Duke : You are not listening.
Buy a SEPARATE " Range rod", a solid metal rod, made of steel, or brass, or aircraft Aluminum alloys. These generally now come with a muzzle protector, either of brass, or Delrin( Synthetic tougher than nylon). Some refer to these muzzle protectors as " bore guides", because when the protector is pushed into the crown of the muzzle, it does center the range rod as it moves in and out of the bore.
The ramrod that comes with any gun may, or may not be, okay. Some have grain Run-out which is where they break when too much pressure is put on them. You won't be breaking a range rod made of steel, brass, or aluminum. I have a couple of wooden ramrods that came with guns I bought. They both had run-out, and I replaced them with good ( ie. no run-out of the grain)Hickory ramrods as soon as I could acquired the wood. But, I also bought RANGE RODS to use in these guns. Leave the handy rod that fits in the gun for use in the field, where you are likely to do much less loading, and NO cleaning of the gun.
ALWAYS use a hand-over-hand technique when loading a wooden ramrod down the barrel, never putting your upper hand more than 8 inches from your lower hand. Use the lower hand, next to the muzzle to guide the ramrod STRAIGHT into the barrel, so that the wood does not touch, and scrape off on the crown of the barrel. That is what damages wooden ramrods, weakens them, and can lead to a break.
YES, your hands will get dirty. Take a towel or paper toweling with you to clean your hands, and clean off the ramrod after each use( before you put it back into the stock).
These rods get broken when someone decides they are Tarzan and can shove that PRB down the barrel in just one stroke, if they only can get that other end of the ramrod to hold onto. Sometimes this is simply a misapplication of something they see when re-enactors are using their steel ramrods in a Brown Bess, or Civil War Springfield to load a loose ball down the barrel, and think they can do the same with a wood ramrod and a tight, PRB. A huge, large muscle thrust bends the ramrod instead, breaking it. Because the shooter is NO longer in control of the motion, the broken end of the ramrod often ends up in his hand or forearm.
The hand-over-hand method insures that you are only using the fine muscles in your fingers and hand to move the rod. You can FEEL any crud that is building up in the barrel with this technique, where you won't using that GORILLA stroke. And, finally, you will be able to feel the PRB " crunch " on the powder charge when you seat the PRB on the powder.
Always mark your Ramrods to show you when your ball is on the powder, but you first have to find a load that shoots well in your gun for the ranges you intend to shoot. Put tape on the rods and marks on the tape as you work out the best powder charge for your gun. When you settle on the load, you can take off the tape, and then either mark the rod with ink, or score it lightly with a knife edge, or use colored thin tape rings to mark the rod to show " empty barrel", "powder only", and "Loaded ".
Best wishes. :thumbsup:
