Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing bore snake stuck

A local pawn and gun has a Carl Gustaf 6.55 in a with a bore snake broke off in the barrel. How would you get it out?

I ask because I can grab it for 150.00 and wonder if there is a easy fix.

pull rope came off the snake , so the whole snake is in there.

about 3" from the chamber and 6" (pounded in with a dowel) from the muzzle.

New barrel time..


That's exactly why I caution customers to use those things on shotguns, not rifles...

You can go to Home Depot, buy bags of hardwood dowels, cut to lengths of about 1 inch. Buy the dowels that are slightly smaller in diameter than the actual bore size, and drive dowels one by one, down the bore from the muzzle.

Use a rubber mallet, and just add dowels as needed until bore snake drops out of the bbl. I find it much easier to have my son steady the weapon until the dowels drop through.

The hardwood dowels are short & hard enough that they won't break/snap off while driving into bbl.

This is a safe method that won't mar the bbl, and is used to slug bbls with lead plugs.

Good luck,

Richard

I once saw my dad straighten and heat a coat hanger to burn a pull through cleaner out of a Savage 99 barrel. He took his time, heated it quite a few times never leaving it in the bore very long. Finally burned through enough for the pull through to be driven out and it didn't seem to damage the bore. It was in the 50s so it could have been a brazing rod, I can't remember for sure.

Good luck is right... I hope we find out if that worked or not.. It sure didn't with the Marlin I had last fall - and the factory gave up on it also so he got a nice, expensive new barrel...

Ill pass on the suggestion of the short hard wood dowels. I dont think Ill tie myself into this one.

If the price was $50, I'd go for it,but if it is a sportorized M96 or 38, it isn't worth it.I have seen them, even, lately for $250.
I like the heating up a rod idea.Might work. Can't see hammering on dowel and packing it tighter will do much good.

I worked in a gunshop for a little time. and a guy brought in a rifle with a oversized bullet stuck in it. the owner broke off a wooden dowl trying to get it out and it only got tighter, the smith took a steel rod that fit tight in the barrel and drove it out with a 5 lb hammer , it was ok. do not put wood in it.

Classic solution (close fitting polished steel rod) but the fabric part maybe would wedge tighter, don't know. My first thought would be to make up something like an old corkscrew-type patch puller and see what I could snag. Pretty small bore though.

Heat the barrel? push out the gue,, clean clean clean......

Having removed more than my share of bore obstructions, I seriously doubt this will do anything other than compound the problem. You are assuming the jammed boresnake is able to move. The problem is, by the time someone seeks the services of a professional, it is usually screwed up beyond repair, or, damn close to it.

If this problem made it's way to my shop, I would probably look to see what the fabric was made of and then search for something that might dissolve the fabric enough, without attacking the bore, to perhaps free the obstruction. For instance, I know acetone can attack some man made materials given time. I might start there. I might also consider flooding the bore from both ends with a good penetrating lubricant like Kroil and let it sit. Whatever I did, I would consider alternate plan B's potential affect on alternate plan C, and so on before doing anything.

Sometimes applying heat to the barrel can cause the bore to expand enough to allow the obstruction to move, though probably not in this case. One things for sure, if I was going to apply force, it would be in the direction the object was headed when it became stuck. Attempting to reverse direction usually only serves to further cement the object in place.

On the real tough obstructions, where some clown hasn't tried beating the hell out of it with cleaning rods and jamming fishing poles (Another story) in the bore in an attempt to fix their problem, I have machined hardened guides to slip down the bore that would allow me to drill the center of the obstruction thereby releasing pressure on the sides and freeing the object.

In the end you may have no choice but to give it up and scrap the barrel, but there are things you can try so long as you consider one's impact on the next.

FWIW, having removed many feet of broken and jammed dowels, pieces of dowel and other foreign objects from the bores of rifles, I would put that idea down and slowly back away from it. For now anyway.

I like the cork screw idea. I think that's how they get stuck balls out of muzzle loaders. kwg

The heated coat hanger will work, but a straight steel rod about 1/8 to 3/16 inches in diameter would be better.

Heat it red hot at the tip and stick it into the barrel. You will have to do this several times, but it will work.

Even red hot, the steel rod will not hold it's heat long enough to harm the barrel.

The only problem that I can see is that the bore snake might be made out of some material that is fire resistant.

