Bore-Snakes

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LJ-MosinFreak-Buck

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Who would've thought they'd work? I didn't. Not until I picked one up at Walmart, along with three cans of CLP, a bottle of Hoppe's No. 9, and 500 rounds of .22 lr. ~50 bucks.

Got home and ran the .30 caliber bore-snake through my Mosin Nagant M44 and my K-31, and let me tell you, it got gunk out that my patches wouldn't. I'm going to go back and get one for .22 cal, and 12 and 20 gauge.

I'm glad I did it. Those things really only need to be ran through once and you're clean, but I did it three times.
 
They work on Mosins?! O_______O I'm gonna pick one up even though my bore is in very good condition lol. Maybe I can make it even brighter :3


And nice signature
 
Better then sliced Bread.

Hey There ;
That was one good invention.
BUT !!!! There is always a BUT... I use these. I had one that the rope broke off 1/2 way thru my .270 barrel.. WOW .. Guess what.. That is is real treat to get out.
I had to heat a coat hanger to red hot and keep poking it thru till it wore a hole in the thing , so I coulld reverse pull it out. Only happened once. But , I now pay close attention to that.
 
whats your boresnake routine?

I LOVE the boresnake! They are great but unfortunately I only have one in 22 that I use on my .223 and 22lr. I need to get more. Also, I am really glad that I read this thread because I wasn’t aware they would break like that. It just never crossed my mind. I could imagine that it would be a real mess to get one of those out. So how much ware did you have on yours, and how long have you had it before it wore out like that?? I sure as heck would like to avoid that.

Another thing… What is your boresnake routine? What cleaners and oils do you use with it? I would like to hear if you guys got any tricks that work well.
I just use oil because I never shoot more than 100 or so rounds before cleaning it out. I don’t mean a full cleaning, just the bore, barrel, and cleaning the bolt off. My brother and I are cleaning fiends. He even cleans his guns without them needing it. I do that occasionally but not like him.
Anyway, this is a good simple thread.
 
Cleaning

Hey There:
I always clean the bore first the old way. Then to dry it out I use the snake.
And at the range in between shoots I use it. The one that broke was new.

I never dreamed that would happen. Now I pull on them real good from new to make sure . It was almost all the way. Then let go. Not enough left to pull it out back wards. Crap, that took a while.

I do not get mine wet. But I see no harm in doing that. They work very well on .22s, shot guns too.
They leave a very brite bore. That stuck snake made me very uneasy. that Barrel is a custom treated barrel and on a Mountin light weight. Putting that HOT ROD down the bore was not an easy decission. But it turned out OK.

I had to heat and reheat often to get it out. I do not worry about getting the bore like new clean. they don't always shoot that well that clean.
 
I had heard they were good for storage. Just soak it in a good preservative oil and leave it in the bore. Now that I know they're good for cleaning, I'll have to get a few. Should only need a .30 and a .22 for my collection.
Also, how do they compare to bore mops? I have a bore mop in every caliber I shoot, rifle and handgun alike. I love them.
 
Got one for every caliber, two in .45 --one for smokeless guns, other for BP .44 replica.

I almost always bring one along (with a borelight) when I'm looking over a gun purchase --even dry they work good to de-crust a prospective bore for examination.

I wash in bucket with soap, rinse very, very thoroughly, hang out to dry.

Laundry day at 230RN's:
 

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Compared to mops.

Hey :
These have wires in them. Mops do not. No way will I leave one in the bore.
Not after My ordeal.
I also learned once ya start to pull, don't stop... That is when they can hang up.
I also try'd to pound the thing out with a wood dowel. NOT... I just got tighter. Look at how they are made and you will see what I mean. The more I pounded the tighter it got. I had to melt it out.

I like the idea of cleaning the bore snake. I have been just buying new ones.
 
Ticklish situation, that. And you say that was a new boresnake? Ingenious, if drastic, way to solve the problem, melting it out with a hot rod.

Yeah, once you've started a metal brush in one way,you can't back up. The bristles tend to "expand" and stick in the wall of the tube when they're pulled backwards.

Only way to get a bore brush out is to twist it so the bristles fold to one side, so to speak. This can work with a brush on a rod, but not with a boresnake.

Found all this out once when I got a brush stuck in a chamber. Now when I'm cleaning a chamber, I make sure I'm only twisting it clockwise, to keep the threads between the brush and the rod tight.

