Traditional Muzzleloading Association

Traditional Firearms => Caplock Long Guns => Topic started by: Winter Hawk on August 24, 2020, 08:35:15 PM

Title: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Winter Hawk on August 24, 2020, 08:35:15 PM
The Lyman GPR I bought last year had a fiberglass ramrod which had definitely seen better days.  It must have been stuck quite often because it had been pretty well chewed up with pliers.  I was going to get a new RR from Lyman but this afternoon I decided to make one.  I got out one of the kerosene-soaked dowels I have.  I was able to remove the brass ends off the glass rod so they were reusable.  With some fiddling around, using a pipe cutter to incise around where the end pieces would go, then trimming the rod down to proper length and whittling the ends down to fit them, I got a presentable ram rod, AKA wiping stick.  Cleaned off the kerosene with acetone and epoxied the fittings on, then drilled and pinned them in place, it sure looks better than what was on there before!

~Kees~
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: rollingb on August 24, 2020, 10:25:40 PM
 :hairy  :applaud
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: PetahW on August 28, 2020, 11:25:26 AM
.

I've made RR's from fiberglass driveway markers a time or three, but wooden RR's look a lot better.

Please remember to take care when using your RR, as turned dowels can split out on the side, when a grain runs out - and stab your palm.

I know I may be preaching to the choir, but the best wood RR's are made the same way you did that one, but from split Hickory.

FWIW, after the ends are attached (epoxy) & pinned, my wood RR's get a 30-day kerosene bath in a 3' long section of 1/2" PVC pipe, capped solid on one end, with a loose cap on top.

I've never had a deer shy from kerosene odor, but when the kero evaporates in a few days, there's no odor that's discernable to me. (YMMV)


The most laughable RR's to me are those very flexible plastic (?) RR's issues by some gunmakers (mostly in-lines).


.
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Nutnfancy on August 28, 2020, 02:18:20 PM
I have one of those flexible Delrin ram rods and don't care for it. Still have the wooden ones that came with the guns but with my history of breaking them, I may get maybe 20 shots with one, I don't use them except for looks. I prefer the nylon ram rods, have used the same one for about 30 years and have had no problems with it.
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Winter Hawk on August 28, 2020, 05:19:09 PM
PetahW,

Thanks for the reply.  When I selected the dowels I made sure that there was no run-out; then I have soaked them in kerosene in a PVC tube with end cap glued on and a screw-on top.  They have been in there for a year or more and are nice and flexible.  I wiped down the ends with acetone before epoxying the brass tips on and they seem to be holding very well.

I agree that split hickory would be better but I don't have any....

~Kees~
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: BEAVERMAN on August 28, 2020, 05:47:46 PM
I have one of those flexible Delrin ram rods and don't care for it. Still have the wooden ones that came with the guns but with my history of breaking them, I may get maybe 20 shots with one, I don't use them except for looks. I prefer the nylon ram rods, have used the same one for about 30 years and have had no problems with it.

Same here, although I do have a tesoro steel rod for the prom queen and the trade gun.
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Bigsmoke on August 28, 2020, 05:48:05 PM
Sounds like you are all set to go, Kees.  Good on you.
And then, there is option C or D or whatever.  Over the years, I have sure made a lot of brass rods for people.  You really have to work on it to break one of those.  I have done both solid brass rod and also brass tubing, if weight is an issue.
It really takes a metal lathe to do a decent application, in order to perform the same thing on the brass as you did with the pipe cutter on the wood.  Treso makes some nice ramrod hardware, where you can have one end with a built in jag, silver soldered on and pinned, of course.

John (Bigsmoke)
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Bigsmoke on August 28, 2020, 05:49:38 PM

Same here, although I do have a tesoro steel rod for the prom queen and the trade gun.

Jim, What the heck is a Tesoro steel rod?  Can't think of hearing of one of those.
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: PetahW on August 28, 2020, 05:58:23 PM

Same here, although I do have a tesoro steel rod for the prom queen and the trade gun.

Jim, What the heck is a Tesoro steel rod?  Can't think of hearing of one of those.

I believe they are Tresco steel rods.

A 44"x1/4" Tresco rod can be had from Starr (for one),  listed @ $28.35


.
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Bigsmoke on August 28, 2020, 06:55:24 PM
Yes, that is kind of what I thought.  I have one that I use with my flinter Tennessee rifle, Clipper.
However, the correct spelling is Treso.  Has to do with Don Miner's daughter, Theresa.  When she was just a wee one, the only way she could kind of pronounce her name was Treso.  And so Don named the company after her.  Incidentally, she is a very nice, soft spoken lady.  We spent the afternoon with her one day after they had moved from Pagosa Springs, CO to Thompson Falls, MT.  It is quite the facility, too.
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Winter Hawk on August 29, 2020, 08:06:54 PM
Back in the late 1960s and 1970s Tesoro was a local gasoline company in Alaska.  Had their own refinery and everything, and sold their gas cheaper than Union or Chevron.  Maybe the rod has something to do with oil exploration?  :bigsmile:

