Ram Rod question

[IronDawg]

If this should be in gunsmithing someone please move it. I just figured the shooting forum would be the best place to get the most answers.

When I got my southern mt. I got the "stuff" (ends jags, rod etc) to make up a 2nd ramrod. As the barrel is a 44" long swamped, that likes a tight patched roundball that puts a lil umpfh on the skinny rod I figured it's best I go ahead and turn these parts in to another rod as a spare.

The rod thats with the gun looks toi be finished the same way the rifle is (Aqua fortois) But I've heard several tales of preparing ramrods. From soaking them in linseed oil to putting them in a tube filled with kerosene for a day to just finish it like you would the gun.

How do you guys finish your ramrods for the best toughness and endurance??

[R.M.]

I've also heard that the soaking thing is an old wives tale. Don't know, never tried it, but I have used AF on hickory, and it works quite well.
You might want to consider a metal range-rod and save that wooden one for hunting.

[pathfinder]

I just use leather dye,don't get real fancy with 'em, you'll have to replace it eventually,and it takes on it's own color with use. Finish with Boiled liseed or True oil.

[Buffler Razz]

I have spare rods and have a steel range rod for cleaning and such. Never soaked any of mine, just stain and tung oil. I like hickory, seems pretty tough. It is good to have a spare rod, you never know when one will break or be sent flying down range   !
Razz

[IronDawg]

Yup, yup and yup. Itsa hickory rod just like the one thats in the rifle. Just gotta brand spankin new 44" long stainless rod with loading/cleaning jags from 32-62/ Got it for cleaning and range work.

Since the ones thats in the rifle looks so good then. I'll just take the spare with me next time I go up and see the builder and have him AF it for me. I know he still has some of the same color he used on the rifle.

[jim m]

Dawg, you're really geten into this black powder thing    stick bows and flintlocks are some of the best pleasures a man can enjoy

[MikeC]

If you can find someone who makes wooden rods by hand splitting them ask for one.  Tough as nails and they don't split.  It's the manufactored wooden rods that split.

That being said.  Wood rod for hunting, steel rod for the range.

[IronDawg]

If you can find someone who makes wooden rods by hand splitting them ask for one.  Tough as nails and they don't split.  It's the manufactored wooden rods that split.

That being said.  Wood rod for hunting, steel rod for the range.

OK now I know what one of the 6' hickory logs in my wood pile is about to become. and it's NOT firewood.

[Captchee]

soaking a RR does 2 things  neither of them make the rod un breakable or negate the need to start off with a good piece of wood .
1)  it limbers
2) it keeps the RR from swelling in wet conditions .
Anyone who has had that happen knows  how much of a pain that is .

 Also just because a RR is soaked in oil , that doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep it clean and oiled .

Soaking a RR doesn’t make it un breakable

 Yep lance  if you go a piece of hickory , make your own. Just follow the grain  like you would when tillering a bow .
A good hickory rod will  have no run out to the grain .
 You do that . Stain it up good and then  put on a deep penetrating oil  and you will have a RR that will last for a very long time
 .

[flintlock62]

I have been using ramin rods from TOW and have had no problems.  I stain mine with walnut hull mixed in Watco Danish oil finish.

Soaking rods in kerosene changes the fibers in wood, making them more flexable.  If you want to do this, take PVC, capped at one end, place the rod(s) inside and fill with kerosene.  Let soak for about a week.

Like caphee said, if you start out with a sub standard peice of wood, it still can break.

[Fletcher]

As was implied above, the manufactured dowels are cut from boards into square stock and then run through a dowel tool.  That will often run cross grain (weak)

To get true straight grain the wood would need to be from splits.  Either Hickory or White Ash should make a good tough rod and fairly lightweight.

It will be hard to hand split down to the 3/8" or smaller square that you need, but with a good sharp butcher style knife you should be able to wood hammer tap out some stock.  Then you can shave to octagon with a spoke shave holding the stock in a jig that has a 90 degree trough cut or built in and held on the 45.  (you could also rasp it out, but a spoke shave is quicker.  Then you can round it out by several means, or leave it octagon and ony round the portion you need for the end pieces.

I have made a bunch of arrow shafts this way out of several woods.  Ramrods are just a bit longer.

[IronDawg]

Fletcher. I have a few draw knives, a couple splitting wedges, some splice chisels and even a strip bench. I do a good bit of wood splitting for custom furniture, thin weaves and even bow staves. Kinda why I wind up with these pieces and chunks and staves of hickory and walnut and stuff

[Swamp]

Hey Buffler, I just so happen to see one go down range, and man did it ring the target, which was a coil spring from a truck.

The shooter claimed "Man that round kicked like a mule", and couldn't figure out where he left his ram rod when he went to load for the next target.  :lol:

Good friends, good shooting, it don't get any better than that!

[pathfinder]

Were you whatchin' me shoot my  Matchlock?

[Longhunter]

I've told the story on this forum of my Canadian moose hunt in 1979. J. Brennan built my .62 Jaeger special for that hunt. The gun has a heavily swamped barrel and a tapered wooden ramrod. During the hunt it rained a couple days and the ramrod swelled to the point I couldn't get it out. Luckily Jud had made a steel rod with a T on the end to take along on the hunt as a spare. If it hadn't been for that I don't know what I would have done. Even after I got home it was a week before I could pull that wooden rod. Now I always carry a spare.