A double ramrod for the range

[Gene Williams]

I broke my antique ramrod for my 1847 EM Reilly hammer gun. I was heart sick - I sent it out to Ben Simmons near the valley - west side of the blue ridge to be restored.



I was in a quandary on a ramrod to use in the interim. My barrels are more 13-14 bore having been honed...about .705." A Track-of-the-Wolf 12 bore ramrod would be too big; a 20 bore too small. I remembered what Stan, a friend from another site, said about using a handcrafted ramrod with an old doorknob. I dug up a couple of old hickory 1/2" dowel rods I'd been intending to use to fix a chair.....wife threw the chair out. Then found a 5/16" flange nut .625" across the flange in my parts box and an old door knob.... Screwed on the flange nuts, fitted the door knob and Voila a useable ramrod - stout too.



Then thinking about the ergonomics of loading a double barrel shotgun I thought I could shorten the process of shooting on the range - sporting clays - if I could ram both barrels at once, I concocted this jury-rigged double ramrod and tried it out. It worked, but not easily. I won't make my fortune with it



I finally discovered Track-of-the-Wolf made a 13 bore ramrod 675" in diameter on the face that would fit the Reilly and ordered it. Quite nice. And Ben got the old one back to me repaired. It will stay in the house. Still Stan's idea of an old door knob is neat and I'll keep the one I made as back-up. (from top to bottom
- Original,
- ToW rod,
- Home-made Stan rod.



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[Rifleman1776]

Thought my eyes had gone bad looking at that double roddy thingy.
Not practical, IMHO. But ideas and trial are necessary for evolution. Good on you for trying to solve a problem yerself.

 

[Gene Williams]

In addition, I was playing with the best way to grab wads on the sporting clay range.....I thought about old coin dispensers:


I experimented with dime and penny dispensers....had a couple in the house and they work well for shot cards....that's the way I'm dispensing my short cards now on the range...the plastic on broke...but the little metal one will hold 10 shot cards:


I'm thinking of asking some firm to make a prototype to dispense 3/8" cushion wads and 1/8" wad. In the meantime, here's the set up....5 double barrel reloads powder and shot in a very small pouch found on the internet. And M&M mini's dispenser tubes for the two larger wads. (I'm going to try to modify one of those tubes myself to create a coin-type dispenser...it might work)(I've since wrapped camouflage tape around the tubes so their aren't so gaudy). I'm just trying to figure out how I can keep up with my SxS center-break gun buddies using the M-L.

 

[Many Klatch]

I used a shot card dispenser made out of a Brass shotgun shell. A friend made up a few. You will need the next larger shell. If you are shooting a 20 Ga you will need a 16 Ga. Then a spring, a follower and a soldered on lip will complete the thing. Punch out the primer and you have a place to attach a lanyard.

 

[Gene Williams]

I ran across an old pound coin dispenser made out of a shogun shell hull.


But that is really imaginative. If I can make them dispense 1/8" wads or 3/8" cushions wads, I''d think there would be a market for them. I'm going to try first to modify my M&M containers for the wads...then will think about the shotgun hull. Thanks.