Beware the boresnake

sigsauer226

sigsauer226

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Bought a viper boresnake for 5.56/.223. Read about some horror stories of people getting them stuck so I though I better break it in on an old .22 rimfire. I have boresnakes for every calibre I have and never had an issue before. This new one however has a much thinner cord than my old .22 boresnake that have had for years. The viper also has a lubrication tail that made it rather tight. Well the sucker broke off leaving about an inch of snake out of the muzzle. Took a lot of pulling with vicegrips to finally pull it through. I would not recommend this product in this calibre..
 
yeah i havnt had much luck with them either, the best one i owned was one i made for my shot gun with a shoe lace and a old t-shirt lol. i stick to cleaning rods myself. thier are some good .308 snakes out there though!
 
How leaded was the barrel?

I have seen some old .22's with some pretty bad fouling, and had a hell of a time getting them clean.

Never had an issue with my older Bore Snake in .22lr, but it wasn't one of the new Viper ones.
 
I just related your story to my son as I bought him a regular one in .22 the other day. Told me he was pulling it thru when he noticed a factory defect in the cord. It appears it has been melted by a flame or something at the factory.

Said he was pulling it thru his M4 and noticed it had the defect. I know the Viper he has for his .270 seems to work OK but will be sure not to get a replacement in .22 if it is a Viper.

Thanks for your warning.
 
My .223 boresnake has been fine (although maybe they have changed them in the last few years)

I bought a .17hmr boresnake tho and had the same breaking problem, on the first time using it! (got a refund) - seems the smaller the bore diamater the more likly they are to snap.
 
The Viper is the new model with "50% more scouring power", which (even with the same size pull-cord as the original) would increase the chance of breaking the pull-cord.

I was looking at 12ga ones the other week, and the original "Bore Snake" was definitely more beefy looking than the "Viper".
 
Thank you for the headup. I've had a bore snake for AR a couple years, but never had a chance to use it, just for emergency case only. Now, I'll be very cautious when using it.
 
I've had good luck with the 22 cal version in 1)CZ bolt action 22LR 2) Ruger 10/22 3) Ruger M70MkII 223 4) AR-15 223 5) 22 cal pistols

Can't say I had a good experience with the 17 cal boresnake from hoppes. Too tight. Couldn't pull it through by hand, had to wrap it around a dowel. Also experienced a snapped pull cable which is thin like dental floss (thus the problem pulling it by hand).

I'm still using my 22 cal and 30 cal versions.
 
I think the trick to cheap boresnakes is to never give the cord a quick tug. If you gradually increase the strength of your pull you don't artificially multiply the force the cord has to survive.

Quigs
 
Before people start throwing out their boresnakes for fear of getting them stuck. Please remember that a boresnake is probably the best method of cleaning a barrel if you care about the throat area of the barrel or at the very least preventing scratches and gouges inside the main part of the barrel. Your only other option is using plastic or (less ideally) solid soft metal cleaning rods with a guide, and I suspect they can get stuck just the same.
 
I've used both types and prefer the regular over the viper, much easier to pull, and no noticeable difference in cleaning effectiveness. The original works just fine. And yes, gradual pulling works best. I haven't broken one yet and will curse the day it happens, but I'll most likely keep buying more (my wife would say it's because I'm stubborn).
 
I found a high speed case for your Bore Snakes.











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Can you guess what I think of Bore Snakes?
 
Actualy I recently had my own .223 bondogal with a bore snake.
It was the second gun smith that managed to remove it... with fire...the first one was unable to push it out with a 7 ton press. So far my $20 hopes snake has cost me over $400 in gun smithing and shipping charges. My gun reently went back to the gunsmith (another $96 in shipping) to have the front site realienged as the barrel need a hair extra torque to get it vertical so it can be sighted... I geuss Im over $500 if you include the ammo I wasted to find out its beyond the forward and rear maximuim adjustment.

Hopees won't answer my emails, and since it was a brand new snake that jammed when beeing used as per instructions; I feel that I should be compinsated for this catastrophy. It wasn't even the string that broke off.... it was the green cleaning part that snapped.
 
captainamazing said:
I have had two of them for years (.223/308) and never had a problem. Maybe the newer ones are crap. I think they are great unless you jam too much patch in the loop at the bottom. Then you can get them stuck, but that goes for any barrel cleaning.
Click to expand...

my old ones worked great never an issue either, worn out 2 using them on my issued C7, C9's, and my own SA PE90

This new one blew my mind... it got stuck after the loop end had cleared the chamber and was fully into the bore. . Normaly if the get stuck its when the loop is entering the bore giving you a few inches left sticking out in the receiver (and a loop to hook into ) to pull it back out.
 
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