Expedient sapling ramrod works

[rich pierce]

I saw a long straight cherry sapling about thumb size at the base and for fun made an expedient ramrod for my .69 fowler. Works a charm. I roughed it on the a jackknife then scrapers and rasps. A couple hours by the fire and it’s not too noodle-ey to work. Rough jag filed on the fat end works for cleaning. I figured this would be the quickest solution for a broken or lost ramrod. About 2 hours of work.

[Greg S Day]

I was hiking and I passed through a stand of striped maple.  There were 100 "would be" ramrods present.  I cut 2 down and they are stripped of bark and drying in my shop corner now.

I'm sure you could make a serviceable rod replacement in about 15 minutes if you really had to.

[Eric Kettenburg]

Man, I'd pass on the striped maple.  That stuff might as well be pine!  I'm sure it might work in a pinch if you were out hunting etc. but I'd stick with real hardwoods for something more long-term.  In my case I am absolutely loaded with hornbeam here and it works exceptionally well in the way Rich notes above.  Black birch also.