We still get people that are using 3 piece cleaning rods and out dated gun cleaning solutions like Hoppes #9, and if you want that toxic stuff in your cleaning kit, that’s your call, but there is a certain point you should really consider getting rid of some of the chemicals in your home, and at a certain level of being exposed to lead and other toxic materials in this industry, using gloves, good ventilation are things that are going to prevent bad things from happening.   Since I own so many 22 caliber firearms, my 22 Caliber boresnake and a once piece rod for 30 caliber semi-auto and bolt action guns are pretty much the majority of my cleaning tools.

Shotguns are a joke to clean and often my least cleaned firearms, but making sure they have a level of corrosion protection on them is pretty much all I worry about.  The only difference between rifle and pistol Hoppes Boresnakes are the length of the cord.  I still have a pistol rod that gets used on AR15 chambers because a boresnake isn’t going to get into all of those chamber areas, i’ve found that if you clean bolt action rifles right away, boresnakes get lift all of the crud out and you won’t need to resort to cleaning patches or cleaning rods, if you do wait it might take some more effort to clean the rifling.  Boresnakes general, when it comes to calibers, but I do have some issues with revolver cylinders not getting cleaned with boresnakes.  I still have to take a q-tip to clean out my Ruger Single Six, probable because lead and not copper coated bullets do the dirtiest work, so don’t expect these Hoppes snakes to work for everything, but when they work, they really do save time.