Here's the story of how I did this.
I usually always clean this particular rifle, a very high end custom-built AR-15, very meticulously and with great care using a bore guide, a brush, and other assorted specialty cleaning tools. For whatever idiotic dumb**** reason I can't recall, I decided to run a bore snake through it to see how well it would clean. I used a .223 Bore Snake, and tried to pull the snake through the barrel completely. No dice. The Bore Snake has a hand loop on the end which was designed to stop at the breech, and then be pulled back out using the hand loop. I, unfortunately, forgot this bit of detail. I normally only use a bore snake on my cheap .22's, and in those, it is not possible for the hand loop to get pulled into the barrel. Unfortunately for me, the .223 has a larger case and the chamber is large enough for the handle to get caught in.
I pulled it into the chamber, and then stared at it confused when it wouldn't pull any further. About that time, I realize what had occurred, and decided to try and get the hand loop back out of the chamber to pull the snake out. At the time, I had no tools to accomplish this, and I failed horribly. I decided to try and pull the snake from the muzzle end, to no avail. I had about 2 feet of snake hanging out the muzzle, so I tied it around a post, and pulled as hard as I could. Too my dismay, and shock, the bore snake broke off inside the barrel rather than pulling through, and all that accomplished was pulling the snake further into the barrel.
I asked a friend for advice, and did what he suggested. He suggested I soak the snake in penetrating oil by pouring it into the chamber until it began dripping out the other end. This took about 4 days of soaking to accomplish. Once that was complete, I did Step 2 of his plan which was to tap the snake with a rod from the muzzle end until it came out the chamber end. Stupidly, I got these instructions reversed in my head and I tapped from the chamber end instead. I managed over the course of hours, to get the snake to move about 6" further into the barrel. Once I couldn't get it to move any further, I decided to revisit the friends instructions, and realized I had been tapping from the wrong end. I then proceeded to tap the snake from the other end, and it moved about 6" into the barrel, but hasn't moved any closer to the chamber end. I now have about 5" of snake, compacted and stuck halfway into the 16" barrel from both ends.
At this point, I went to the gun show, bought hemostats, jags, specialty tools, and talked to every gunsmith at the show for suggestions. Every single one of them suggested doing exactly what my friend suggested, but did the
face when I told them what I had done so far to try and remove the snake. At that point, to a man, they all said take it to a gun smith.
So that's when I posted this thread, out of frustration, but in looking at a lot of the options, I'm stuck. Chemically removing the nylon is a poor idea, so no dice there as it can harm the metal. I have thought about burning it out, but I haven't thought of a way to heat the barrel, without risking affecting the finish on it. At this point, I have found a reputable gunsmith, and I'm taking it to him this afternoon for a quote.
Hopefully he can fix it, if not, I'm out a barrel I can't replace because they aren't made any longer. All because I tried to take a lazy mans shortcut with a damn boresnake. Let this be a lesson to some of you out there, don't take shortcuts, and damn sure don't do it with your most prized weapon...
-SS
I usually always clean this particular rifle, a very high end custom-built AR-15, very meticulously and with great care using a bore guide, a brush, and other assorted specialty cleaning tools. For whatever idiotic dumb**** reason I can't recall, I decided to run a bore snake through it to see how well it would clean. I used a .223 Bore Snake, and tried to pull the snake through the barrel completely. No dice. The Bore Snake has a hand loop on the end which was designed to stop at the breech, and then be pulled back out using the hand loop. I, unfortunately, forgot this bit of detail. I normally only use a bore snake on my cheap .22's, and in those, it is not possible for the hand loop to get pulled into the barrel. Unfortunately for me, the .223 has a larger case and the chamber is large enough for the handle to get caught in.
I pulled it into the chamber, and then stared at it confused when it wouldn't pull any further. About that time, I realize what had occurred, and decided to try and get the hand loop back out of the chamber to pull the snake out. At the time, I had no tools to accomplish this, and I failed horribly. I decided to try and pull the snake from the muzzle end, to no avail. I had about 2 feet of snake hanging out the muzzle, so I tied it around a post, and pulled as hard as I could. Too my dismay, and shock, the bore snake broke off inside the barrel rather than pulling through, and all that accomplished was pulling the snake further into the barrel.
I asked a friend for advice, and did what he suggested. He suggested I soak the snake in penetrating oil by pouring it into the chamber until it began dripping out the other end. This took about 4 days of soaking to accomplish. Once that was complete, I did Step 2 of his plan which was to tap the snake with a rod from the muzzle end until it came out the chamber end. Stupidly, I got these instructions reversed in my head and I tapped from the chamber end instead. I managed over the course of hours, to get the snake to move about 6" further into the barrel. Once I couldn't get it to move any further, I decided to revisit the friends instructions, and realized I had been tapping from the wrong end. I then proceeded to tap the snake from the other end, and it moved about 6" into the barrel, but hasn't moved any closer to the chamber end. I now have about 5" of snake, compacted and stuck halfway into the 16" barrel from both ends.
At this point, I went to the gun show, bought hemostats, jags, specialty tools, and talked to every gunsmith at the show for suggestions. Every single one of them suggested doing exactly what my friend suggested, but did the
face when I told them what I had done so far to try and remove the snake. At that point, to a man, they all said take it to a gun smith. So that's when I posted this thread, out of frustration, but in looking at a lot of the options, I'm stuck. Chemically removing the nylon is a poor idea, so no dice there as it can harm the metal. I have thought about burning it out, but I haven't thought of a way to heat the barrel, without risking affecting the finish on it. At this point, I have found a reputable gunsmith, and I'm taking it to him this afternoon for a quote.
Hopefully he can fix it, if not, I'm out a barrel I can't replace because they aren't made any longer. All because I tried to take a lazy mans shortcut with a damn boresnake. Let this be a lesson to some of you out there, don't take shortcuts, and damn sure don't do it with your most prized weapon...
-SS