Grabbed the wrong boresnake today when cleaning my Smith 38 special. I thought it was pretty tight when pulling it through, but it did pull through without a ton of force required I suppose. Anyway, I know I’m overthinking it, but could this in any way damage the inside of the barrel using a bigger boresnake?
I would think the bristles just bend and compress the braided nylon material and just maybe scrape the inside of the bore a little more vigorously, but I can’t imagine it could damage it right? It was not a brush on a rod sothe bore snake has some give, despite being tight it did pull through. I went breech to muzzle as well as you are supposed to. Heck it’s only about 2 hundredths from the 9mm one right?! And that one pulled through without even tugging making me think the 9mm one isn’t even cleaning it well. The force of a 38 caliber bullet I would think would still be about 100 times more pressure than even a larger brass bristle bore brush.
Thanks guys. Yeah it’s funny I never thought about it but I’ve had this 40 caliber snake for probably about 15 years and it has probably been worn down a tiny bit from what it was when I first got it so maybe that’s why it fit OK. Either way good to know that nothing was hurt and maybe it’s time to get a new boresnake!
It's likely this didn't do any damage to the barre this time. I know quite a few competition shooters that believe unless you clean the bore snake after each use, you're just pulling all of the garbage from each successive cleaning through your barrel.
Patches are one and done. No risk of accumulation of debris being dragged through the tube.
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Posts: 38480 | Location: Above the snow line in Michigan | Registered: May 21, 2004
Originally posted by architect: Just get her drunk and kiss her a little bit first, won't be no problem.
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Heck it’s only about 2 hundredths from the 9mm one right?!
Almost exactly the same as a 9mm, and a little over four hundredths from the 40. The bore size of a 38 special is .357 inches. This goes back to the cap and ball beginnings of the 38 bore size, and keeping a familiar name when cartridge loading required a reduction of bullet size to .357. It’s the same reason that a 44 Russian/Spec/Magnum has a .429 bore size.
A 40 cal bore snake shouldn’t hurt a 35 caliber barrel.
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Posts: 8292 | Location: Utah | Registered: December 18, 2008
I have found that a .40 caliber bore snake is the right size and cleans the cylinder better than a .357 size bore snake. I still use a .357 bore snake for the barrel. But a .40 bore snake for the cylinder is ideal.
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Posts: 6715 | Location: Floriduh | Registered: October 16, 2004
Originally posted by bubbatime: I have found that a .40 caliber bore snake is the right size and cleans the cylinder better than a .357 size bore snake. I still use a .357 bore snake for the barrel. But a .40 bore snake for the cylinder is ideal.
Yep. I have several 38s and use a 40 cal snake for the cylinders only.
