

I make my ramrod fir under barrel rod out of brass tubing. Strong rigid and light weight and you won't have to make excuses for non period materials. Those that don't care about materials that's your business. Drill and tap pinned in inserts 8 thread on 1 end 10 thread on the other.

 

[French Colonial]

Since your worried about your ramrod breaking and getting injured, how about if you fall out of your stand and get impaled by your wood stock when it breaks.

Probably better go with a synthetic gunstock as well

 

[GREENSWLDE]

May have said this before.I use an old hickory putter shaft with a bronze head and a breakoff
under the ball top( an old Rubber Bog Pull ). The joint has a thread to accept a spare nipple
and a P/H cleaning mop.

 

[GREENSWLDE]

Regretably you on your side you have No idea how shoots were run in 1830/60 M/L period in Great Britain .Even to To-day We still have driven M/L days. But BOXING DAY when Landlord and Tenants exchanged presents and Hunted Hounds together does till exhist in places. Even On Sent trails. OLD DOG..

 

[Eterry]

Mostly use whatever the gun came with. I've bought 2 antiques that had cut off brass cartridges for a tip. That must have been popular BITD.

I've had my share of wooden rods crack, never had one totally break in me. Most times I bought an oversized dow rod and whittled it down.

My Zouave's and Musketoon have original metal rod's. Work great except noisy while loading.

 

[1BadDart]

Has anyone tried a cherry rod? Years ago my brother and I were doing some work on a house, we were replacing the countertop. The owners wanted ceramic tile, instead of a bull nose on edge we used a strip of cherry. The cherry was very hard, as hard as any hickory I worked with.

 

[Eterry]

The Muzzleloading Forum.
Keeping Tradition alive.

I guess it all depends on what you call traditional.

He still uses black powder or equivalent. Still a muzzleloader. How traditional do we need to be ?

I'm guessing you walk or ride a horse to get to shoots, hunts, or Rondys? No electricity/ natural gas/ running water in your house? No HVAC? Don't use modern medicine ? THAT'S how Dan'l did it.

We ALL are using electronic devices unthinkable to the 18th century, driving vehicles unimaginable, flying across the sky faster than birds.

Most of us are just playing Dress Up, just spending more doing it.

My mentor says "If Daniel Boone had a Winnebago Self Contained and a Winchester model 70 he'd have used them." We do this because we WANT to.

 

[cynthialee]

I use brass rods only in long guns.
Yes they make my rifle heavier, but I am ok with that.
Broke a wooden rod while hunting and that long vicious spear that was left missed my hand by a whisker had my heart in my throat and pounding a mile a minute.
I'll never break a brass rod. So as I am a fraidy cat in this department I will stick with my extra heavy rod.

 

[French Colonial]

He still uses black powder or equivalent. Still a muzzleloader. How traditional do we need to be ?

I'm guessing you walk or ride a horse to get to shoots, hunts, or Rondys? No electricity/ natural gas/ running water in your house? No HVAC? Don't use modern medicine ? THAT'S how Dan'l did it.

We ALL are using electronic devices unthinkable to the 18th century, driving vehicles unimaginable, flying across the sky faster than birds.

Most of us are just playing Dress Up, just spending more doing it.

My mentor says "If Daniel Boone had a Winnebago Self Contained and a Winchester model 70 he'd have used them." We do this because we WANT to.

Here is the thing.

People go and buy a cheap dowel rod from the big box store made of wood from who knows where and which is probably not straight grained to begin with, then they try loading a too tight ball and patch combination that would be better suited for a chunk gun/benchrest rifle and they also never learn to push the ball down in several short strokes instead of long ones which bend the rod.

The rod breaks and the poor workman blames his tools.

My opinion, you need to be more traditional than a synthetic rod and learn how to use your tools, or your on a slippery slope and the next thing your driving to rondy's and sleeping in a Winnebago.

What is proper protocol for snark from a moderator?

 

[SDSmlf]

The Muzzleloading Forum.
Keeping Tradition alive.

I guess it all depends on what you call traditional.

Guessing you use nothing more modern than an IBM PS/2 with a dialup connection to be traditional, no smart phone, tablet or laptop. Hear that’s how folks like Bill and Daniel did it back in the day.

 

[French Colonial]

You guys crack me up, any excuse to keep from learning the proper/traditional way to do things.

Keep using your synthetic ramrod, synthetic stock, powerbelt bullet and your windshield washer fluid and lube concoctions.

Remember what I said earlier, its a poor workman who blames his tools

 

[FlinterNick]

Black Locust and Yew.

Both were used by Native Americans to make bow’s and arrows.

 

[Eterry]

Here is the thing.

People go and buy a cheap dowel rod from the big box store made of wood from who knows where and which is probably not straight grained to begin with, then they try loading a too tight ball and patch combination that would be better suited for a chunk gun/benchrest rifle and they also never learn to push the ball down in several short strokes instead of long ones which bend the rod.

The rod breaks and the poor workman blames his tools.

My opinion, you need to be more traditional than a synthetic rod and learn how to use your tools, or your on a slippery slope and the next thing your driving to rondy's and sleeping in a Winnebago.

What is proper protocol for snark from a moderator?

I've used dowel rods for decades. I always culled through them for runout.
I admit getting a decent one is much harder than 40 years ago.

I agree with you that many load way too tight a load. I never loaded a really tight load. As a teen Mom bought me a yard of pillow case material, not ticking, and I used every inch. All i knew was it hit everything i shot at. I finally felt the factory ramrod crack one day about 1982, before the internet. I went to the discount store and picked out a rod. Then several evenings after homework worked it over with sandpaper until it fit the pipes. Then used my pocket knife to carve the ends for the tips.
I promise you I was more careful about using short strokes after that.
In the 90s I bought a used possibles bag with a short starter, I use it sometimes.

If used properly with some common sense a wooden rod will give good service. Used improperly even a metal rod can be damaged without common sense.

 

[Crooked Creek]

In the past year I saw an ad from Midway where they had CVA black fiberglass ramrods on sale for $6.99. I bought 4 of them. I also put in an order to Track of the Wolf for 4 hickory ramrod blanks and some brass ramrod fittings. I cut down the rods to the needed lengths and built a new fiberglass and new hickory ramrods for all 4 rifles I have. The fiberglass ones are the ones that go in the rifles when I shoot. I left one of the fiberglass rods full length and it is my cleaning and range rod. The new hickory rods will be getting the finish put on them soon.

 

[DuncNZ]

The antique British muzzle loaders I have owned or handled mostly had Ebony rods , usually with a covered puller screw in the end , The military ones mainly had steel rods .
Then again you can be fooled by early replacement rods .
This the end of the rod from my H Nock 14 ga

 

[hanshi]

The wood rods that normally come with the rifle are pretty lousy. About all my "underbarrel" rods are hickory; always a grand rod wood.

 

[Howard Pippin]

Since your worried about your ramrod breaking and getting injured, how about if you fall out of your stand and get impaled by your wood stock when it breaks.

Probably better go with a synthetic gunstock as well

By golly I did that on one percussion and it really is a good shooting muzzleloader.