Put the bolt in it, chamber a round, then shoot it. "I just kidding!"

We where joking about that in the shop.

A fellow once told me how he removed a broken off pull-through from his rifle. He pulled the bullet from one of his friend's 243 cartridges and dumped out about half the powder. He then tied his rifle to a log, chambered the 243 "blank", lined the barrels up carefully with the muzzles touching, and fired! He claimed it blew that thing right out. I can't recommend this method.
I have used heat many times. Enough heat to burn the patch won't affect the barrel.
I've rebarreled several rifles with broken off fishing rods, etc. One of the worst had nails stacked up in the bore. When the owner hit the top nail, they all just slipped past one another and the barrel was done. GD

Hatcher wrote about that (the cartridge with NO bullet thing) in Hatcher's Notebook. He thought that he was onto something for removing stuck patches and broken pull-throughs but after a series of experiments he decided that it wasn't such a good idea. Traditional methods were more reliable and safer if not as fast and handy.

E-mail the manufacturer of the boresnake and ask if they know what will soften/dissolve their product. Of course if it dissolves, can you get the goop out?

If there is any nylon or other man made fiber the hot wire will melt it and stick it to the barrel and never will get it out.

the hot wire only works for cotton.

So who is still a big fan of the boresnake after reading this?

Imagine your beloved Kreiger or some other high dollar custom tube ruined by a pos cleaning rope! $600-$700 down the drain!

Worse yet what if you were on an elk hunt in the backcountry with a limited entry tag that took you many years, dollars and luck to draw??

Seems this is a fairly common issue with boresnakes: Google results

I remember a fella on here advocating the boresnake for in the field cleaning, claimed he carried one on his hip....

MtnHtr

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.

Figure out what you'd be willing to pay for the gun assuming that it needs a new barrel. If that's $150, buy it, if it's less, offer them that.

Best case you are able to remove the stuck snake w/o doing any damage to the bore. Worst case you have a donor action for a custom rifle, and you can tell us what a missereable experience it is trying to remove a stuck bore snake.

I'd go the solvent route. While long drills work great for solid obstructions, I'd be concerned that a drill would just get wrapped up in the fibers of the snake and add an even more difficult to remove obstruction to the bore, or worst case the fibers deflect the bit and it starts chewing up the bore. I am almost possitive they use synthetic fibers in a bore snake, so heat is only going to melt the snake and make an ever more difficult mess to remove.

Sometimes good deals are very expensive, and the best deal is to walk away I'm just old enough to start learning that lesson.

Have read a number of posts on this subject.

There is only one way that seams to work in every case.
TAKE IT TO A GUNSMITH!
Don't under any circumstances stick anything down the bore. Especially wooden dowels. They just make the problem worse when they break. And they will break.

How will the gunsmith do it?



Bruce

Obviously, replace the barrel!

Havn't heard of one replacing the barrel yet! Most of them have experience dealing with bore obstructions and that is all this is.

This is the Chinese finger trap of bore obstructions. The harder you try to push it out, the more it wants to expand and jam tighter.

Wonder what a boresnake would do if soaked in MEK for a week. There was also a spray "gasket remover" for outboard engines that dissolved gaskets, gasket sealer, plastic and the skin off your fingers. Nastiest solvent I have ever used. Who has a worn out bore snake and feels like doing some testing?

Go back to the first page, one of the gunsmiths on here has tried to remove one without any luck.

And we do, but this is hardly a common-type of bore obstruction..

Quite a few unique ideas here. How about trying firing a primer to see if anything moves and maybe a small load of black powder.

Grogel; You've come to the right place. There are people on this site that can suck that thing out. Be patient.
Seriously, like Crossfire implied, there's got to be some stuff that would dissolve that thing.

Run the tip of an Oxyacetylene torch in it....O2 only for oxygen....no flame

I would not recomend that option... IF,,,, IF you managed to get this to work, you would be creating uncontroled heat.. Hot spots in metal...

Got this off the web....
Oxygen is safe to use, in the right conditions. If you follow these guidelines, you will have a safe environment in which to use your oxygen.

Oxygen will not explode or burn, but it will cause things that are burning, to burn hotter and faster. Because of this, when storing or using your oxygen, you should keep it at least 10 feet from open flames, space heaters, large windows or any other source of heat.

