Picked up a Traditions Pursuit LT the other day for a great price. I absolutely hate the metal ramrod. What other ramrods will fit this and should I change to wood or synthetic? Thanks

Dixie Gun Works (and others) sells hickory and fiberglass blanks, plus fittings, that you can make up into any ramrod you need.

I have a Traditions Hawken that came with a fiberglass ramrod. I like it, it doesn't quite match the wood on the rifle, but I am feel like the fiberglass is a little less likely to break on me than wood. I am not sure if that is true, but it works for me.

Hickory is the best material if you can find one. I have a 54 cal range rod made out of Hickory that is about 30 years old now and still straight and stiff. Fiberglass os just not the same but it is better than metal.

Yes, hickory is best and it's the traditional choice of wood too I think.I read an article about ramrods somewhere but can't recall what the second rated wood was. I broke my ramrod off trying to dislodge a ball once and got a fancy unbreakable super rod from DGW but it's too flimsy i think. I bought another end piece later. I don't remember if the one it came with had wrong threads or if the rod had different threads on both end pieces but it is handy that way because all of my attachments fit on one end or the other now. I put some wear on the crown using a makeshift metal rod to pull the ball by the way.

Here's that article if it's allowed here. I've used a dowel rod selected from the hardware store and it worked fine. Evidently Black Locust might be best. It's interesting anyways. http://www.muzzleblasts.com/archives/vol2no1/mboj1.html

Decent hickory is getting harder and harder to find. Out of the last case of hickory RR blanks I purchased, at least 60% went for scrap and they ain't cheap either. Problem with hickory is that if the grain is open where it was turned, it'll split to a point and you can quickly see how that's a real bad thing if you're using it as a RR....I ran a piece glass through my right hand once and let me tell ya, I am not wanting to do the same thing with a RR!

I do not like the plastic/fiberglass RR's at all, not only are they ugly but they wear a muzzle much faster than anything else. If impregnation of dirt is a concern, avoid brass & aluminum too because both will become grinding sticks once the surface becomes embedded with dirt. For range and cleaning work, I make stainless steel rods from a high-chrome alloy so it resists surface loading and also from Hogwood that is a slow-growth tight-grain sub-tropical hardwood. Pro's & con's of hogwood are that it's rather plain looking but it has a much tigher grain structure than hickory so it resists surface loading much better and if it does break, normally it will do so almost perpendicular to it's length instead of to a needle-point like hickory does, it's also less prone to warping than hickory, working load deflection of the same diameter is about equal.

I will tell you what would make a awesome rod (if you could find or make one out of it), it is Osage Orange (hedge apple/monkey ball trees) That wood is about as tuff as it gets and is EXTREMELY rot resistant. Indians prized the wood for war clubs as it is dense and heavy, hard to break bending it and will flex too even though it is quite stiff. Many years ago when I was clearing some property I owned with a backhoe and dug out some tree and old fence poles that were buried. They had been buried best I can tell 10 to 15 years when I found them so tree were that old and fence poles far older. The wood was still in excellent shape and even old fence poles were still in good order. Burns nice too and made a bon fire that took a few days for coals to burn up completely too.

I wonder how Persimmon wood would rate. I used to make stakes from forked braches and the wood is very dense and won't split when hammered into frozen ground. Just another random thought.

Hickory is the best choice. It's the only thing the old timers used. If that doesn't suit you, try these.

http://www.periodramrod.com/

Iv'e got Osage Orange trees on my property. I never knew what they were before now. i thought Osage Orange was a citris fruit tree from Florida or something. I learn something every day I guess. Persimmon wood wouldn't make very good ramrods because it is prone to warping. I looked both up. The heartwood of a very old tree might make a good dark Jaeger gunstock tho.

Osage orange has a nice deep orangey/yellow color to it when cured. It is a VERY tuff wood and does not warp cured. You could leave a rod made out of that stuff in field/grass for a few years and pick it up and the wood will still be fine. Never tried to work with it though I have thought about it. If I cam find the right sized limbs that are straight too out back I might slice one up on a 12 inch table saw into some strips/blanks and let the cure and see how they workup.

Good ramrods have to be split out. Sawn strips will fail. I have a dozen split hickory ramrods in my closet. I've made a longbow out of bodoc/osage orange/hedge apple.

Good ramrods have to be split out. Sawn strips will fail. I have a dozen split hickory ramrods in my closet. I've made a longbow out of bodoc/osage orange/hedge apple.

I would think that as long as you sawed with the grain you would be okay. Good luck on splitting Osage Orange...

I split a piece 68 inches long to make my bow. Hickory is the wood for ramrods.

Red Mulberry, Locust, Ash, Osag Orange, Birch, Ebony, Oak, Elm, Maple, Bubinga
Shedula & Katalox all make good RR's and most, if not all, have been used on original guns. Hickory is great for RR's as are the others but it doesn't preclude the fact that Hickory, along with many other woods used for RR's, will split to a point when it fails. I don't care if it's saw-cut or split out, when it gives up, it's going to do so with a needle point.

I see what you mean. I was trying to beat the deer to the Morel mushrooms today an saw a Shagbark Hickory tree that had been pushed and broken by a bulldozer. That was a whole lot of very long sharp splinters!

I'm getting way off topic again but I found out that Persimmon wood is related to Ebony and is used for making cannon ramrods. The dark heartwood is also suitable for making rifle stocks.

You know even Ash might make a good RR. Ash has been used for bats as a testimonial to its strength.

Ash does make good RR's but it too will split to a point when broken. Pecan is also another choice with strength but also has the same failure consideration. Ebony, Bubinga, cocobolo and Katalox are all good too and don't have a tendency to split to a needle point, while they will fail and can fail producing a sharp point, it is not as common as with woods like Ash, Hickory, Maple & Oak. The major draw-back to these choices is cost, a large enough piece with the right grain to make a single RR will set you back at least $60 then you have to make it yourself or pay someone else to make it. The two main reasons I started using Hogwood are it's durability and because it's less prone to splitting to a needle-point if it fails. Cost-wise, there is no difference between them and Hickory per-blank - the cost difference comes in when you consider at least 50% scrap-rate of the Hickory instantly doubles the per-blank cost as opposed to a scrap-rate of less than a 15% with the Hogwood which means I can completely finish them out with a threaded brass/steel tip, run them through my sub-surface sealing process and sell the ready-to-use complete RR for $12 rather than $20 for a Hickory or Maple.