Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Stuck bore snake

This is why my one and only bore snake had a short life with me. I had heard they were great from fellow shooters, bought one for my 5.56 AR-15, got tired of having to feel like I am working out at a gym to pull it through the bore.

Then I tried to pull it through my CZ-452 .22 R.F. bolt action rifle with it's tightening of the bore near the muzzle for match grade accuracy, panicked and just barely got it out. I had to cut the end of it as it was going into the breach to shorten it and reduce friction, then it got it's well deserved place in the trash!

Lol I may as well admit I ruined a barrel by ramming a carbon arrow in the chamber end, I cut the vanes half off and rammed it in there thinking that only the vanes would touch and not hurt anything. I was trying to put that in there to then put the arrow in a drill and turn the whole thing so I could polish it. It was ss. Well I pretty much had it done...looked great then I broke the arrow off. I thought no big deal and put another of smaller diameter through the bore end to tap it out. Tried that for a while with no luck and finally ended up breaking it off at the muzzle. It's in there real good now so if anybody wants a nice ss wrapped carbon barrel I have one I'll sell you real cheap lol not my best moment.

Agreed, you can screw up a crown pretty easy, but I was reffering to the bore per se....you gotta do something like cram a carbon arrow down there to screw one of them up....

steelhead had the best idea burn it out.

Ed

I had an uncle who stuck a pull-through in the bore of his 8 mm Mauser.

He had several unused wooden pencils that would fit the bore. So, he hammered them into the barrel, trying to push the patch out.

Next, he was looking for a way to get the splintered and jammed pencils and the still stuck patch out of the bore.

Next, he used an electric drill and a long 1/4 inch drill bit. The drill bit got the patch and pencils out of the bore, and he was able to do it without sticking the drill bit in the barrel, along with the rest of the stuff.

I looked down the barrel after he told me this, and my opinion is that the barrel was ruined. It had gouges and scratches from one end to the other, made by the rotating drill bit.

So yes, there are ways of ruining a barrel without shooting it, but you might have to work at it.

In Hatcher's Notebook, there is a chapter on removing bore obstructions. He used a primed case with about half the normal charge of powder. This worked, until he tried to remove a bunch of stuff that was really jammed in the barrel.

The same procedure might work with a Bore Snake. Then again, it might not.

Think "Long" string, and without fail, a video camera capable of taking clear, focused video.

Consider Hatcher was an expert surrounded by experts and had access to laboratories. Hatcher thought he was onto something for quickly removing bore obstructions until he took it to the laboratory and did some testing. He concluded it was a bad idea and went back to the standard methods of clearing obstructions. Hint: Don't try this at home. To my thinking that chapter was included to give some idea of pressure dynamics in the barrel only.

My original contention was that it was hard to screw up a bore with elbow grease alone. Give me a power tool and some elbow grease and I can screw up anything...

What about a big hammer and a steel rod to stick in the barrel?

OK...ya got me there....I might could screw something up with that...and elbow grease...and yes, I have seen that kind of thing applied to guns...

I'm not talking just the crown.

Stick one of those stainless tornado brushes in the bore, on a flimsy jointed rod, even from the breech, and get to scrubbing.

Just don't do it on anything you like.

I always wondered about those tornado brushes.....

I've warned others here many times before against using any bore snake on a rifle barrel. They're fine for shotguns but should never be used on rifles.. All it takes is a broken pull-through string or similar and it's NEW BARREL TIME.. Rarely will they be able to be removed and IF you are successful, go out and immediately buy a ton of LOTTO tix..

I use a Bore Snake on my M1A. Have done so for years. It's the perfect tool for those guns who's bores you can't access from the chamber end. You have to be smart though, you have to use the correct size, and inspect the thing for wear before each use. Nothing is fool proof. I've had guns come in with jammed and broken cleaning rods in them. In this line of work the tag line should read "Just when you think you've seen it all..."

That's what a chamber brush is for..

1 order new barrel of your choice from favirot barellmaker. 2 remove pluged barrel from action3 take hacksaw and cut pluged barrel at plug 3mount pluged barrell in proment place in shop to remoind customers of the dangers of :snakes: 4 chamber new barrell 5 go shoot something

6. Try spell check

sorry was in a hurry

Try a Hammer Puller and it should come out

I just now finished using a .30 cal BoreSnake on a customers M1 Garand and discovered something odd. Odd in a good sense. Never paid any attention to it until this discussion. I discovered that if the nylon cord on the .30 caliber snake were to break anywhere in the bore, and mine didn't because I use the corrects size and regularly inspect mine for wear, all you would have to do is grab the snake by the tail and yank it back out. Unless the entire BoreSnake is rotted, the area likely to break, is where the cord attaches to the much more durable, braided body. And with the .30 caliber snake, the main body, the heavily braided part, is longer than most rifle barrels.

In fact, the main body of the .30 caliber BoreSnake, stretched, measured end to end, is about 31". So unless that particular snake is coiled up in the bore, ready to strike, or your barrel is well over 30", you should easily be able to snag one end of it and remove it. At least with the .30 caliber BoreSnake.

Maybe some of you who have them in different calibers could measure and post the actual body lengths, stretched. I would be interested in knowing the results.