Shooting out a boresnake brush?

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lykoris

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I would like those with the knowledge of shooting blanks of whether this is feasible in terms of building pressure to dislodge a .30 cal boresnake brush which is confirmed to be halfway down the barrel of a .22 cal semi-auto.

I was thinking of starting with a primer and then gradually building up the grains, I want to know if pressure can be built to shoot it out?? :confused:
 
Oh you'll build pressure in it alright...maybe enough to put a nice little bulge in your barrel.

NEVER try to dislodge a blocked barrel by shooting ANYTHING down it. Even the low powder pressure of a blank can do real damage to a gun...and possibly the person holding it :(
 
I agree with "NEVER TRY TO SHOOT AN OBSTRUCTION OUT OF A BORE!". Good way to have to visit a gunsmith later you're lucky, hospital if only half lucky and funeral if not lucky at all!
 
lykoris said:
I would like those with the knowledge of shooting blanks of whether this is feasible in terms of building pressure to dislodge a .30 cal boresnake brush which is confirmed to be halfway down the barrel of a .22 cal semi-auto.

I was thinking of starting with a primer and then gradually building up the grains, I want to know if pressure can be built to shoot it out?? :confused:
Click to expand...
be sure and FILM it if ya Do....:uhoh:

we always need a WHAT NOT to Do Video to show peaple:what:

Seriously... NO dont do it... Take it to a Gunsmith to get it out... or try a wooden dowel slightly smaller than barrel size..
 
I would swear the brass weight on the string of a 30 wouldn't fit down a 22, I'll have to compare the two now. Good luck but NO WAY I'd fire anything in it. I'm thinking cut the string and use a wooden dowel & hammer to beat it out the way it went in
 
Not wood! Drive a wood dowel in there and it splits and wedges you might as well junk the barrel. You'd never get that mess out of a 22 barrel. :banghead:
 
JohnM said:
Not wood! Drive a wood dowel in there and it splits and wedges you might as well junk the barrel. You'd never get that mess out of a 22 barrel. :banghead:
Click to expand...
That could be true... that .30 brush is probobly Pretty wedged in there... Maybe a solid rod from Lowes or something... the cleaning rod will bend.. i know :)


either way Good luck and FILM it please

HAHAHAHA
 
Seems to me the brass guide should have stopped it as well, and if it didn't I'd write the Boresnake folks and tell them they should have thought about that. I got a patch lodged in the barrel of my 17HMR a few years back. I do almost all my cleaning with an Otis kit and found that I'm asking for trouble trying to pinch the standard size patches small enough to pass through the 17 bore. The brass eye pulled through the patch and there I was. I did like John suggested and bought a 5/32" brass rod and tapped it out. I was damn nervous because that little rifle shot incredible groups. After the whole ordeal she's still cloverleafing 17's at 100yds if the wind aint blowing hard. if it's a prize .22 mark the rod at the end of the bore and tap light then gradually tap harder. When you find it starts to go a little, keep at it at that level of force until you work it free. It's going to take awhile, how it got halfway is beyond me...I've never seen a tapered bore on a 22 :)

-BunnMan
 
i just looked

my 2 bore snakes.. .22/.223 and .38/.357/9mm have the same sized brass Guide

its obvious one snake is MUCH thicker... but could see how it COULD happen
 
How it got there - stupidity.

I bought a 4mm brass sleeve and used the bottom straight section of a coathanger burnt bright red with a propane torch from the muzzle to identify where the brush was lodged. This burnt a 2mm hole all the way through to the bronze brush of the boresnake.

I can confirm it is almost halfway down the barrel.

I am afraid of bowing the brush it I attempt to use a steel rod...as an extreme example it bends into an L while attempting to hammer it out with a rod.

I should perhaps take a photo and show the current set-up. I put this in the reloading section as I read a thread elsewhere of a gentleman who started with a blank case/primer and worked his way up in grains to dislodge a boresnake. This being option number 3 once I have tried option 1 & 2.
 
I would try a solid brass rod and lots of gun oil:

Go to your favorite ACE Hardware Store and buy a solid brass rod just small enough to slide easily into the barrel. Squirt a good deal of gun oil in the barrel first, the insert rod and hammer it out so that it comes out the end of the barrel you were pulling the bore snake from.

Also if that isn't working so good help it by corking the end of the bore and pouring Sweet's 7.62 Bore Cleaning Solvent down it. Give it time to dissolve some of the brass.
 
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To shoot it out clamp in a heavy duty vise.
Use about a 100 feet of strong string to pull the trigger.
Shelter behind at least a D8 sized dozer blade.
Clear the area.
Shout "fire in the hole" and give 3 blasts on an air horn.
After the dust settles, pick up what's left of your gun and go buy a new one.
 
How it got there

Given you guys will obsess over this I will tell you so we can put it aside and focus on constructive ideas.

My brother came over from the London to shoot. I use boresnakes to clean the barrel of the gunex 2000 oil I leave in the barrel as it is fast. I always use rod and patches to clean. It saves me disassembling a semi-auto to remove the oil with a rod.

I did my sako to show how it worked and asked if he would follow up on the sig 550 as this is the rifle he wanted to shoot. I left to finish other packing (my wife and child were leaving on holidays and I had to pack the car, a lot of commotion) and when I came back the snake had snapped.

As I said, I was stupid and not thinking clearly. I should have prepped the rifle but as he had been over and done this before I though nothing of it. The fault is 100% mine for not handing him the right snake and not supervising him. It is what it is.
 
Given it is a .308 boresnake in a .223 rifle I am concerned the rod will bow the snake brush....like an L, as an extreme example and create a larger obstruction.
 
I wonder if this is the basis to many of the stuck bore snake tales? I am careful to keep the ones that I have in their marked containers since there is no marking on them showing caliber.
 
I bought one to take to the range, give the bore a quick cleaning between strings.... didn't use it. Its lying under the reload bench, good place for it too !
 
"bow the snake brush" ? No way in hell. It's only .22" wide....the only direction its going to move is out. The center of the Snake is fabric and air....well no air in your case having been squeezed out. So fabric. Assuming the bore was started from the breech, the brass bristles are already pointed backward toward the breech if it's half-way already, so just push it from the breech.

Again assuming he started the snake from the chamber (breech), you will want to pour gun oil in from the muzzle. If you try Sweets you may have to pour it in from both ends, being that you probably have a pretty fair seal and it may not get clear through to soak all the bristles.

Obviously, if he pulled from the breech reverse the directions. Geeze, I hope you didn't try hammering it out against the bristles....that'll lock it up good.

X-Rap said:
I wonder if this is the basis to many of the stuck bore snake tales? I am careful to keep the ones that I have in their marked containers since there is no marking on them showing caliber.
Click to expand...

They are all caliber marked on the brass end that you drop in the breech.

As for the lazyman's tool. That's a matter of opinion. I find them very useful at the range. The only damage they cause is if they are miss-used.
 
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Somebody here, I think Jim K., has experience in pyrotechnic removal of barrel obstructions.
Hatcher's writeup on it is not encouraging.

"Given it is a .308 boresnake in a .223 rifle I am concerned the rod will bow the snake brush....like an L, as an extreme example and create a larger obstruction."

You will need multiple pieces of rod. Don't run a two foot rod half way down a 24" barrel and start whacking on it where the exposed rod can vibrate and bend.
Put a 13 inch rod down to the obstruction and drive it flush with the end of the barrel. Repeat with a 14 inch. Maybe you will then be able to use one with two inches of protrusion as the snake gets moving.
 
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