collapsible range rod: tent pole style. anyone ever make one of these?

[Whiterabbit]

So, ball puller notwithstanding, I've done a couple collapsible range rods from solid brass.

After seeing the 62 cal here, I thought "why not a tent pole?" Seems like a good idea. It would collapse fast, expand fast, store in a possibles bag, and do everything a range rod can do except pull a ball.

Anyone ever consider something like this? does thickwall brass tube exist?

[bubba.50]

unless you have an open breech gun where you can pass it completely through seems to me you'd have a wobbly mess tryin' to get it back out of the barrel without the joints lockin' some way. and if ya gotta do that ya might as well just screw a shotgun rod together.

my opinion & yer welcome to it. luck & have a good'en, bubba.

[Omnivore]

Yup, I'm with bubba on that one. It will not do everything a range rod will do except pulling a ball, because it wouldn't be good for swabbing. One of the many screw-together rods already available would be better. But then where do you carry it? You'd no longer be able to stow it on the gun unless it remained assembled, in which case there's no benefit. The M-16 buttstock patchbox contains the multi-piece cleaning rod rather than the standard under-barrel, one piece rod. I still don't see a benefit though. Seems like a design shortcut at a price.

[koehlerrk]

Yeppers, swabbing the bore was the first problem that came to my mind...

Patches go down... good luck bringing them back up.

An older gentleman at a rifle club, back when I was just a kid, had a brass sectional rod, but his was fitted with a bayonet type joint. Push the two sections together, quarter-turn, release, and they're locked. He did it because he had arthritis so screwing rods together was a real chore for him. But even he admitted he only used it while hunting. At the range he just used a good one-piece rod.

[pietro]

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My Grandson's H&R Handi Huntsman frontstuffer has a length-collapsible RR - it's twisted to loosen the locking feature, extended or collapsed, then twisted in the opposite direction to relock it.


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[Naphtali]

Years ago there was a collapsible rod by Shukra, a German or Austrian company. It neither collapsed nor telescoped in a conventional manner. Inside it was a heavy steel or synthetic fiber cable. Outside it was a vast series of semitelescoping tubes - that is, each tube was separate but slightly inserted into tube in front toward its handle. To render it rigid flexible tube-cable was straightened, then its handle was moved/forced from parallel to perpendicular to "rod." Exterior tubing was steel or stainless steel.

Apparently, it was not a popular item. I cannot identify it being made currently. I cannot find one used. And I have been searching for about six years. For my intended purpose, this cleaning/loading rod would be nearly ideal were it to be intended for up to 34-inch barrels.

Were you to be capable of creating such a flexible rod, I would want your second and third ones.

Hope this helps.