building a ram rod

[garbear]

I am building a replacemnt ramrod for my 45 cal jukar. I broke the ramrod dad made for the rifle. I have sanded down a hardwood dowl and it fits my thimbles. The ram rod tips have been ordered from track of the wolf. I have sanded down to 320 grit and thought about using #0000 steel wool then use boiled BLO.

On to my questions. A member on anther board that has been leading me astray into getting another muzle loader told me to soak my ram rod in diesel for a week insteed of the BLO. He never did say why and I have not seen him on the other board in awhile.

Also the ram rod tips are iron for a 3/8 rod. the old ram rod had a pin in the tips. Can I just epoxy them on or should I pin the new tips?

Garbear

[Tatume]

Diesel has a very strong smell. If you're going to hunt with the gun you might want to use something else.

If you ever have to pull a stuck ball you'll be glad the pin is in there.

Take care, Tom

[mooman76]

I prefer to not even use a wooden rod. If it breaks again, and this has happened it can go through your hand. I prefer the more modern ones mad of a synthetic. I still keep a wooden one with the gun to keep it real but carry another one. Hickory is what they recommend and it needs to be a good straight grain or you risk breaking it again. Soaking it will make it flexible so it is less likely to break. I also prefer to pin and glue it. If you soak it the glue won't stick as good. I can't tell you if BLO or diesel would better than the other one.

[Dean D.]

If you don't pin the tips you'll wish you had at the worst possible time. Don't ask me how I know! I pin all my ramrod tips now. ;)

[waksupi]

Definitely pin the tip. If you don't have a hickory ramrod, get one. The hardware store dowels tend to break. I have soaked ramrods in diesel before, and also mineral spirits. I wasn't all that impressed with the results. The best I have found to treat them with, is bear oil. Lard or raccoon fat would be good substitutes, the coon being better. These oils will COMPLETELY soak through the wood. If your ball/patch combination is correct, breakage should be a very rare occurrence with a ramrod. I've seen lots of original rifles, with what looked like original ramrods. They survived because they just didn't load all that tight in the projectile combination.

[mooman76]

Dixie gunworks used to say use coal oil to soak ramrods in. I forget off hand what coal oils exactly is these days. I have a very old ML and it looks like it still has the original ramrod. If it isn't, it is still very old. I assume it is hickory but it seems very strong and at the same time limber enough to bend easy. Almost like a piece of baboo. I don't use it, not because I don't think it will hold up but because I think it is original and I'd hate for it to break being that old.

[jimwill48]

Dixie gunworks used to say use coal oil to soak ramrods in. I forget off hand what coal oils exactly is these days.

Kerosene

[Hanshi]

Yes, by all means pin the tip. Soaking? Well I don't really know if it does any good or not but neither does it hurt anything. Leave the soaked rods in the open air OUTSIDE a few days and they'll lose most of the smell. It also doesn't matter about the smell of whatever you use. Hey, if the deer can smell the rod then he can smell YOU.

[pietro]

I've been routinely soaking my wooden ramrods in kerosene, and have never seen a deer shy away due to any kero "smell" . Of course, I don't soak any just prior to hunting, either - I usually do it in the Spring.

For soaking, I use a 3' long piece of 3/4" PVC tubing, with one end capped (cemented) and the other cap uncemented, then filled with kero & leave the RR soaking in my backyard shed for at least 30days.

I started the practice in the 70's, and would NEVER use a hardware store dowel, as they will split out when bowed.


.

[fouronesix]

I've been soaking wood rods for a long time in either diesel or kerosene as pietro described. Just set the PVC tube upright in a corner for a month or two and put a piece of plastic on the end held by a rubber band.

I like steel, brass or good hickory rods. And yes, by all means pin the end fittings on wood rods. Small finish nails, cut to length then peened work well. Lightly counter sink the holes in the fitting and peen (dome shaped) into that recess- that way there is no sharp "catcher" on the surface of the rod.

[mooman76]

Kerosene

Thanks. That is what I thought but didn't want to say without being sure.

[oldracer]

Hummm, I might have missed something but when I shot my first muzzle loader 4 or 5 years ago, one of the San Diego area "old timers" said to never use the rod that came with the gun when just range shooting. He noted they are way to delicate and as I have found out when building my own last winter from scratch the wood for the rod was from the same piece of tiger maple as that very long stock. I would hate to get that messed up. I have considered splitting the ram rod, in letting the center and adding a steel threaded rod and then glue the two halves back together, but not so far. I have been using ones made for 50 cal muzzle loaders at the range, for matches and for at home cleaning. They are made a bit stronger I think.