~Kees~
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: BEAVERMAN on August 29, 2020, 08:25:28 PM
Yes, that is kind of what I thought.  I have one that I use with my flinter Tennessee rifle, Clipper.
However, the correct spelling is Treso.  Has to do with Don Miner's daughter, Theresa.  When she was just a wee one, the only way she could kind of pronounce her name was Treso.  And so Don named the company after her.  Incidentally, she is a very nice, soft spoken lady.  We spent the afternoon with her one day after they had moved from Pagosa Springs, CO to Thompson Falls, MT.  It is quite the facility, too.

Hey, I'm getting old dammit, give a guy a break! ;D you knew what I was talking about! :toast
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Bigsmoke on August 29, 2020, 08:30:14 PM
Jim, join the club.  I think most everyone here could be defined as "getting old".
I'm laughing with you, my friend, not at you.  Well, maybe just a little bit. :bigsmile:

John (Bigsmoke)
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Doc Nock on August 29, 2020, 08:41:25 PM
I love coming here and reading all these Tales...

I had a buddy with an aluminum RR for his T/C and he was at the range prepping for deer season and got to jabering with someone... then he left the RR in the gun with the powder ball and patch and fired it... said it made a gorgeious hole in the backstop board and about broke his shoulder...

He told me this when we went to that range a few weeks later as he awaited a replacement RR...I went to the 50 yard target and it'd rained hard enough I saw the RR in the dirt berm...it was all curled up like a pig's tail...

 :lol sign

He'd avoided that since
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Bigsmoke on August 29, 2020, 10:48:52 PM
I went to a rendezvous one time in Washington and they had a sponsor who donated a bundle of 3/8" dowel.  They put on a ram rod shoot.  One shot, highest score ring cut won the prize.  I think it was 5 silver dollars or some such thing.  Kind of novel, I thought.  Seemed to really make the flinters spurt out the flash hole, IIRC.  Good times.  But progress came to the rendezvous and they lost the site.  Bummer, it was a nice setting.  What was it called?  Seems like it might have been Camus Prairie or some such thing.  I think I won two of the events and I still have the silver dollars (2 each) wrapped up in nice little beaded brain tanned pouches.  They were Ike dollars.
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Winter Hawk on August 31, 2020, 07:12:58 PM
While cleaning the house I pulled the GPR out from behind the door where it resides.  That brandly-new RR stands out like a sore thumb, all white and virginal looking.  I guess i should get out the stain and darken it up some....  ::)

~Kees~
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: BEAVERMAN on August 31, 2020, 11:01:11 PM
I went to a rendezvous one time in Washington and they had a sponsor who donated a bundle of 3/8" dowel.  They put on a ram rod shoot.  One shot, highest score ring cut won the prize.  I think it was 5 silver dollars or some such thing.  Kind of novel, I thought.  Seemed to really make the flinters spurt out the flash hole, IIRC.  Good times.  But progress came to the rendezvous and they lost the site.  Bummer, it was a nice setting.  What was it called?  Seems like it might have been Camus Prairie or some such thing.  I think I won two of the events and I still have the silver dollars (2 each) wrapped up in nice little beaded brain tanned pouches.  They were Ike dollars.

Camus Meadows? aka soggy moccasin?
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Bigsmoke on September 01, 2020, 09:57:24 AM
I went to a rendezvous one time in Washington and they had a sponsor who donated a bundle of 3/8" dowel.  They put on a ram rod shoot.  One shot, highest score ring cut won the prize.  I think it was 5 silver dollars or some such thing.  Kind of novel, I thought.  Seemed to really make the flinters spurt out the flash hole, IIRC.  Good times.  But progress came to the rendezvous and they lost the site.  Bummer, it was a nice setting.  What was it called?  Seems like it might have been Camus Prairie or some such thing.  I think I won two of the events and I still have the silver dollars (2 each) wrapped up in nice little beaded brain tanned pouches.  They were Ike dollars.

Camus Meadows? aka soggy moccasin?

