Replacement ramrod: Which is best?

[dino195]

I broke my ramrod on my muzzloader and I am looking for a replacement. All of the stores near me have sold out of them. I am looking at the T/C website and see they have two replacement rods that interest me. One is a polymer coated glass rod the other is a aluminum Rugged Rod. I am wanting to buy the most durrable of the two. I have only used the wooden rod that came with my T/C Renegade when I bought it back in the mid 80's and I'm not up on all the latest muzzleloaders and accessories. Any suggestions on which one to buy?

[cayugad]

Both of those rods mentioned are good quality ramrods. I use a Rugged Rod as my range rod and believe me it has been put through the ringer and is still going strong. The trouble with it is there is only one female end to attach the 10/32 attachments. I would like it a lot more if it had female ends on both. The problem with the polymer rods are some of them have some "give" to them. This might not sound serious but when you try to seat a hard loading projectile you will understand. Some of them you can actually bend in two without breaking them. They do normally work well for the traditional rifles.

There are a lot of good rods. Make sure the rod has female ends on both ends and that if it is an aluminum that any insert ends are pinned. This will allow you to put a T handle on one end for power pulling. There are also some solid brass ramrods and they are nice but do add a little more weight to your rifle.

[Pittsburghunter]

For hunting and wall hanging work I would buy a new matching wood rod for the rifle and then buy one of the aluminum or poly rods for range work.

T/C makes a collapsable aluminum rod that has 5 pieces so you can adjust it to the length you want and it is threaded on both ends.

[270sniper]

Cayugad, I'm also interested in a good range rod, I saw one at Cabelas, that I liked except for the T-handle. I think it was a Knight. What would you get. Joe

[lemoyne]

cayugadyou know what they say about getting it right.LOL
I put my rugged rod in the chuck of my drillpress turned the milling table side ways cranked it up to just below the chuck and adjusted it to clamp the rod where the chuck was holding it and drilled and tapped the other end its really not difficult. Lee

[dino195]

Thanks for the input guys. I am leaning more towards the aluminum Rugged Rod. Just wondering if there is any possibility of messing up the rifeling with the aluminum rod?

Pittsburghunter, I would like to buy another wood rod just for looks but haven't seen any around. T/C doesn't even have any on their website. Any idea where I could find one?

[cayugad]

lemoyme - that's a great idea. I don't have any taps but it would not be all that hard to get my hands on one.

dino195 - with any ramrod there is a risk of causing damage to the rifling. I suggest when you order the ramrod get a bore guide as well. They come made of brass and plastic. Both work good, but the brass will sooner or later put some wear on the muzzle.

I really do like the Thompson Center Rugged Rod. It has been a real workhorse for me.

[dino195]

Cayugad, I noticed that you and I have the same join date here on hunting.net. Just curious, did they give everyone who was a member before that the same join date? I mean is that the date they went to registration or something? I remember I used to be quite active here in the black powder forum in the late 90's/early2000's but got more interested in bowhunting. I mostly use a bow now but still like to get my old smokpole out every now and then.

[Pittsburghunter]

dino, just call T/C and get a new rod. They don't advertise all the stuff they have on the website. Then get a good range rod.

[skeeter 7MM]

I use a TC rugged range rod (32") for range and cleaning duties. In the thimbles of the ML for hunting I use XS power rod (now owned and marketed by TC).