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Posted: 6/4/2005 1:28:39 PM EDT
| Any comments or concerns on the use of the bore snake cleaners as apposed to the rod and brushes?? |
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I guess I should say hello, since this is my first post in here... Hello. The only problem I have with the bore snake is that it's not easy to clean. After a few passes down the bore, you are now rubbing copper and other fowling back into your bore and chamber, not to mention what else it might pick up. If you have a convenient way of getting it clean between uses, then it's convienient. In a field environment for an extended period, say, Baghdad or someplace nice, you would be putting a dirty snake in there. Also, it doesn't get the bore completely clean by itself. After using a snake, I can ALWAYS put a clean patch down it and come out with residue. For that reason, I don't think it's a replacement for a patch, although it is a pretty good subsitute for a brush. Put some copper solvent on it and run it a couple times down the bore, you will probably get all the fouling loosened up. The virtue of the bore snake is that you aren't doing any damage with a rod, in gets a tight fit, and you can only go one (the proper) direction. I mainly use an Otis cable cleaning kit now for my bore. It goes the right direction AND gets it clean. |
Yes I have a Bore Snake, I like it a lot I have also heard good things about this too. |
Wait, you wash your car??? Seriously though, I was raised on a 3 piece Hoppes kit, used an OTIS on my .308 as my standard kit, and now use snakes on everything. I recently broke down and bought a pistol rod for my chamber brush (try using that with an OTIS, I did), and plan to eventually get a good chamber guide and coated rod for the ARs. Chasing that last bit of copper or fouling is what winds up as muzzle / throat erosion from the OCDers out there going ballistic on their bores. Clean is clean, spotless is for the garage. |
Didn't work very well for me either. It didn't seem to have enough friction with the barrel. Has anyone tried using an oversized snake like a .270 or .30 in a .223? I was going to try it but didn't want to waste another $15 Edited for spelling |
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worked fine for me. you have to remember though this is for the "quick-clean" solution. not intended to replace the rod and brush. use it at the range all the time and have no complaints, cleans it good enough to keep going. i do like using my otis kit more though since its not as messy. only thing i didnt like about the snake was that you soaked the snake and it stayed that way leaving it wet to attract dirt and what not, with the otis kit you wet the patch and threw it away when done. |
| I've been pleased with my bore snakes. I wash them in the washing machine in a delicates bag then run it once more to rinse it. I would not wash them in a dishwasher as you are possibly spraying lead and chemicals around in there which you would not want on the family's dishes. |
| It works good for a quick cleaning but like everyone has said, if you put a dry patch down the barrel you will come up with some residue. I think this is more for people who are lazy and don't clean their weapons after shooting. In that respect is better than nothing but I clean my weapon after every use until there is no residue on it anywhere. At least as close as possible. |
I have a bore snake and I'm sold on them. I usually have anywhere between 200 and 500 rounds through my rifle in a range session and I put the bore snake through it about halfway through and when I get home and clean my rifle. I just use CLP and the bore is very shiny. I rarely need to put a brush through it, And thats wven when I used to shoot Wolf ammo.
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I see somebody getting a Bore Snake stuck in their barrel!!  Seriously! I wouldn’t even try it. Anyway, overall I think Bore Snakes are pretty worthless. Seems to me they basically just clean out the loose (and easily seen) residue from the last round fired, giving the impression they’ve actually cleaned the barrel. Once you’ve done that – esp. if you’ve put some oil or solvent in the barrel at the same time – the bore will look fairly shiny and clean when you look through it, but it won’t be. Granted, if you’ve got a barrel that could rust, a Bore Snake is a quick way of getting some oil into it. But that’s about it. |
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The only part of the snake that COULD come off would be the cotton stuff. The shoelace material runs through the entire snake. FWIW you don't need the bore to be ultra clean. I can still see all the lands and grooves. Each time you fire a shot, all that pressure and heat is going to keep the bore fairly unobstructed. It's like people with pipe cleaners cleaning the gas tube on a AR-15. I clean what I can but I'm not going to go crazy cleaning the whole tube since the pressure blows out whatever is in there. I just use the snake to wipe off powder residue and apply new oil. That's all I need. For copper and lead removal, I use patches soaked with CR-10. Copper removal is only needed after about 1000+ rd. |
+ 1, Thats what I do, I use the bore snake & CLP to clean after every session (I also clean the Bolt/Carrier/upper with a CLP & rags), Then every 1 to 1.5K rounds I give the bore a good heavy duty scrubbing. |
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