Yeah, Jim, I think that's the ticket.  Had not known the nickname of soggy mocs.  Probably about right.  Seems like the time I went over there was the last time it happened.
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Winter Hawk on September 24, 2020, 04:12:33 PM
An update on the new ramrod.  I used it to clean out the bore (again) on the T-C Hawkin as the ramrod for that had a boogered up thread on the tip, so I couldn't screw the jag in (it's fixed now, chased the threads with a 10-32 tap).  When I got the patched jag all the way down the bore it stuck; wouldn't pull back up.  I tried turning it to loosen the bore's grip on it and, dang it, the rod sheared off right at the edge of the brass tip.  I wasn't putting very much torque on it at all!   :o

So what happened?  I think the fact that the rod had been soaking up kerosene for a year or more probably softened the fibers.  Then I used the tubing cutter to scribe a line around it, compressing the fibers and further weakening them (the rod separated at the scribed line).  Then when I torqued it the fibers came apart.  I have made several other dowel ramrods which had not soaked for long in kerosene and they have functioned very well even when being twisted, so the idea of leaving them to soak for a long time is probably NOT a good thing.  ::)

I got the severed piece out of the barrel by using the ramrod from the Hodgepodge Rifle with a bullet puller.  It screwed into the end of the tip and pulled it out easy as you please.  :applaud

I'll be ordering some hickory ramrods from Dixie Gunworks for this project and to have a spare or two on hand!  :bl th up

~Kees~
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: BEAVERMAN on September 24, 2020, 05:00:48 PM
An update on the new ramrod.  I used it to clean out the bore (again) on the T-C Hawkin as the ramrod for that had a boogered up thread on the tip, so I couldn't screw the jag in (it's fixed now, chased the threads with a 10-32 tap).  When I got the patched jag all the way down the bore it stuck; wouldn't pull back up.  I tried turning it to loosen the bore's grip on it and, dang it, the rod sheared off right at the edge of the brass tip.  I wasn't putting very much torque on it at all!   :o

So what happened?  I think the fact that the rod had been soaking up kerosene for a year or more probably softened the fibers.  Then I used the tubing cutter to scribe a line around it, compressing the fibers and further weakening them (the rod separated at the scribed line).  Then when I torqued it the fibers came apart.  I have made several other dowel ramrods which had not soaked for long in kerosene and they have functioned very well even when being twisted, so the idea of leaving them to soak for a long time is probably NOT a good thing.  ::)

I got the severed piece out of the barrel by using the ramrod from the Hodgepodge Rifle with a bullet puller.  It screwed into the end of the tip and pulled it out easy as you please.  :applaud

I'll be ordering some hickory ramrods from Dixie Gunworks for this project and to have a spare or two on hand!  :bl th up

~Kees~

Kees, this is one of the reasons that I never use a wood rod, even in my hunting gun I have a brass ended plastic flex rod in the pipes!
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Bigsmoke on September 24, 2020, 05:38:26 PM
I'm with you on that, Jim.
But for appearance sake, I do keep a wood rod in place under the barrel.  I don't soak it in kerosene, just have a little stain on it and have it well waxed.  If for any reason I have to use it out in the field, like to reload or something, I know enough not to grip the rod more than 6 or 8" above the barrel.  Everything else is done with a brass range rod - range loading, cleaning, ball pulling, breech plug face cleaning, etc.

I am kind of thinking about getting back into brass rod making here in a couple of months.  Will make range rods and under gun rods.  Probably will be selling all the good Treso rod hardware as well.  I just need to get some ducks into a row first, then buy some tooling and some brass rod.  But at this point, it's just thinking.

John (Bigsmoke)
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: BEAVERMAN on September 25, 2020, 12:13:09 PM
I'm with you on that, Jim.
But for appearance sake, I do keep a wood rod in place under the barrel.  I don't soak it in kerosene, just have a little stain on it and have it well waxed.  If for any reason I have to use it out in the field, like to reload or something, I know enough not to grip the rod more than 6 or 8" above the barrel.  Everything else is done with a brass range rod - range loading, cleaning, ball pulling, breech plug face cleaning, etc.

I am kind of thinking about getting back into brass rod making here in a couple of months.  Will make range rods and under gun rods.  Probably will be selling all the good Treso rod hardware as well.  I just need to get some ducks into a row first, then buy some tooling and some brass rod.  But at this point, it's just thinking.

John (Bigsmoke)

 :hairy sounds like your getting bored without all that horn dust floating around!
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: RobD on September 28, 2020, 07:43:39 PM
I have a big ol' Heavy brass cleaning rod that I use as a ball puller, pre-fitted with a fine screw worm.  The weight of the rod whence dropped down the tube is enuf to well pierce the lead ball and a few rod twists later it's firmly attached.  The handle of the rod is drilled out with two holes - one is for a lanyard loop to fasten over anything handy 'n' stout (tree limb) and t'other hole that's drilled nearer the handle end is for slipping in a 6" x 1/4" steel rod to act as a step-on foot stirrup.  One or the other - lanyard or stirrup - will retrieve the errant ball, for sure.  :toast  :*:
Title: Re: New ramrod for Lyman GPR
Post by: Cottonwood on October 27, 2020, 04:10:23 PM
I never use my RR under the barrel except maybe when cleaning.... but my RR which is a nice hard RR with a brass end with 10/32nd threads works the best.

(https://i.postimg.cc/sX63n6q4/Range-Rod-54-cal.jpg)  :*: