I am a bit confused since I am not really familiar with the term "gun rod". Googling a bit gave me results of gun rod = fishing rod, a stun gun, the ermmm long metalic part of a shooting gun as far as I understood.
Actually irini, it is about that metal stick which was used in the old times (maybe XV or XVI-th centuries) for cleaning the pipe of the gun. Not "ermmm long metalic part of a shooting gun" (I believe)as you've explained it.
Is a Romanian word which is not used anymore, an archaism actually. This is one of the reasons I have not even tried to translate it. If you have a word for it, I would be grateful. It would be interesting to find the English word.