Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing bore snake stuck

Great thread. You can bet I will be stress testing my shotgun's bore snake chord in the future before I use it.

Here is a reply from the manufacturer from the link:

October 19, 2006, 03:50 PM
Due to the increased use of Bore snakes, and reports of snakes breaking off in the bore, I contacted Michael's of Oregon about what they recommend as an extraction method.

Their answer:

I've heard numerous extraction methods, but the only thing that we
recommend is for the individual not to put any oils/solvent down the
barrel if the snake brakes. It will cause the snake to swell, thus
becoming harder to dislodge. We haven't found a recommended extraction
method yet.

Jeff Redding
Bushnell Performance Optics
1-800-423-3537 ext. 6193

How embarrassing it must be, I'll give them points for being forthright about it.

OK, so you've checked with the "Bore Snake" company,....they've told you that the obstruction is "100%" organic,.......pour a bit of syrup down the bore, drop in some Ants, plug their exit point,.........WAIT.

If, on the other hand, they say it's "Synthetic",......start pouring MEK into the obstruction,....., WAIT,...it WILL go away.

There's lotsa' ways to think your way outta this one, but if you want bulges .......
in a ruined barrel,....go with hammering hardwood dowells, that's a real winner.

GTC

Enough farting around,.......

Get a good piece of Soft brass or hard copper tubing,......with an OD of no more than .250. You may have to slim it a whisker to get a slip fit into the 6.5 bore. Order up an extra long aircraft drill ,.....I'm thinking .125" dia,....common, and CHEAP......you can get bits like this up to 18" long, if you can't, PM me I'll shoot you a Part# and source.

Use the tubing as a drill bush / guide, and work slow , patient, and dilligent.

Like an ANT.

GTC

I'll keep using them. In fact I'm pretty sure that if a person regularly inspects their Boresnake and uses the correct one for the given bore, they will most likely never experience a problem. That said, no matter how careful one is, stuff happens. If you're not comfortable using one, then by all means, don't.

Speaking of drills, possible alternative to a patch puller: Silver solder a well sub-caliber drill bit (shorten first) onto bore fitting drill rod. Use that to snag what's left of the fabric or cord (as in drill press accident ) from the muzzle end and pull out in the direction the snake was intended to go. Don't know if this would work, just spitballin'. If that doesn't work all I can think of is a proper barrel clearing drill bit.

If they pulled hard enough to break the rope, how big of a bore snake was used?

Seems to me, that if they made the thing 30" long you'd still have the trailing end of the bore snake out of the barrel if the cord broke. For Hoppes, the fix is simple. I have never used one; maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe high pressure air would work. Take it to a place that does truck tire work. They may also have a nozzle end that would match up with the muzzle or chamber end for a good tight fit.

I have used 4 or 5 and never had any problem with them.How hard do you have to try to get one stuck in the first place.Just wondering

This convinces me all the more that weedwhacker line and patches is the way to go for emergency bore clearing.

I once jammed a mismarked otis pull through in a 257 Roberts and after much fritzing about with dowels and cleaning rods ended up with a brass rod and a hammer. I got it out and ran a Brownells crown polisher over the little nick that may or may not of been there when I started. Volia! Shoots into an inch at 100. Give them a week or three and offer eighty.

I'll just stick to their use in shotguns, thank you..

I keep those things far away from any rifle bore and advise my customers to do the same..

Just my .02

I have one in .30 caliber. The first time I used it, the barrel was dry and dirty from one shot during deer season. (I got the deer).

I dropped it in from the chamber end and liked to have never pulled it through. I had to get someone to hold the rifle while I pulled. Luckily, it didn't break.

Next, I pushed a lightly oiled patch (Hoppes No. 9) on a cleaning rod and lightly lubed the bore, then tried the bore snake. It went through the barrel with hardly any effort.

From that experience, it seems that a proper caliber bore snake and a lightly lubed bore is the best way to avoid problems.

Regardless of whether you can get it out, you don't know how much damage has already been done to the bore. The previous owner sold it to a pawn shop for next to nothing because of the broken bore snake. He must have tried to remove it before getting rid of the rifle. Selling the rifle cheap must have been his last resort.

It was one of the fellows in the shop who broke the snake in it.

Like I said, if I put that thing in my oven, it would come out.....
Then I would run a brass covered Jag in it, just Like we do when we clean cast bullets..

Soak the bore snake with lighter fluid and then burn it out. Lighter fluid burns fairly cool so the bore will not be harmed.

Great idea, but I am thinking that would not work. If it did, you would see a lot of smokers with sever burns.... Ouch...
No oxygen.