Does anybody sell a proper cleaning jag?

[Eric Krewson]

I took my new squirrel rifle over to a friend's house the other day, I couldn't hit very well with it.

My friend has won about everything through the years and now has his grandson setting new records at Friendship so he knows his stuff.

My friend used my flintlock .40, loaded it like he would in competition and shot a cloverleaf with the rifle at about 60 yards off the bench.

The interesting thing abut his procedure was his cleaning jag which he swabbed once with damp after every shot, you could drop it down the barrel to the breech plug with no resistance. He said he turned it down, flattened the front instead of having it concave, cut sharp grooves in the front like pieces of a pie and recut the side grooves.

He would dampen a fairly large cleaning patch with moose milk, drop it down the barrel with his range rod, put pressure on his rod while the rotated the patch and jag until he felt the patch bunch up, he then pulled the patch out which would now be bunched up, expanded and be a tight fit for the bore when he pulled it out.

With his method you never force fowling down on the breech face and clean the breech face as well as pull all of the fowling out when you remove the jag and range rod.

I have never seen an undersized cleaning jag with a flat face for sale. I tried to cut one of mine down on my redneck lathe (electric drill) but had trouble keeping it round.

Pretty sure the jag he used in the .40 was .34 in diameter, he said he altered it on his milling machine. He did give it to me when I left his place.

Anybody ever see a specialized cleaning jag like this for sale?

[OldMtnMan]

Sounds homemade to me. Good idea too.

I'm old school and use tow.

[Ky-Flinter]

Flintlocks LLC
6929 Beech Tree Rd, Nineveh, IN 46164
Phone: (317) 933-3441

This outfit makes and sells flat faced cleaning jags, also cupped ones, in about every size/caliber.  They are at Friendship for both national shoots, or give them a call, they mail-order too.  Family owned business, the Eider's, I think.  I tried to find a website for them, but no luck.

-Ron

[smylee grouch]

Why not just start with a smaller jag,m say a 36 for your 40 and cut the groves in the bottom ?

[David R. Pennington]

I usually fill the concave part in with solder and file it flat

[Dennis Glazener]

Just take a regular jag and put it in lathe or drill press and use a file to take it down to size you need. Take it out and try it, if it needs more taken off put back and take more off. I have a piece of Drill rod tapped for 8x32 and another for 10x32, I put the drill rod in the chuck and screw the jag in and out as needed.
Dennis

[snapper]

I use jags that are made for bp cartridge rifles.  They usually have a sharp needle like tip on them, I cut and file them flush.  In the end they have a flat face.

Fleener

[Nate McKenzie]

Why not use linen tow and a tow worm.  Its quicker, easier, and does a better job.

[WadePatton]

Why not use linen tow and a tow worm.  Its quicker, easier, and does a better job.

I wasn't going to say anything, but yes-my thoughts exactly.

We don't need no stinkin' jag-es!  

[Dennis Glazener]

Why not use linen tow and a tow worm.  Its quicker, easier, and does a better job.

Nate,
How close fitting should the worm be? Can you use like a 36 cal worm on say a 50 or 54 cal and get good results?
Dennis

[Don Steele]

I use the Black&Decker "Hillbilly lathe" method with along with a file. Don't get in a hurry, and it works real well.
It's been my experience that wiping between shots without using an "undersized" jag i in a flat faced breech rifle  is a recipe for disaster.
Last time I was at Tip Curtis's he had flat-faced jags in stock.

[OldMtnMan]

Why not use linen tow and a tow worm.  Its quicker, easier, and does a better job.

Nate,
How close fitting should the worm be? Can you use like a 36 cal worm on say a 50 or 54 cal and get good results?
Dennis

You can by wrapping more tow around it.

[Nate McKenzie]

Dennis- A closer fit would be better but you can adjust it quite a bit by adjusting the amount of tow.

[Frank]

Dennis- A closer fit would be better but you can adjust it quite a bit by adjusting the amount of tow.

Nate. Who makes good tow worms?

[OldMtnMan]

They have the inexpensive types that screw onto a blank wood ramrod, but that makes the rod useless for attaching anything else on that end.

So, I use this.

 http://cabincreek.net/revspecs/long-reversible-worm/


I like this tow.

http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?products_id=2685

[Dennis Glazener]

When I get back home I will show you one of the flat tow worms that Jim Webb made for my early iron mounted flint rifles. He said they were the most common used in his area of Southwest VA. They appear to be much easier to make. Basically flatten piece of round rod then heated red and twisted. It screws on and off like a regular jag.
Dennis

[P.W.Berkuta]

I'ts not just the jag being undersized but the increased depth of the anular grooves along with those grooves being angled back toward the ram rod (like a hook). This catches the patch on the way out and "bunches" it up to clean and pull out fowling. I make my jags like this but I also taper the jag from front to rear to allow for the patch to fold in on the jag when you push it down the bore. You got to experiment with the diameter of the jag to get it just right.

[Nate McKenzie]

Frank: 
http://www.bagmolds.com/UNZIPPED/htdocs/1.shtml

http://cabincreek.net/revspec/accouterments/

http://flaxforsale.com/html/the_store.html

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/List/Item.aspx/121/1

[Bob Roller]

I'ts not just the jag being undersized but the increased depth of the anular grooves along with those grooves being angled back toward the ram rod (like a hook). This catches the patch on the way out and "bunches" it up to clean and pull out fowling. I make my jags like this but I also taper the jag from front to rear to allow for the patch to fold in on the jag when you push it down the bore. You got to experiment with the diameter of the jag to get it just right.

This man has the right idea and the very few jags I have made were like this.
Not hard to do is also a redeeming feature.

Bob Roller

[JBJ]

P.W. and Eric - a couple of pics would be helpful. I have used the angled annular grooves for years but it never occurred to me to go for a loose fit in the bore. Old ideas often slow us down!
J.B.

[P.W.Berkuta]

P.W. and Eric - a couple of pics would be helpful. I have used the angled annular grooves for years but it never occurred to me to go for a loose fit in the bore. Old ideas often slow us down!
J.B.

Give me a bit of time and I'll do a pictorial of the process of making one . I'm busy at the moment with the holidays and end-of-year stuff.

[Daryl]

I get all my proper cleaning jags at Track, or the local Wholesale sports. I now use my lathe or before I had one, my poor man's lathe (electric drill in a bench vice) for modifying them so they do what I want them to do.

[Dennis Glazener]

Jim Webb made the jag below for my Augusta County VA flint rifle. He said many of the rifles made in the VA Appalachian mountains used this type of jag. The end of the jag is ground flat with an angle that cuts the crud off the breech face. Tow (shown with the jag) is wrapped around the jag and used to swab the bore with water. After finishing cleaning the tow was washed out with water and allowed to dry then re-used later.
Dennis

[bones92]

I have an idea for a jag that would go down the bore easy, and grip like a honey-badger as soon as you pull up on the ramrod.   But I don't think I have the tools to make it.

[JBJ]

Bones,
Do a sketch and one of us will take it from there.
J.B.