Hope that makes sense.
 
I dripped some Hoppes 9 first, ran it through twice, then mixed CLP in with the Hoppes 9 (dripped some on bore snake, then sprayed over with CLP) and dragged it back through one more time.

CLEANED THE SNAKE,

Then did the same on the mosin. I didn't know my mosin could be that clean! lol. I do notice deeper rifling, lol. I will never use patches again.


CLEANING ROUTINE:

-Mosin:
-Dump an old film canister of ammonia down the barrel as soon as I'm done shooting.
-Get home, (old way was with 30 or so patches) three-four passes of the bore snake, two with
Hoppes 9, One with CLP, then with regular gun oil to lube.

-K-31:
-Get home, (same as mosin before) three-four passes of the bore snake, two with
Hoppes 9, One with CLP, then with regular gun oil to lube

Then I clean them once a month even without shooting. I've got a .22 and a 20 gauge that I clean the conventional method, that is, until I get them boresnakes too, lol.
 
Buying bore snakes for all firearms was the best tip I ever got when starting my interest in firearms! :D
 
I first ran across a bore snake in Iraq. This is after 11 years in Army & NG. I was skeptical. I had used patches for 11 years, right? Well Iraq challenged a lot of the "same old say thinking" so I tried it.

Amazing. Better results. Faster cleaning. I just put few drops of CLP and run it through barrel couple of times to clean dust out of the barrel (even with dust caps, and ejection port closed dust finds its way inside).

I got supply to order us 2 for every soldier w/ M4 in the platoon. I bought a personal one for my M9 (9mm) also.

I now have a couple at home. I am sold. I can't believe I didn't figure this out a decade ago. :)
 
Boresnakes are the way. Whoever invented those should be sitting on a beach sipping umbrella drinks and not worrying about finances ever again. Greatest gun cleaning innovation ever, IMO.
 
wildfire said:
I had one that the rope broke off 1/2 way thru my .270 barrel.. WOW .. Guess what.. That is is real treat to get out.
Click to expand...

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to break a bore snake. I broke one in the 26" barrel of my Savage .22-250. I took it back to the bi box store for an exchange which was allowed, but they looked at me like I was an idiot. I guess noone had broken a bore snake there before.
 
I just have one in .22 but I love it and will be ordering more. I dunk the head of the snake in Hoppes #9 and pull it through a couple times. It works great on guns that aren't easily cleaned from the breech like the 10/22 and they work faster than rods without worrying about scraping the bore or crown.
It seems tighter and requires harder pulling in the AR-15 and the first time I used it I remember thinking "if this little pull string breaks it's going to really suck getting it out", but luckily that hasn't happened yet.
Are they worth it in pistols? Seems really easy to send brushes and patches through the barrel on Glocks and 1911s but the boresnake is so quick and easy in rifles I probably ought to try one in 9mm and .45.
 
Bore snakes are awesome. One or two passes gets the bore bright and shiny every time. What used to take me 10 minutes now takes me about one. Spray some CLP down the barrel from the breech, then follow up with the snake, done.

Now if only they could market a similar device that makes cleaning the rest of the gun that easy... :D
 
they honestly don't work too well for me. I shot my XR-100 around 15 times one range trip. I get home, put some Rem Oil on the boresnake, pull it through. I was going to test how well they actually got the bore clean. So I go to do the normal way of cleaning with a bore brush. It turns out there's a lot that the bore snake missed.
 
Have had mine for 5 or 6 years

One for every caliber and gauge. I spray or wipe on bore cleaner with a cleaning patch and let set for a bit, repeat and start pulling. 10 times for a first time and maybe if I hadn't done it in awhile, otherwise I pull 3, run a clean dry patch through and repeat the snake till I get a clean patch. Haven't had to buy a replacement yet and I hang them on my pegboard in their original wrap so they don't pick up sawdust and dirt between uses. Some people don't like them because they say it wears out the bore to fast but my 10/22, 308 and 32 Win Spcl all shoot better now than they did 5 years ago. Only gun I don't have a snake for is the .17 cal.
 
Love em. Have one for 9mm/.38, .22, .223, .45 and 12 gauge.

On a side note, all but the 12 gauge fits into a CCI minimag box. Just pop the tray out. It makes it a little easier for me to keep them from getting tangled in the toolbox or rangebag.

If you dont have an empty minimag box, I just gave you a reason to get a little rangetime:D
 
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