If you are cooking while wearing oxygen, you can:

Secure the cannula over the ears and behind the head, instead of under the chin.
Secure the tubing to the side of your clothing with a large safety pin (making sure not to puncture the tubing). This will keep the tubing away from the heat source.
Never grease or oil oxygen equipment. Grease and oil are flammable materials, and are contained in hand lotions, hair lubricants and Vaseline. Aerosol sprays, such as hairspray are also flammable, and should not be used near oxygen equipment.

Do not permit smoking in the same room as your oxygen equipment. You can place a "No Smoking" sign on the door of your residence. You may be in a large room (such as a restaurant) where smoking is permitted, without being at risk.

Do not place your concentrator in a small area. The extra heat generated by your concentrator could damage the unit and/or other materials if placed in a small area. Be sure that the unit is well ventilated and protected from being knocked over.

Never use oil-based face creams, a hair dryer or an electric razor while using your oxygen. It is possible for the appliance to spark, causing the oxygen and face cream to ignite, resulting in burns on your face. Always use water-based cosmetics or creams.

How about filing some teeth in a piece of brass tubing as close to bore diameter as possible and cut it out a little at a time??

Oxygen WILL most definitely explode.

What was in the rack next to it? Either side, just pick one.

OK heres what I'd do....offer them $100.00, take the rifle home and rebarrel it.

$150 for a great action!

Buy it, re-barrel it and tell us how well it shoots.

Keep the old barrel and !~@#$%^& around with it all you want trying the methods listed above!


Mike

I've been using Bore Snakes for awhile, mainly on pistols, but now I'm a little worried!!

Looking at a Bore Snake makes me wonder if you could concentrate on the 'other' end, that is, the one with the 'loop'. Might you be able to use a hook of some kind to catch that loop and pull it out that way?

It's not clear which end is which. Meaning did they pound on the end with the broken pull rope or the other end? That would have a bearing on the problem and the possible solution.

I NEVER and will NEVER use a bore snake!

Had one come into the shop just like that. It was a savage 110 and the owner had messed with it enough that it was pushed into the middle. The "snake" was closer to the chamber end so I pulled the barrel and left it in the barrel vise. I ground a small hook at the end of a rod of cold rolled steel and hardened it. After most of a day with it and a stylus pen light it came loose enough that I could tie a knot on it. The barrel was facing the mill so I tied a cord onto the mill bed and the knot. I cranked the hand feed and pulled that "snake" and about 12" of a cleaning rod out. The owner had hammered the rod in and turned it enough that it unscrewed a section. He never did mention this which is to bad because he trashed some rifling and the gun had to be rebarrel anyway,plus he had to pay for the days work.I used quotes around "snake" because I'm not 100% sure it was a boresnake brand. I am sure that the guy did use the wrong caliber "snake" though.

I enjoy barrel obstructions as they are a challenge and make for some laughter in the shop. Had a fella bring in a S&W last week with a barrel full of 38's and one stuck in the forcing cone so the cylinder couldn't be opened. The bullet at the muzzle end was flattened and the cylinder still had 2 live roundnose in it so we knew he had shot some out. 8 bullets in that barrel!!!!!

Before I changed the barrel, I think I'd try some muriatic acid , something like Drain Snake, Clobber or Mule Kick. The stuff we plumbers sometimes use in drains. What would you have to loose?--- Mel

Mel
"What would you have to loose?"

Lots to loose, and nothing to lose...

Darn English majors!
art

Gee Thanks Art, spell check doesn't do it all. --- Mel

BTW See if I get you anymore Cobber

So, the guy paid mucho bux to remove the snake, find out the bore was ruined and then had to rebarrel it anyway...

Seems to me the obvious answer to these things is to save time, money and effort by tossing the barrel and installing a new one right off the bat...

All these little 'home cures' have been interesting reading, to be sure...

That's my vote. Who knows what else is jambed in there? I'd give the shop $50-$100, rebarrel it and let your smith keep the barrel. He can mess with it on his own dime.

Why not just put a tiny little mouse in front of the barrel. By now the snake must be hungry and would crawl out by hisself.

Most likely the bore-snake is made from a form of nylon. (It's possible that it could be an ester-based synthetic fiber but I'd bet on a polyamide) The great thing about polyamides is their excellent resistance to hydrocarbons, cleaning solutions and oils. Kinda makes sense for a bore-snake .

