Quick and Easy Bench Cleaning

Save yourself time, effort, and bore solvent with this simple hack

by the Shoot On staff

Let’s face it…cleaning guns sucks. We all like to shoot, but when it comes to getting all that gray matter out of our handgun and rifle bores, the typical response is a big “UGH!” There is, though, a simple way to take the grind out of cleaning a dirty barrel, and it begins before you leave the shooting bench.

As soon as you are finished shooting and before the barrel cools off, swipe the barrel with a quality bore snake and gun oil.

Bore snakes have been around for a long time and are the perfect field-cleaning solution. They are compact and easy to stow in your gun case, range bag, or even a pocket. Bore snakes are comprised of a cable or weighted pull rope trailed by a caliber-specific wire brush and a long cleaning swab or mop. Some come with a separate handle, or a loop integrated into the pull rope.

Real Avid’s Bore Boss is a compact, all-in-one bore snake system that is self-storing and provides maximum grip and leverage for cleaning gunky barrels in the field.

Once you are done shooting your rifle or handgun and before the barrel has had time to cool down, spray the bore snake mop with gun oil and pull the snake through the barrel two or three times.

Using an oil-coated bore snake will remove the loose fouling in the barrel and leave behind a light coat of oil that helps dissolve and soften much of the leftover residue, making it much easier to give your barrel a proper deep-cleaning with a cleaning rod, solvent, and bore brush once you get home.

Simple and effective!