well i decided to take all the babys out of the barn and givem a good clean and lube dang my 742 was pullin blue fer a hour !!!! i have been useing a bore snake with faith it was cleaning it but i can see different any good procedures on autos ?

Blue is copper. IMO, copper build up is the major reason for pitting as copper oxidizes before steel.

I say throw away the snake. They are useless. Get a decent cleaning rod like dewey or tipton, and with a good coated cleaning jag from tipton. Get a decent copper remover like sweets, or CR10. I would suggest wipeout but the foaming action isn't good for autos that use gas recoil.

Excellent advice but I'd keep the snake. Use only when on a hunting trip or for quick cleaning. By no means a good way to clean but is adequate for temporary.

Tom

X2. Nothing beats a good, complete cleaning, but the snake's are pretty handy in a pinch. Good for swiping a barrel on the range and sighting in as well.

thanks fer the replys guys , it dose seem the snake is as good as gone , but as suggested i think i will keep it for rainy day hunts , a golden rule a snake a day keeps the rust away ,and thats about it , the only reason i bought that snake in the grass is i didnt want to wack the crown did that done that and had to retire good iron , but that was before re crowning as invented dang i feel old lol

The only other advice I could add to what has already been said is to add a nylon or bronze bore brush to help remove the copper fouling. Also make sure that you remove all the amonia cleaners (cr-10, sweets etc) really well or you will ruin the bore.

Here's my issues with the bore snake. About the only thing its good for, is to put oil or kroil on and pull thru several times. It gets out the powder residue, but thats about it. And then you have to wash the thing in dawn or something.

If you try to put sweets, or CR10 on them and clean, you will end up with a big mess. If you don't keep with dish washing liquid to get out the powder residue, your basically dragging the same crap thru a gun.

I also agree. I should have elaborated on how I use my bore snake to further assist the thread starter.

I run my snakes dry. I've probably used my snakes maybe 5 times each. Like I said just in those times where cleaning isn't easy or you just want to dry the bore and knock and loose stuff out of there.

Tom