How to make a poor man’s bore snake!

[JayBee3]

Hi Folks, I’m fairly new here. Thought I’d participate and share. 
So I ordered a PatchWorm after watching Steve at AEAC use his ... but ... I had to leave to take care of our farm before it arrived at my home ... having my pellet gun with me, and necessity being the mother of invention, I made a bore snake with materials at hand at the farm. I think it worked exceedingly well with very little cost or fuss!

Here’s what I did and what I used:

approx 4’ of 1/4” plastic poly cord strapping

approx 4’ of plastic weed trimmer cord

One tube of super glue gel

Split/tear the strapping in half down the middle ,and make sure you have enough length to have it thread through your barrel leaving an extra 6” to a foot on each end ... 

Same with cutting the length of weed eater cord

Super glue the last 1 1/2” of the ribbon and weed eater cord together. With a paper towel around your finger/thumb press and hold it firmly against the end of the weed eater line for approx 30-60 secs (excess super glue will go into the paper towel) when you are done, tear off the paper towel, and trim off the excess paper with a pair of scissors.

Now make a loop at the other end of the strapping tape. Use the same process glue the loop leaving an approx 1” to 1/2” loop at the end.

Construction is done! 


Use the weed eater portion only as a way to thread the plastic ribbon through the barrel. 
place a 1-3/4” patch through the loop for .22 caliber (larger or smaller as per your barrel size), wet it with your cleaner of choice (Ballistol, Eezox, etc.) Once the ribbon has cleared the muzzle, use it to pull the patch through (don’t pull the weed eater cord and stress the glue joint). Refer to Steve’s YouTube demonstration of the PatchWorm here for visual reference ... https://youtu.be/rcyDUefHmSE 

(begin watching at 1:23:40 in Steve’s vid

Quickly summarizing, the ribbon is too thin to thread the barrel, so the weed eater cord is just a threading device. The plastic ribbon is extremely strong and allowed me to pull a very tight patch through my barrel and clean it thoroughly with 5 to 6 patches until they came through clean. Watch Steve’s use of a plastic straw placed in the muzzle in his vid, to guide the cord through moderator chambers and such. 

The PatchWorm is well worth the money, and mine will be here soon, but if it is beyond your budget at the moment, or you need a temporary bore cleaner, give this a try!

Cheers,

JayBee3

 

[B7B]

I use a similar system. This way I can use multiple patches at one pass and change them when dirty.

 

[provels]

I made something similar with trimmer line, but I just folded over the tip about 3" and used about 2" of heat shrink tubing to hold it in place.

 

[triggertreat]

I started out twisting a coated 22 gauge copper wire looped over itself and leaving a loop at the folded end. It works great for any barrel size and you can use whatever i.e. a patch, cut up T-shirt, cotton, rope, etc to clean with. I eventually moved on to using Weed Wacker line in the same manner.

I picked up a box of these German bore cleaning ropes that will last me a lifetime that can be separated out to fit whatever bore size and tightness desired. One complete rope doubled over fits a .357 cal bore perfectly and tight. The ropes are very easy to size by pulling out the number of strands needed. Military Surplus German Bore Cleaning Wick Case of 1000 (midwayusa.com)

Today, I use the PatchWorm kit, which is tops IMHO, but still use the ropes and DIY lines as well.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Great idea. Thanks for posting the details.

 

[NOBULL]

interesting I might try it

 

[Fglass]

80lb nylon braid fishing line will do the same thing but I tied the line in a loop and used shrink-wrap to make the loops. Ca glue may work just as good but I needed stiffness to feed it through the barrel.

 

[triggertreat]

After much barrel cleaning I find the optional felt pads used along with a patch with the PatchWorm kit to be my first choice over all other methods for cleaning. Those felt pads really work well. The military rope and line loop are a close second.

 

[woodbuck]

If you fly fish the braided loop leader connectors might work good.

 

[JEFFPPC]

There is a simpler method. Take a piece of weed eater line, melt one end to form a flat end on it. Cut the opposite ent at a n angle, thread a patch with it , insert it in the barrel from the breech end and pullit through. No glue needed.