refinishing Renegade

[steviebiggun]

Hey, I purchased an old Renegade, nice dark grain. I stripped the old varnish off sanded it to remove light scratches. then applied Arrow wood finish. It turned out really nice. Made a new Ramrod to replace the old one. I ordered the ramrod ends an also ordered the Hickory dowel. went to Stain the ramrod dowel and it doesnt except the same stain as the Renegade stock does. I understand Hickory is a very hard wood and is hard to stain. I have done a little research and found, to get a deep Dark brown stain on hickory to use leather dye, I havent purchase any yet, just want to know if anyone out there has tried this or anything else that may make the ramrod dark brown like my Renagade stock.
Thanks, Steve

[bronko22000]

Steve, I'm not too sure about the leather stain working or not. Good chance that it will. However, if you are going to use this rifle for hunting, I strongly suggest you go with either a fiberglass or aluminum rod. The reasoning is that a hickory rod can break especially during loading in the field when you are in a hurry. This can result in a bullet partially seated or accidently jamming the broken rod into your hand. Neither one being a good thing. You can purchase a CVA universal fiberglass ramrod for about $10 which is threaded on one end to accept the common cleaning tools and comes with a brass guide. The other end you cut to the desired length.

[rafsob]

Hey Steve,try this site:

http://www.periodramrod.com/

They put a steel rodthrough the wood and give an almost indestructable construction to it. I am getting ready to order one for my Hawken Carbine. The woooden ramrod that came with the gunbroke and almost went through my hand. It did biteme and it wasn't fun being in the woods witha bloodyhand.