size of ram rod

[yip]

 i'm building a 54 cal long rifle and want to have a clubed end on the r/r ,and wondering what size  ram rod,  1/2"?

[bob in the woods]

I make mine about 1/2 in , tapered down to about 5/16th or so, using nice straight split hickory or ash.

[Daryl]

Taylor has made a couple of tapered ram rods out of osage/bodark/hedge-apple - not only lovely but very strong as well.

[T*O*F]

I make mine about 1/2 in , tapered down to about 5/16th

S0, do you use diminishing sized pipes to match the taper of the rod?

[bob in the woods]

The measurements I gave are for my 42 in barrelled .54  The 5/16ths dimension is at the tip , so the rod is larger at the stock entry pipe. By the 2nd or middle pipe it's 3/8ths  The pipe closest to the muzzle is slightly larger than the rest, but not noticeably so.  The flare is most prominent at the 1/2 in end.   My .54 has an ash rod, and that rod is over 15 years old and has seen hard use.

[yip]

thanks guys, now to find a 1/2" straight r/r..........yip    any ideas?

[Keb]

Taylor has made a couple of tapered ram rods out of osage/bodark/hedge-apple - not only lovely but very strong as well.

I have a fowler I made a hedge apple (aka osage orange) ramrod for. It has turned the prettiest shade of dark red after about a year of use. Also it's turned black on the big or front end from fouling. I need to make more. It's heavy, maybe almost 2x as a hickory rod the same size but strong and flexible. That hedge apple is a great wood IMHO.
Never heard it called bodark before.

[Joe S]

The name “bodark” is a slurring of the French “bois d'arc,” meaning "bow wood”.

[Daryl]

Yes - and excellent bow wood it is, too. Even from fence posts that have been in the ground for 60 years.

[rudyc]

I likey Osage!!

[Clark Badgett]

I likey Osage!!

Lawdy where on earth do you ever find it that straight for that length?

[Daryl]

Heck of a workout splitting all that Osage! YIKES!

[rudyc]

Lots of yellow splinters under the fingernails that day.
3 of us split out about 60 staves and billets.
We found the wood in south-central Missouri.

[pushboater]

Quite a bit of Bois d'arc round Central Missouri where I live. Never thought of using it for ramrods. Probably because most of them I see around here are all bent and gnarled looking. If there's a 1' straight section on the whole tree it's hard to see!

David

[rudyc]

"Lawdy where on earth do you ever find it that straight for that length?"

The best place we've found for the straight Hedge is in the woods where it has to fight for sunlight.
The stuff you see out in the open is usually all twisty and nasty.

Down in a river bottom has always been the place for us.