Boresnake stuck in barrel

[Suwannee Tim]

.......Seriously dude... it cannot be that difficult.

With enough effort even the simplest task can be made difficult.

[Quiet-Matt]

I am of the belief that trying to drive the snake out with a rod will not work. As each hit will just force the snake harder against the side of the bore.

As an example/experiment to support this claim, take a paper towel tube, pvc pipe, hell pipe of any sort between 1-2" in diameter.

Now take a piece of wax paper and a rubber band and cover one end of the pipe/tube with the wax paper affixing it with the rubber band.

Now pour a few inches of sand, salt, or rice into the tube. Now take a rod that fits into the tube, approximately like a cleaning rod would, and take a nice large hammer and try and drive that rod through the wax paper from the end filled with sand, salt, whatever. It won't happen. The sand absorbs all of the force and redirects it to the wall of the tube. The snake will act in the same manner.

This is exactly what I was thinking. I remember seeing that same demonstration on an episode of Mr. Wizard when I was a kid.

OP, please let us know how the GS gets it out... the suspense is killing me.

[An Undocumented Worker]

This is exactly what I was thinking. I remember seeing that same demonstration on an episode of Mr. Wizard when I was a kid.

OP, please let us know how the GS gets it out... the suspense is killing me.

That's exactly where I saw that experiment, many years ago as a child.

After searching the web, I did come across one method that may actually work to drive it out.

Heat the end you are going to drive from with a match, torch, lighter enough to soften up the nylon and then start driving, or heat up the rod you are going to use to drive the snake out with.

Then there is the method that many machinist use to remove stuck pins/dowels/bearings etc. Fill one end with grease, then using a tight fitting dowel apply pressure to that grease with light taps etc, the hydraulic pressure may force it out.


Though I'm still not opposed to trying a homemade blank to try and remove the snake either.

[davidjinks]

OP:

Take a torch lighter (Or equivalent)…

Burn the end of the bore snake. Kind of roll the melted nylon with your fingers a bit (Wait till its cool enough you don't burn yourself). Don't flatten it out, you want to keep it as thick as you can. Take a pair of vice grips, attach vice grips to the melted bore snake end, and pull. You need to make sure the vice grips are as tight as possible. Pull slow but steady.

[NWPilgrim]

Sorry, but the thought experiment involving sand is not accurate. Sand is a hard substance and it would be reasonable to think it could jam a drive rod. In the OP's situation there is no SAND, there is nothing harder than nylon cloth, the tail half of the BoreSnake. Also, the sand experiment would require the drive rod to be smaller enough than the bore to allow a grain of sand between them. If the drive rod nearly fills the bore than every grain is being forced down and not out against the bore.

Drive a near bore diameter rod through the bore and whatever is in there WILL be pushed out, guaranteed. And I bet dollars to donuts that is exactly what the gunsmith is doing right now, while chuckling about the easiest $30 he made this week. Suwannee Tim nailed it early on but that left no room for drama and desperation. Too simple to just do rather than post about how everything else was impossible. Like Tim said, with enough effort even the simple can be made difficult.

[poak]

But then there would not be drama and no hope for a reality show: Snakes In Bores!

"Enough is enough! I've had it with these mother****ing snakes, in this mother****ing bore!"

[Suwannee Tim]

I think the real benefit of my suggestion was not in the suggesting the drill rod but in suggesting a source, McMaster, where you can buy one stick of rod for four or five bux, no minimum and have it delivered for another four or five bux.

[An Undocumented Worker]

Can we get an update on this?

[BCmJUnKie]

The boresnake was almost 4 years old. However, I feel I'm going to switch back to patches and brushes.

4 years old.

Hmmm

[a0cake]

Just saw this, but the first thing I would do is find somebody with a high powered PCP air rifle. Modern Pre-Charged Pneumatic air rifles are capable of well over 100 FPE in .22 caliber. Big bore air rifles can produce ~ 1,000 FPE. I'd find the biggest, baddest one I could...place the barrel of the air rifle in the Noveske barrel extension and fire it (no pellet of course). I think that would do the trick.

I'd trust this before giving it to some local hack to butcher. Hopefully it all works out.