Any opinions on cleaning rods & the materials they are made of. In all the reading I have done along with the videos I see a difference of opinions. I have cleaned many guns in a few decades of shooting without problems. I have several kinds but I need to rework what I have. Wood ram rods in muzzle loaders (ML) are said to collect grit & wear away the rifling. The same is said about aluminum for rifles. Yet aluminum is commonly used for “range rods” for MLs.
Fiberglass ram rods are said to be the same as wood & other ‘experts” swear they are safe. I have used these as well as brass. I use a muzzle guard with all these without a problem other than breaking wood rods.
I like the weight & ‘feel ‘ of the brass ram rods & plan to make brass rods that will stay with my MLs as well as a set for shop use. In modern cleaning rods it is said that aluminum is “too soft” & brass OK. yet is seems that the brass can leave a bit of copper in the bore making it appear there is still copper fouling in the bore. I have read that steel rods can cause similar “smudges” but I don’t seem to have that trouble.
Expensive steel rods with a plastic coating claims to be safe for the rifling but it seems to me that if the plastic is soft then it can also pick up grit & harm the bore. Stainless seems a good idea as do the baked on coating. I am leaning toward stainless.
Certainly one piece rods are stiffer & preferred. Bore guides are another must have & I use them. I MADE one for my M1A muzzle brake from spent 357 cases. Drill out a hole in the base for the cleaning rod. The spent case rod guide fits inside the muzzle brake. I keep one with the cleaning kit in the butt stock. I am also considering making some of these one piece rods as soon as I have a lathe here. It seems to me these would be good projects on the lath for me.
I haven’t seen a supplier of the rotating straight handles.
Any suggestions out there?
Well like everything else there are a lot of opinions. Many are based on speculation rather than actual work and results. I use a wooden ramrod for my flintlock. A brass one is great for tighter loads, and I have a friend who uses one in his muzzle loader. I think if you care for your front stuffer you should not have any problems. It may be that we aren’t running as many rounds a day thru our “antiquee” guns but most that I have built and inspected over the years and others I have inspected don’t have any excessive wear.
As far as center fire rifles, we use the Dewey coated rods. I suppose dirt could imbed in the coating and scratch the bore but we use a guide and carefully push the rods thru with even pressure. I think it is more important to just be careful with what you do have and not run jags and brushes into the sides of the bore. The one piece stainless rods are fine as well.
I have seen rifles that have the very common cleaning process done where the bore is cleaned with patches and a jag and a brass brush FROM THE MUZZLE that show little or no undo wear and shoot great. Remember most shooters are not target shooters, they are hunters and plinkers so if they try to keep the gun in some kind of condition at least they are trying. They won’t do it as well as a Bench rest shooter would. Personally I think that the bore should be maintained as well as can be but some people are over cautious, and look down their nose at those that don’t do it like the “pro’s”.
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This is pretty much the conclusion I had come to but it is very helpful to verify things with you.
I plan to buy several rods shortly & didn’t want to make a mistake that would be costly.
