On advise from my buddy, I picked up a Bore Snake for my model 11 in .223 yesterday. After a great trip to the range with my daughter, I thought I would try it out for the first time.

First off, I read the directions. I then pulled the bolt and fed the brass weight into the chamber. It was like trying to get a cat into a carrier. I played with it for a few minutes and finally managed to get it out the muzzle. At this point I pulled it through the bore. Well, I tried to pull it through the bore. I was afraid I would pull the cord off the brush part. After a while I managed to get it through the bore.

I know the videos say it will be tight. I didn't expect it to be this tight. Do they free up some with use? It was extremely difficult to pull through. I ended up wrapping the cord around my hand, and pulled really hard. It would slide an inch or two and stop.

Yes, I did check and make sure it was the right sized for my caliber.

The video by Hoppes shows the guy just sliding it right through. I know he was doing a shotgun, but did he use a stunt Bore Snake?

After running it twice through the bore, a patch with a little Frog Lube came out clean as a whistle. It took a whole lot longer to do this than it would have taken me to run a whole bunch of patches down the bore. I'm OK with that, if it cleans a lot better, but I really didn't think it would be that difficult.