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I'm sure it's happened to the best of us...what's the best way to correct a bent ramrod? I'm not sure if it's bent or warped, but it's rather difficult to get in and out of the stock.
Thanks!
Brian
Brian Shajari
Tolerance Lodge 1165 AF&AM, Texas
Co. L, 1st Texas Volunteer Infantry Regiment Lone Star Rifles
Hawaii American Civil War Roundtable Group
Proud descendent of: PVT William B. Wales, Louisiana Crescent Regiment
and Pvt. James Groves, Jr., Co. K, 6th Louisiana Cavalry
Depending upon just how bent it is:
If you have a weapon who's barrel bands are screw-retained, you can sometimes get the rammer to go down the pipe easier by slightly loosening the band screws.
Someone might be able to straighten it by heating it, if they know what they're doing, but it can also melt the solder joint if you have a two piece rammer, as some are.
It may just be cheaper to spend the approximately $35 (last I bought one, anyway) and get a new one.
Bent ones make great meat roasters/bread toasters (as do straight ones).
Bernard Biederman
30th OVI
Co. B
Member of Ewing's Foot Cavalry
Outpost III
Assuming it is not something like the wrong ramrod for the gun, or that the barel bands are screwed down too tightly...
Where is the bend?
Many ramrods being mild steel and pieced together at the swell end, often bend there due to stacking arms. (Some times to try to cold-bend them back will snap the weld joint.)
In any event, IMHO, I would check out your resources, and then weigh in the balance the cost of having one straightened versus the cost of replacing one with a new one, and then deciding which is the cheaper and less hassle of the two options.
(Plus there may be something to be gained. Italian repro Enfield ramrods tend to be oversized and too thick. One's Enfield would benefit from a smaller diameter ramrod more in keeping with the originals. But, swelled M1855/M1861 type ramrods have a reputation for bending even if one does not take away their mild steel temper by putting them in campfires to cook with.)
Curt
Curt Schmidt
In gleichem Schritt und Tritt, Curt Schmidt
-Hard and sharp as flint...secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.
-Haplogroup R1b M343 (Subclade R1b1a2 M269)
-Pointless Folksy Wisdom Mess, Oblio Lodge #1
-Vastly Ignorant
-Often incorrect, technically, historically, factually.
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