"I never used a bore snake. Seems to me you'd have to run it through the washing machine after each use. Otherwise, you'd be pulling all that crap back through the barrel each time you used it. For the price, I can go through a lot of patches."
I like bore snakes and usually use them for field cleaning if I'm firing motre than 200-300 rounds as an intermittent clean or use them after mild use at thr range. I usually shoot several handguns a few times rather than one handgun alot. The exception would be my carry gun which I shoot more than the other combined. The snake works well for cleaninjg after light range use and they're fast.
After I do three pistols with three different caliber snakes, I soak them in a tupperware container in the laundry sink for awhile and then just hand shake/wash them, wring 'em out and hang them to dry. This is all very simple and vey easy.
I use brushes, rods, patches, jags and all those toys, after every three or so shooting sessions.
Bore snakes are quite an invention, I can get a barrel that is not heavily fouled but still been well shot and return it to a mirror shine with a few simple passes in a matter of seconds, literally 45-60 seconds.
Always make sure you get a very light coat of oil after you finishing cleaning, the snakes remove this oil immediately after one pass when ready again to shoot, Hoppes packaging says something like "200 times the cleaning surface over a single patch."
Very good cleaning in one wipe.
