I have both ripcords and boresnakes. For quick bore cleaning of both handguns and rifles I like the ripcords better. They seem to do a decent job of getting most of the soot and other crud out of your barrel in just two to three passes. I still use standard rods and brushes for a thorough cleaning, but for post-range session quickie cleaning they work pretty well.
I did find that I needed to have one for .44 as well as one for .45, as once you run a ripcord through a .44, it gets compressed enough that it doesn't engage the rifling very well in a subsequent .45 auto. This problem doesn't seem to occur when switching from 9 mm to .357 mag or .38 special.