Is a bore snake enough to clean your gun all by itself?

Pistol, yes. Rifle, no.

I think it depends on the firearm. I use an Otis Ripcord for my pistols and just keep them lubed. Every once in a while i will breakdown for more thorough cleaning. For my AR15 i use the Ripcord and keep well lubed, but do use a bore brush and do a more thorough cleaning every 1k-2k rounds or so. I clean my hunting rifle/shotguns the old fashioned way with rods and patches. having a boresnake helps me maintain my firearms and clean them less than I otherwise would feel the need to

In my opinion, NO. They were issued in my former unit for our sniper rifles, but after using them if one ran a Dewey coated rod through the bore with a jag and a shooter's choice soaked patch- COPIOUS amounts of residue came out on the patches. We always told our sniper students to carry their bore snakes in the field for a quick once-over on their rifles if they thought they needed it, but otherwise not to use them for "real" cleaning. Never tried them on a pistol- too easy to clean with a normal pistol rod, but I have used them on MP-5's and I do use them on shotgun bores.

All I ever use is a bore snake and my guns shoot just fine with bright and shiny bores. I put a bit of oil/solvent on the snake before pulling it through. They may not get out every last little bit of residue, but I've found that it's really not necessary to get a barrel squeaky clean as long as it's got a light film of oil in there.

FWIW I rarely shoot more than a couple hundred rounds in a range session per firearm, so that may contribute to the easy cleanup I experience.

Mostly yes. But there are a couple of exceptions.

I use and loan them on army rifles, because the army is much more worried about how the rifle looks than how it actually functions. Running a boresnake twice through the bore will make it as shiny as anything the armorer will give you to clean it with. HOWEVER COMMA if it starts to wear or fray, throw it away. Your armorer does NOT want to use a mallet and rod to punch out a boresnake that broke in the middle of the bore.

Defensive pistols are not dependent on a microscopic degree of accuracy, so yes.

So, for years I saved the Hoppe's and one-piece rod for bolt rifles. I did the whole '100 round break-in thing'. But then I joined a club of long-range precision shooters, and most of them don't clean at all, or only if there is a noticeable drop-off in accuracy. The copper of the jackets is shearing off and filling tiny pores in the grooves. This burnishes the bore and evens out tiny imperfections in the bore. If you deep-clean it out, using solvent that dissolves the copper, you are starting that over every time. Most say it's better to leave it as-is. Regular deep-cleaning is mostly a philosophical holdover from the days (decades ago) when we used corrosive primers, and if you failed to clean a rifle for a day after shooting it, the bore would be pitted. That's really not necessary anymore.

They work great.

Use them through the season and scrub it with a brass brush.. Before you put it up.
Not a jag.
Jags are/were for black powder.

Modern rifles DO NOT need a jag. Just sayin'

For a precision rifle, no, but for anything else why not? It is a brush followed by a whole bunch of "patch" surface area. I think they are plenty for any general purpose and defensive type firearms. All I used on 2 deployments as well with my M9s and M4s.

How about a Boresnake, paper towel, old toothbrush and a bit of Remoil. That's all I use for handguns.

Not in my experience. It's a nice finishing touch and seems to clean out the final crap in a barrel, but I still want a brush on a cleaning rod and some patches.

If your only cleaning the bore it works good but that's all it for. To clean the gun you will need a little more. Get an AP brush (nylon brush) and a good rag. Add some good gun oil and you will have the basics to get you by.

I voted no because I do not clean my handguns often. When I do, I scrub them clean.

For just cleaning a barrel they might be fine as long as you don't have lead or copper fouling. Just cleaning the barrel doesn't do much for a semi-auto's reliability.

Certainly enough for cleaning the barrel of a handgun that sees only jacketed or plated ammo. You know what else is generally enough for cleaning such barrels? Pure neglect.

Obviously y'all have never played with black powder guns, have you!

J-Bar said:

Obviously y'all have never played with black powder guns, have you!

Click to expand...

I would think the handgun that "sees only jacketed or plated ammo" rarely runs on black powder!

Big7 said:

They work great.

Use them through the season and scrub it with a brass brush.. Before you put it up.
Not a jag.
Jags are/were for black powder.

Modern rifles DO NOT need a jag. Just sayin'

Click to expand...

What do you push your patches thru with?

To clean the bore pending a more thorough cleaning, Yes.
As the only cleaning method, No.

ColtPythonElite said:

What do you push your patches thru with?

Click to expand...

A nylon coated gleaning rod with a patch holder.
From the chamber to the muzzle if possible.
Don't want to push a bunch of "junk" down into your action.

That is not the same thing as a jag.

I jag is cylindrical and fits the bore really tight. The good ones are brass.
The cheap ones are plastic.
No patch involved with a jag.

The things I use are brass, have a point for holding a patch and labeled as a "jag" by the manufacturer.

IMO boresnakes are good for a quick clean. Like if I'm running or in a class and I'm going to shoot the firearm tomorrow or in a few days. Boresnakes work better on shotguns than rifled bores to my experience.

I like the Otis kits for rifles, and a simple short rod for handguns. I stopped using brushes years ago - it's really not neccessary unless you have leading - just let solvent do the work with patches and or mops. I see bore snakes as a quick field expedient. If you want to put a light thin coating of oil inside the bore after cleaning you need another means to do so to cover the entire bore, and remove any excess.

I don't feel the need to clean my .22 rimfire bores very often but when I do, I use a boresnake. Everything else gets the old rod, brush, patch and hoppes method.

Pretty much old school and set in my ways I still use a cleaning rod, bore brush, toothbrush, patches, Hoppes No. 9, and a light coating of RemOil to finish the job. And this goes for cleaning the whole gun not just the barrel.

Good for a quick clean after a couple of hundred rounds. The bore is not the only part of a weapon that needs to be clean and lubed to function properly.