need help

[prairie dog]

My new Lancaster flintlock needs a two inch long brass ramrod tip.  The inch and a half long tips work, but don't match up with the length of the nose cap.   It would improve the looks greatly if I had a two inch long brass tip to hang under that nose cap.  The rod supplied with the rifle has no tip, just wood.  It looks fine that way, but, I really like the convenience of being able to screw accessories to that end of the rod such as a T handle to pull a ball or stuck cleaning patch. 

Anyone know where I might find such a thing or get one made?

[rollingb]

Might have to find someone with a lathe, and make one out of brass round stock.?.? 

[RobD]

a call to track of the wolf come monday would prolly get ya fixed up pronto.

i make my rods from hickory or oak, with brass cupped ferrules at both ends, epoxied and pinned with a brass brad that's filed smooth.  the muzzle end gets a jag, t'other end gets nothing and is the ramming end.  thisaway, the rod goes up 'n' outta the thimbles, then straight down for the ramming and no need to be doing that annoying drum majorette rod twirling. 

[Semisane]

Get a 12" long brass tube from Ace Hardware that's the same diameter as your 1.5" long tip. Cut a half inch long section off the brass tube and put it on the rod before the tip, so that the two butt against each other. The tiny line between the two sections will add character to the tip.

[Rocklock]

If both ends of the rod have threaded tips, screw something the right length into the other end.  Or get a new tip from Track.

[prairie dog]

Thanks for the suggestions fellows.  Here is what I wound up doing.  I just cut another brass tip to the length needed and stuck it on under the the first tip. 

I like the looks of it better now.  I just hope Chuck don't scalp me when he sees it.  He knows those ramrods never had them brass tips on em back in the 1790's and he makes them plain wood on the end. 

It's OK Chuck, I still have the original rod you made for this rifle and I will put it back in the thimbles when I'm done shooting and just showing her off. 
 [ Invalid Attachment ]

[Ohio Joe]

Looks good! 

[Hawken]

http://www.octobercountry.com/categories/Ramrod-Accessories/

[Bigsmoke]

http://www.octobercountry.com/categories/Ramrod-Accessories/

I see that they are now making a loading tip for the ramrod.  I always liked the Treso product and made quite a few ramrods with that tip on it.  The benefit is that the jag end is one with the rod end and you do not have to worry about it unscrewing and loosing it.  Darn, I hate it when that happens.
The improvement (?) on the October Country version of the Treso product is that the bottom land of the jag has been machined with a knurling tool.  i guess that's a plus, although I really couldn't say.  It seems that years ago, T/C came out with a cleaning jag whose entire sides were knurled.  I tried it a few times and never lost a patch, but it just didn't look right to me.  So, still using the standard cleaning jag.  Whatever floats your boat, or more likely wipes your bore.

[Hawken]

I also like this installation I've got which doesn't require me to swap ends with the rod when I want to seat the PRB!!

[prairie dog]

Yes, My rod has brass tips on both ends.  I don't like the look of a patch jag hanging under the muzzle cap on such a pretty rifle as this one.  Nor do I like the rod sticking out longer than the muzzle.  No one offers a tip 2 inches in length, they are all an inch and a half long so I had to cowboy engineer something that worked. 
 
 Recreating the American longrifle Shumway talks about ramrods and says the old rifles had brass tips on the ramrods equal in length with the nose caps.  I don't know if that was true for the original rods supplied with the rifle.  I doubt that many original rifles had their original rods with them for long, as easily as the rods are broken and as often as they might need replacing.  But I agree that they do look better when the brass tip matches the length of the brass nose cap. 

Also I don't know the historical accuracy of tapered ram rods.  But most of mine are. I think having the smaller end inside the stock may allow the rod to fit deeper thus allowing for a rod longer than bore length which does not extend past the muzzle when stored in the thimbles.  I tapper them by scraping them down with a metal scraper fashioned from a worn out reciprocating saw blade held in the bench vise.  That gives me a rod with an end larger than what would fit through the thimbles and a better grip to pull it with. 

Again I don't know if any of that is correct for the time period but it looks right to my eye.

[RobD]

whilst it's nice to be hysterically correct with an all wood ramrod, i'll take the convenience of a rod with brass ferrules at both ends.  this allows one end to have a jag mounted and a 1/8" hole drilled through its ferrule in order to insert a 1/8" diameter piece of music wire or drill bit so to turn that end into a handle while the other end gets the ball retrieval screw worm.  y'all know what i'm tawking about, hah? 

[Uncle Russ]

whilst it's nice to be hysterically correct with an all wood ramrod, i'll take the convenience of a rod with brass ferrules at both ends.  this allows one end to have a jag mounted and a 1/8" hole drilled through its ferrule in order to insert a 1/8" diameter piece of music wire or drill bit so to turn that end into a handle while the other end gets the ball retrieval screw worm.  y'all know what i'm tawking about, hah? 

My thoughts perzactley.
PC / HC all it's place, and ya gotta love it. We study it, and we strive to emulate it.
However, a good healthy dose of old fashioned common sense can go a long way to.
My own Penn Longrifle has Brass Ferrules on both ends with a brass escutcheon pin through each ferrule.
I've had several come off, all at the worst times possible, and THAT has never made old man Russ a happy camper.

Russ...