[emmie]

pick up a nice T/C Renagade 50cal over weekend. it has a home made ram rod i
in it that is about 2"long, past the barrel. will this hurt anything??? rod made of alum. and I can put in lathe to cut down.
cut or not

thank you for your time---------

emmie

[mykeal]

Won't hurt anything to be too long, cut it for cosmetic reasons.

[StrawHat]

I prefer the ram rod to stick out on my long guns.

I want to be able to get a good grasp of the rod when it is in the barrel or in the pipes.

2" doesn't seem long enough to me. On my hunting rifles the rod is about 4" longer than the barrel and on target rifles I don't even cut them.

[Steve499]

When you get a cleaning patch into the hard fouling at the very bottom of the barrel, you'll be thankful for a little extra length. I've noticed long rods on a lot of vintage rifles, purposefully left long for that very reason.

I just recently watched the movie Sergeant York, starring Cary Cooper. In the turkey shoot, the muzzle loading rifles all had long ram rods, most looked to be more than just a couple of inches past the muzzle. I understand that the real Sgt. York was a technical adviser when the movie was made, so I have to believe he had some personal input into seeing them set up that way.

Like Strawhat, I want my hunting rifles to have a longer rod. I use a range rod when shooting targets but if the only rod I have along is in the thimbles, I want it long.

[Harve Curry]

A long ram rod is proper. For cleaning and for loading. Also put a scratch around it flush with the muzzle to show where it should be when it is loaded.

[Macmac]

Well I dunno about alloy ram rads, Ok I guess, but wood can swell and when it does in the thimbles it sticks tight, hence the longer rods in wood.

I ain't sayin one more thing..