Should I buy a full cleaning kit?

I have a .223 shoots about 250 round/year and a .308 shoots about 100 round/year.

My cleaning regime after every outing with both guns, a spray of Napier vp90 gun cleaner down the barrel, leave for a minute then two passes with a bore snake. Grease to crown and threads also the bolt. Then apply guns oil to exterior and a good wipe. The moderators get a good spray inside and out with wd40.
Once a year I take both guns to my local gun shop for a look over/service.

is this acceptable maintenance?
or should I buy a full cleaning kit?

i wash the bore snakes in warm water and hang to dry.
 
I don't like bore snakes for rifles. If the pull through cord breaks you are stuffed. At least with a shotgun you can push out with a rod, doubt you could do that easily with a rifle
 
Seems good to me.

Pull throughs clean well but unless you've no where to put them a cleaning rod is better. A bore snake is an answer to an issue of portability where a cleaning rod can't accompany the rifle. It should never be the answer to cleaning a rifle where a cleaning rod can be available.

Do de grease the bolt when using the rifle! A bolt, the moving parts, should be lubricated but the locking parts should not be.
 
I don't like bore snakes for rifles. If the pull through cord breaks you are stuffed. At least with a shotgun you can push out with a rod, doubt you could do that easily with a rifle

Although I agree if they break your stuffed I do actually carry one in my rifle slip as when I'm away and it's been damp I pull it through to remove any moisture
My trick is though that I use a .25 call snake through both 6.5 and 7mm so it's no where near tight.
So they do have a use
Regards
Jimmy
 
Enfield and Jimmy. Not questioning the portability, just highlighting the risk. Jimmy I do like your idea of using a snake from a smaller calibre
 
surely the snake is longer than the barrel so one end is always protruding if it did part company with the cord?

think there is even a loop at the fat end for this purpose
 
surely the snake is longer than the barrel so one end is always protruding if it did part company with the cord?

No. Not all the time. It's a pull THROUGH so at some time only one end will be available. Even a Bore Snake that has to be pulled through. And f that end breaks inside the barrel then you are stuck with a length of the ting inside the barrel with no free end.

The other issue, of course, with any pull through system is that if used wrongly it will cause cord wear at the muzzle.
 
No. Not all the time. It's a pull THROUGH so at some time only one end will be available. Even a Bore Snake that has to be pulled through. And f that end breaks inside the barrel then you are stuck with a length of the ting inside the barrel with no free end.

The other issue, of course, with any pull through system is that if used wrongly it will cause cord wear at the muzzle.


cant see how you could snap the actual snake part though, assumed it was the cord and the join that goes when they snap
 
Callum Ferguson at Precision Rifles once told me he loves boresnakes, makes a fortune removing the broken end jammed in the barrel ;)
 
Callum Ferguson at Precision Rifles once told me he loves boresnakes, makes a fortune removing the broken end jammed in the barrel ;)

I seem to remember either you or somebody else reporting Callum Ferguson's reputed boresnake fortune a few years ago...but in all the years I have been reading posts on SD and having anything to do with rifles and riflemen I have not heard of anybody it has actually happened to. Either genuine Hoppes or spurious copies.

I presume if he is making a fortune from the regularity of occurrence most other gunsmiths would also be in clover through the problem, any evidence?

It does sound either a bit of an urban myth, or maybe he was actually joking, and you took it for real?

Alan
 
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In answer to the OP's question .............................. yes a decent rod, brushes and jag at a minimum. Add your preferred cleaner to the recipe.
 
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