ram rods.........

[bob1961]

how are the hickory rods from track...............bob

 

[Birddog6]

The last 2-3 that I got from them I cut into lil 2" pags & used them for doweling boards together.
I sorted thru a bunch of them at Friendship & came up with 3 5/16" ones that were good, tho it was a tough search.

 

[mikee51848]

Hey Bob, come to Dixon's for the Gun Fair. He always has lots of rods you can pick through. It'd be worth the trip.
http://www.dixonmuzzleloading.com/index.php

 

[bob1961]

i'm going to try hard to be there....even it's fer the days drive..............bob

 

[Eric Krewson]

I have a friend who makes hickory arrow shafting commercially. It has to have straight grain and very little grain runout. I asked him if he made ramrods and he said he had made a bunch for people but didn't get a lot of requests for them. I am picking some up from him at the Al state traditional archery championship(he is a vendor)and will let you all know how good they are. My friend said everyone who has bought his ramrods were really impressed with the quality. Here is his archery website if you want to contact him. http://home.hiwaay.net/~arrowman/

 

[djnye]

living in pa. you probably would be better off making your own. in my opinion very little run-out is not good enough. why settle for less when you can very easily have one that will probably outlast the rifle.

take care, daniel

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I get by OK with the common dowel rods from the hardware store, some birch and some ramin, even though I load very tight patch and ball combos like .495" balls with .027-.033" denim patch. A friend has broken five of Track's hickory rods while I've broken none of the dowel rods.
Maybe it's technique, I tend to drive the ball down with several short tamping motions while my friend likes to grasp the rod high and press down with one swoop.
I'm sure straight grained hickory is best but it is really hard to find truely straight grain and any runout is a weekness. The ramin dowels are a much softer wood but generally straight grained and therefore stronger.
I wonder what the mountainmen used when they broke or lost a rod? Not much hardwood in the Rockies and nothing straight.-- :hmm:--I do wonder.
Hey maybe that's it, maybe they ordered a "wonder rod".-- :: ::

 

[Birddog6]

The best 3/8" hickory rods I got are from Steve Bailey in Missouri. They are $3. each, good grain all the way from tip to tip. I bought 10 from him & they were all outstanding that I imediately ordered 10 more & they were equally as good when received.

Now they need finished as these are bare rods & no ends on them & not a finished product, but I like to turn or sand mine down anyway, sometimes taper them if I have to, etc.
Also they are not perfectly straight, and you would figure as such as grain don't run perfectly straight anyway, but the rods he sent me are superior to anyones I have bought in the past 10 years or so. And he sell them in bundles of 10.

Here is his tele# 573-547-4548

Email: [email protected] .

:results:

 

[Eric Krewson]

I straighten a lot of wood dowels and arrow shafts with a heat gun. By using a paint stripping heat gun and a piece of aluminum angle for a reflector I can heat a dowel to scorching hot in about 20 seconds. Real easy to straightn a dowel once it is hot.

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[Treerat]

Wayne Dunlap at Dunlap Woodcrafts is another good source for real hickory ram rods without tips. I like to taper my ramrods and leave an un tipped end at the muzzle with the threaded (and blunted off) tip hidden in the stock so I can't see paying Track three times as much for a tip installation that I will cut off anyway.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Wayne Dunlap at Dunlap Woodcrafts is another good source for real hickory ram rods without tips. I like to taper my ramrods and leave an un tipped end at the muzzle with the threaded (and blunted off) tip hidden in the stock so I can't see paying Track three times as much for a tip installation that I will cut off anyway.

That is also the way I do mine, I find the metal tip sticking out at the muzzle not to my taste.

I make all my tips from cartridge cases with head stamp sanded off. With a tapered RR and wanting a small diameter, mostly from .30 carbine cases or .223's (made a drift punch to remove the slight taper) cut off with a tubing cutter. I use low temp silver solder to fill bottom of case about 3/8 of an inch, then drill and tap it for 8-32 thread through the primer hole.