For removing a stuck ball I bought one of the B.I.D. CO2 chargers after one of the shooters at a match several months ago showed me how GREAT it worked! I had tried pulling a ball with 3 of us and could not get it out and that little tool just went psssst and the ball, patch and no powder popped right out!

[Mooseman]

After I broke my ramrod, I bought a 36 inch x 3/8 brass rod at a welding store and cut it to length and turned it down to fit my thimbles. I drilled multiple holes thru it 3/8 inch back and formed a slot with a file, drilled and tapped the center of that end for brushes and swabs to thread in. I brazed the cupped brass end from my old ramrod on the other end , and it has been a blessing all these years. Faster loading and sliding the rod back in place.
It did add a few ounce more of weight but it seemed to lessen recoil a bit too.

Rich

[longbow]

Not sure if it is true but I was told long ago to soak a hickory ramrod on kerosene, as others have mentioned, then finish with boiled linseed oil after "drying" the dowel. The comment was that the kerosene soaks into the wood and makes the fibers "rubbery". Hickory has interlocking grain and is very tough to break anyway.

Don't know if it is true but it certainly couldn't hurt. I did it for my CVA Hawken kit 28 years ago and still use it with no problems so it didn't hurt anyway.

Another trick to get a traditional looking wood ramrod that is unbreakable is to rip rectangular slats a little bigger than 1/2 ramrod thickness and right width then carefully run them over a table saw blade or router bit to slot both pieces. lay about a 3/16" steel round (depending on caliber) in the slots and epoxy the halves together then dowel after the epoxy sets.

I bought a ramrod made that way at a shoot in Bend Oregon in the mid '70's. The fellow I bought it from did a very nice job of it and it worked well for me. He claimed that you could break the wood if you bent it far enough but there was enough steel rod to ram a ball so you would not be left without a ram rod... or half of one poking through your hand either. I used it for years without ever a problem. It went with a gun I sold.

Longbow

[Hang Fire]

I am building a replacemnt ramrod for my 45 cal jukar. I broke the ramrod dad made for the rifle. I have sanded down a hardwood dowl and it fits my thimbles. The ram rod tips have been ordered from track of the wolf. I have sanded down to 320 grit and thought about using #0000 steel wool then use boiled BLO.

On to my questions. A member on anther board that has been leading me astray into getting another muzle loader told me to soak my ram rod in diesel for a week insteed of the BLO. He never did say why and I have not seen him on the other board in awhile.

Also the ram rod tips are iron for a 3/8 rod. the old ram rod had a pin in the tips. Can I just epoxy them on or should I pin the new tips?

Garbear



Was that HWD one from Wally World? If so, it too won't last long. Did you taper the RR? That goes a long way for flex, the best RR's are made from straight grain hickory.

Test have been done which proved the diesel soak etc., does nothing for flexibility or strength.

Over the years I have found except for hunting, the RR should not be used for plinking etc. as such runs too much risk of breakage.

I make up a hickory range rod which is just under bore diameter for greatest strength and everyday usage.

[Hang Fire]

Originally Posted by mooman76
Dixie gunworks used to say use coal oil to soak ramrods in. I forget off hand what coal oils exactly is these days.

Kerosene

Coal oil was originally retorted from coal.

Kerosene was originally obtained by retorting Kerogen in Nova Scotia, then later from crude oil in fractionating/distillation towers.

There are estimated to be over three trillion barrels of oil in the Kerogen (oil shale) formations in tri-state corner of CO, WY and UT.


http://cnsnews.com/news/article/gao-recoverable-oil-colorado-utah-wyoming-about-equal-entire-world-s-proven-oil


"GAO: Recoverable Oil in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming 'About Equal to ...


cnsnews.com › News


May 11, 2012 – GAO: Recoverable Oil in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming 'About Equal to ...Wyoming come together, contains about as much recoverable oil as all ... that the Green River Formation contains about 3 trillion barrels of oil, ... “Being able to tap this vast amount of oil locked within this formation "

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=how+many+barrels+of+oil+are+locked+up+in+CO.+WY+ and+UT&oq=how+many+barrels+of+oil+are+locked+up+in+CO.+WY +and+UT&gs_l=hp.12...2131364.2176009.0.2180257.90.82.5.0.0 .7.454.17190.0j34j44j1j2.81.0.les%3Bcqn%2Cfixedpos %3Dfalse%2Cboost_normal%3D40%2Cboost_high%3D40%2Cc conf%3D1-2%2Cmin_length%3D2%2Crate_low%3D0-035%2Crate_high%3D0-035%2Csecond_pass%3Dfalse%2Cignore_bad_origquery%3 Dtrue..0.0...1c.1.u7f3zvsrAEs&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=9dac06e9a9126a6e&bpcl=35277026&biw=960&bih=460