Wood Rod for a .32??

[Smokey Plainsman]

I’ve read many accounts to never use a wooden ramrod for a .32 caliber rifle. The 5/16” diameter is supposedly too small and they break often, impaling hands and causing countless deaths from hemorrhaging and sepsis each year.

Okay, well that last part was an exaggeration, but still. If this wisdom is true, how did the old timers get by using their wooden rammer with these small caliber shootin’ irons? I am a traditionalist and my new Crockett rifle comes with an icky aluminum ramrod.

I’d like to make one from good straight grain hickory. I know to use proper technique such as grasping but a few inches from the muzzle and utilizing shorts strokes, same as when using any wood ramrod.

Do you think it’s doable? Is this a recipe for disaster and will I come back from range day shish kebabed?

-Smokey

 

[Grimord]

If you use the rod like you say, and it is a good, straight grained hickory rod, you should have no issues. I use a wooden rod on my 42" barreled flint lock in .32 caliber and have for years. I do soak the rod in a pipe of coal oil during the off season when I am not shooting the gun. It keeps the rod limber as less susceptible to breaking. For range use I use a SS loading rod.

 

[French Colonial]

Built my first rifle in the 70's and its a .32, had no idea what I was doing and had never held a flintlock in my hands but used Hershel House's write up in Foxfire five and while it is too ugly to show pictures of it still head shoots squirrels with the best of them..

All of that to say, it still has the original hickory ramrod in it.

Go to TOTW and buy a handful of good Hickory rods and you will have them laying around for your next project.

 

[deerstalkert]

i have a .30 and use a hickory rod in it all the time. it had to be tapered quite a bit to go into the RR channel of the bubba'ed* stock i rescued.
* not to be confused with our Bubba

 

[BoomStick]

A wood 5/16 is as safe as a 3/8, 7/16 or 1/2 -use the correct technique and they all work fine.

 

[tenngun]

To break a rod has to bend.
No bend no break. Grasp the rod close to the muzzle, especially in those critical first few inches. Run ball down with short strokes always grasping just a few inches above the muzzle
‘I can shoot fifty shots without swabbing’
So what?
Keep you gun clear of fouling, it will shoot better and load easy. Even a musket with loose ball in a paper cartridge gets tight after loading a few times, they had iron rods for a reason, but if your in the squirrels woods or plinking at the range your not defending a line, you have plenty of time to get off your next shot, swab often load easy

 

[flconch53]

I wouldn't worry about a 5/16 rod bending in a .32 barrel as a matter of fact you will probably have to do considerable sanding to get it down. You are only talking nominal clearance of .004 on a side

 

[Sean E Bug]

I use a wood rod in a 32. If the grain is straight and ram it hand over hand it will not be a problem. trouble is when someone used to loading with a steel range rod get careless for a second and grabs it by the end to ram a ball home is when problems arise. I would also recommend using the largest size ramrod that fits in the bore as the bore can help keep it from bending.

 

[smo]

Makes sure there’s no hidden knots in the rod.

 

[pwbsmokey]

If the knot is hidden, how would you know if there is a knot? Is there a grain pattern to look for? Not trying to be a smart aleck

 

[flntlokr]

If the knot is hidden, how would you know if there is a knot? Is there a grain pattern to look for? Not trying to be a smart aleck

Look the rod blanks over for the degree of run-out in the grain. That broken rod has very short run-out. You need to look for an angle that goes about 10 diameters, so the run-out is very long; full length if you can find it. For very skinny rods that is very important, but if you use them properly they will last a long time. Change a r0d out if it begins to wear from rubbing on the muzzle.

 

[hanshi]

I removed the ram rod that came with my .32 SMR and replaced it with one made of hickory.

 

[smo]

If the knot is hidden, how would you know if there is a knot? Is there a grain pattern to look for? Not trying to be a smart aleck

Not trying too be a smart aleck but…
When it breaks..
I never saw the knot before it snapped..
The rod in the pic was a 3/8’s hickory I had used for several years, then one day while loading it just snapped… even using short strokes.

I’m assuming it’s a knot from how the break appears. I think it run out were the issue, it would have more of the long, splinter looking break.
Maybe not…

 

[BoomStick]

Makes sure there’s no hidden knots in the rod.

View attachment 186913

I had a buddy break one of mine that looked a lot like that. He lost his footing or balance or something, and hand on ramrod went one direction while hand holding gun went other. In an instant the rod broke off flush with the muzzle. Ball was about halfway down, so a nearly clean break right in the middle. That it didn't seem to flex had me think it was a knot or runout in the grain. May have just been a coincidence it was torqued at that exact spot but could not see anything in the rod where it broke.

 

[smo]

The ball was 2/3 rds the way down the bore when this one snapped..

 

[hinamanra]

In 40 years of hunting with and shooting flinocks from .32 to .75, I have yet to break a wooden ramrod loading, cleaning or pulling a ball. However, I have shot a couple out.

 

[user 31257]

If I were going to make a wooden ramrod for a .32, I’d split rather than saw a larger piece until I had a blank to turn so that the grain ran the length of it.