Nylons do have limited resistance to oxidizing agents and some acids. However, these are going to be equally devastating on the steel in the barrel (e.g. 100% acetic acid will dissolve nylons).

MEK will only partially soften the nylon and you'll actually end up with a more solid plug in the end as the MEK evaporates. What you'd need is something along the MEK family but more like methyl propyl ketone or methyl isobutyl ketone. These guys will prove more aggressive toward the polymer and would be safer on the steel than an acid.

However, like others have said, you don't know what other damage has already been done to the bore. If you buy it, I'd do it for the action alone since there's no guarantee that the barrel would ever be usable.

I assume this rifle is a M96 or 38. Not a a modern rifle. Both have he same action ,except the 38 had a turned down bolt. It is not a prime action to build a custom rifle on. The bolt has no gas shroud on it, it requires a cock on opening coversion and the saftey is a PIA to change to one that can be used around a scope. OK if this is already done or you can do it yourself. These are nice rifles,but one can buy a modern rifele for less than it takes to pay a smith to do all that

"Oxygen will not explode or burn,"

In the Air Force, the safety regs stated plainly not to use Oxygen around grease or oil, and NEVER oil the fittings on the gauges.

Oxygen by itself will not burn, but like stated above, it will cause others things to burn and/or explode.

If there is oil in the bore or on the bore snake, putting oxygen in the barrel to try to either blow it out or make it burn would not be a good idea.

Black powder. Nobody's mentioned black powder yet.

Actually, I believe it was, about 35 posts above...

No thankie..

oxygen won't explode, it's an oxidizer not a fuel. It will enable other compounds to explode.

however if you put O2 down a barrel in an effort to sustain combustion of the bore snake you will dmage the barrel as steel also burns in a pure oxygen environment.

I stand corrected. Don't know how I missed that.

Starting to make me re-think buying used rifles!!!

Mike

I have a new in the box bore snake (30 cal). I haven't gotten around to using it. Willing to sell at a loss!

Maybe a "Bore Snake Charmer" needs to be called in......

Truthfully I am glad this isn't located anywhere near me.....I don't think I could resist it from an entertainment standpoint...lol.

Scott

Smart man..

Bore snakes for rifles are an item only a tad more important to avoid using than impact bullet pullers.. JMHO..

Wow I have used bore snakes for a while, makeing me re-think it now. Great for Ar's, and other semi's, at least I thought. I guess I will re think my use of them.

If someone can get the snakes out he should be made a saint.

Patrick

Ok it can be done ...it happened to me and Karl Feldkamp of Kampfeld Customs got it out of my 7mm-08 for me said he'd have to kill me if he told how...I can say no damage to the barrel and shoots good as ever....note to self don't use even just to dry a wet barrel

Try another Boresnake!

I'd rig something on a Dremel Flex shaft, a piece of como wire and a screw or cutter of some sort on the end.
$hit, put men on the moon but can't clear a tube?
Bet my cardiologist could get it out or my colonoscopy dude.

They do make a patch puller for muzzleloaders, but we're dealing with 6.5mm, not 50 caliber...........

And a ball puller which is a screw that screws into the lead ball. One of those, on a smaller scale, would work.
Hydraulics are a possibility as well.

Fill the bore with motor oil to 2" from the crown. Insert wooden dowel about the same size as the bore. Whack the protruding end of the dowel with a hammer.

I used a bore snake once...last year, on a .22LR. it got stuck and I had to tie the rope to the work bench to get it out. THANKFULLY it came out without breaking.

First and last time i've used one.

If you were to take one of those dry wall screws, the ones with the course threads and are used for panaling and sheetrock and which do not require a pilot hole and braze it to the end of a 1/4 inch steel rod.

Inserting this in the muzzle and turning it so that the screw goes into the snake, then pulling it out, would that not remove the bore snake?

The screw might strip out of the material, but still pull some of the cords or whatever it is made from out. If it did this, you would have to repeat the above step over and over, but eventually you would get it all out.

A large fish hook, straightened out and brazed to the steel rod might work, also. The barb would catch on the snake material, and might hold good enough to pull it on through.

mental picture

The bad thing about drywall screws is the fact that they are somewhat brittle, and have a tendency to snap. Ask me how I know.

Load cartridge in gun pull trigger.....

All done!

tetrachloroethelye will do the trick nicely.

Get a hack saw....... If you are lazy, use a chop saw....