Ha, ha, ha, you shot the bugger down range - didn't you.

What are the unbreakable ones - plastic ?

Went through all that some years ago - and couldn't find any thing in NZ, so bought a swag from Track of the Wolf in the States.
Got some Hickory and those other sort of wood ones they have.
Trouble with their rods is they aren't split poles, so you get a lot with cross grain - and they'll shear quite easily under hard loading pressure.

So, got some pool cues and spun them down in my lathe and they worked okay, never had one of them break - and I don't even know what they are.

I've got an ebony rod here on my old shottie - and that's a really nice rod, but finding a 45" ebony dowel or cue is something I haven't managed.

Steel would be another option - got one on my slow twist Enfield and I've hammered that against a tree getting a tight ball down. Good rod if you don't mind the weight and the rattle in the 'keepers'.
You wouldn't want to shoot one of them.

I do remember seeing split hickory ones for sale in the States and I have a memory the same bloke was doing Osage Orange ones - but he had a backlog of orders - and they were expensive, so didn't bother.

I do have some Puriri and Akeake sticks drying out in the garage and in about ten years I'll write back and tell you how they went.

ok yeh got the rod stuck down the barrel while I was swabbing between shots ( had to be that last shot before I wandered home). Dribbled some 4f down the Nipple hole as have done a few times in the past but must have dribbled a little to much. Wasn`t so much a bit of a pop and rod comes out... more of a restrained Boom!!.
Was going to get a replacement from TOW but hell they have upped their postage prices.

Steel or alloy ones can wear the muzzle so they need a bore guide , Fiberglass fence poles will rip the rifling out  in a big way .
I got a number of rods from Track but was limited in the length they could send , they all have straight grain and no bends , I  put them in a piece of plastic drain pipe filled with artists grade linseed oil and natural turpentine and soaked them for months , they are just fine , Earl Wyatt sokes  his in creosote  and that works well but they do pong abit .

I know one riflesmith who makes rods out of selected hickory shovel handles , the rip saws them  into oversize square profile lengths then planes the square into an octagon then the octagon corners to 16 etc etc then spoke shaves, scrapes and sands the rod into a fairly close approximation of round ,then tapers them to fit .

How long would the rod need to be ? I may have an unloved unbreakable one in the garage

Flintlock wrote on Aug 24^th, 2018 at 9:56am:


Thanks Flintlock. Yeh knew to stay away from the fiberglass and steel. Barrel on the 58 cal is 31 1/2 inch. Cheers