Let's talk ram rods.

tiriaq said:
Met a chap who had a ramrod break diagonally; cross grain; drove the broken end into his hand.
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I’ve heard of that happening but have yet to witness it. However, imo, it was caused by poor “technique”. While it is certainly true that cross grain will split before a straight grain rod will, using proper technique (as described by b-noser even a cross grain maple dowel will likely never fail. Learn to load properly and rod failure is no longer a concern regardless what it is made of.
 
I Dont Care About You said:
Why? What horrors would befall you if a range / trail rod broke?

FWIW I made several trail rods out of basic / generic wood dowel from Home Depot. Never broke one. It is probably all in how you use the rod. Go straight in and they will never break. Twist the thing around in an arc as you ram and maybe it will break. 🤷‍♂️



A solid bronze rod would be both expensive and friggen heavy. I would def NOT want to have to carry such a contraption around.

This all strikes as making a mountain out of a molehill, based on some intangible, " don't trust it" which is based upon nothing but feewings. There s absolutely nothing wrong with a wood dowel range rod and the world won't end if you break one. 🤷‍♂️

You are going to spend all kinds of money and effort and time solving a completely non-existent problem. Have fun with that.
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Sending a broken rod into or through your hand is a real concern. It happens, and when it happens it's a gnarly and unnecessary injury.
For in the field, I'll likely be going either delrin or fiberglass, or both? It's actually tricky to source.

For the range, I have sourced a 4' brass rod (3/8'"). This rod will have a large ball handle and I agree, not something anyone would want to carry around. But for the range, static use, they are great (I have and use them for my Hawken rifles).

I looked into bronze, but the same size rod is 33% more than a brass rod, which was expensive enough.
I'll still make and fit the wooden ramrod, but I won't use it.
 
I have seen owners of fiberglass rods ruin the crowns of two different rifles, I have seen double powder charges and dry ball situations, and ram rods shot down the range ( three instances)
I also watched a guy cut himself very badly when a rod broke when he was trying to jam down a ball in a barrel that was fouled badly.
I have broken the tips off shotgun rods and lost the whole brass end down the barrel of Italian plains replicas ( once each time) before I got wise and pinned and epoxy cemented them before shooting them.
Cheap hardware store dowel is the very worst material for a rifle loading rod, it can be grossly cross grained.
I have a few hickory ram rod blanks from Track of the Wolf, and they are very good.

For a range rod and for cleaning I use a brass rod, my latest shotgun I aquired has a very nice tapered rod of synthetic,possibly glass, bit it could be Green Heart or some such flexible and hard wood and just very polished from the ages. I haven't taken a very close look at it yet
I am not worried about it because the brass ferrule has quite a bell to it and it won't touch the sides.
Cat
 
iron cat said:
Even if a short starter is used one can break a rod on a fouled barrel if they get to aggressive with trying to ram the ball home .
I have seen that done.
Cat
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I'm amazed I didn't break my own. Several times. I'm embarrassed to even say how I pounded that load down but it never broke a rod.
 
iron cat said:
I have seen owners of fiberglass rods ruin the crowns of two different rifles, I have seen double powder charges and dry ball situations, and ram rods shot down the range ( three instances)
I also watched a guy cut himself very badly when a rod broke when he was trying to jam down a ball in a barrel that was fouled badly.
I have broken the tips off shotgun rods and lost the whole brass end down the barrel of Italian plains replicas ( once each time) before I got wise and pinned and epoxy cemented them before shooting them.
Cheap hardware store dowel is the very worst material for a rifle loading rod, it can be grossly cross grained.
I have a few hickory ram rod blanks from Track of the Wolf, and they are very good.

For a range rod and for cleaning I use a brass rod, my latest shotgun I aquired has a very nice tapered rod of synthetic,possibly glass, bit it could be Green Heart or some such flexible and hard wood and just very polished from the ages. I haven't taken a very close look at it yet
I am not worried about it because the brass ferrule has quite a bell to it and it won't touch the sides.
Cat
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Good to know. Delrin it is then!
 
Licensed to kill said:
I’ve heard of that happening but have yet to witness it. However, imo, it was caused by poor “technique”. While it is certainly true that cross grain will split before a straight grain rod will, using proper technique (as described by b-noser even a cross grain maple dowel will likely never fail. Learn to load properly and rod failure is no longer a concern regardless what it is made of.
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The Kibler kits come with a hickory ramrod. I have a Kibler Southern Mountain Rifle and no problems with it atall.
 
I've done more smoothbore shooting than rifled. More original than repro. Some original ramrods taper to be very slender, fitting into very small channels. Quality ramrod stock is really important in this situation. I have often unloaded using the capped screw at the end of the rod - these tips must be securely attached. For a shotgun range loading rod, I just use the largest dowel that will fit the bore. When cleaning at home, I use conventional aluminum shotgun cleaning rods. Hot water scrub. A lot of originals have replacement rods. This indicates that rod breakage was common. Quality British guns sometimes had rods made of what appears to be rosewood of some type. A few of my better grade British shotguns have what appear to be their original rods. I understand that baleen was occasionally used; it is very strong and flexible.
 
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Jack Ryan said:
I'm amazed I didn't break my own. Several times. I'm embarrassed to even say how I pounded that load down but it never broke a rod.
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I think a lot of the time a person forgets to make sure they are not bending the rod against the crown while trying to get a stubborn ball down the bore!🤯
I have watched Herschel House (and a few others ) shoot without short starters , the patch/ ball combination the use is quite a bit looser than most shooters I have seen.
Cat
 
iron cat said:
I think a lot of the time a person forgets to make sure they are not bending the rod against the crown while trying to get a stubborn ball down the bore!🤯
I have watched Herschel House (and a few others ) shoot without short starters , the patch/ ball combination the use is quite a bit looser than most shooters I have seen.
Cat
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A proper Maxi ball / bullet is had to get started as it engraves the top ring if everything is perfectly clean. On a dirty barrel, you can get in to a real problem half way down.

Even worse if you have even a little bit of wheel weight in the pot when you pour them.
 
Painkillers said:
For the range, I have sourced a 4' brass rod (3/8'"). This rod will have a large ball handle and I agree, not something anyone would want to carry around. But for the range, static use, they are great (I have and use them for my Hawken rifles).
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I would be inclined to cut that into sections and thread them - at some point it is going to get bent... Keep meaning to cut up some delrin and do the same so it fits in a range bag ... too many projects.

Think I mentioned it but you can get delrin from Grainger - 3/8" x 72" = $16/$17
 
Jack Ryan said:
A proper Maxi ball / bullet is had to get started as it engraves the top ring if everything is perfectly clean. On a dirty barrel, you can get in to a real problem half way down.

Even worse if you have even a little bit of wheel weight in the pot when you pour them.
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I don't think someone like the great Herschel House would be caught dead putting anything but a patched round ball down a golden age flint lock- I know I sure wouldn't!🫪
Cat
 
Many (most?) modern muzzleloaders use parallel sided rods; antiques generally have a tapered rod.
Can Delrin be tapered?
 
tiriaq said:
Many (most?) modern muzzleloaders use parallel sided rods; antiques generally have a tapered rod.
Can Delrin be tapered?
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It's a plastic or polymer resin, so I believe it can be shaped and polished without endangering its relative resilience ( a 3/8 rod will be stronger than a 5/16 or a tapered end of rod I would think)
 
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