Lucky's Trekking Tips - Muzzle Blasts December 2025

The Wiping Stick: Recently I was going over my flintlocks cleaning and oiling them and saw something I have used for years, and thought it would be a good topic for my trekking tips. The wiping stick, or in the past may have also been called a “scouring stick”. This is a second “ramrod” that I carry in the woods that is longer than the one in the thimbles and is a bit sturdier.

When I am moving, and not preparing to shoot, it is in the hand carrying the gun. This may seem awkward, but you get used to it. The advantage is you have a ready-to-go cleaning rod and a spare ramrod. Many of us have broken a ramrod in the woods and the hunt is over, back to the house for the spare. Why not carry one? 

One end can be left empty, but mine has a brass, threaded tip with a patch jag and I keep a ball puller in my patch box. The other end has a “tow worm” on it, with either tow or pillow ticking in it all the time. If I need to swab the barrel after several shots it is ready to go. I use it in the woods as my full-time working ramrod with the one in the gun is kept as a spare.

I keep it well-oiled and flexible and is a half inch diameter. It has taken quite a bit of abuse and held on for over 15 years. In the pictures you can see that the pillow ticking is a little longer than you might expect. I keep it that way, as it is just more patching material that can easily be cut off with a knife or patch knife when loading in a hurry. In fact, to most people’s disbelief, when the pillow ticking gets too dirty to clean, guess what? I use it for patches when shooting. No sense wasting it.

I have seen paintings showing “scouring sticks” in guns and that is what led me to researching it years ago and carrying one. It just seems to make good common sense. The picture here is a scene from James Fenimore Cooper’s, The Prairie”, 1885 by James William Glass, Jr., that shows a scouring stick extending out of the barrel. This is the photo that started my investigation and use of one.

For those interested, I will be at the Washingtons Crossing, PA Rev War event as a member and First Sergeant of the 4th Light Dragoons, Continental, on Dec 6 and 7. I hope to see some of you there. 

Written by Gerry "Lucky" Messmer. Reprinted with permission from the author.

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