I will admit, I don’t clean my guns nearly as often as I should. After a day at the range, I might have four or five guns that are in serious need of a good scrubbing. Usually, I do the right thing and take them apart, clean the actions and barrels, and put them back in the safe. But sometimes, I neglect that very important job, and just put them away.
There are a few products that make cleaning the guns less of a chore, though. Bore snakes are wonderful inventions. If you don’t take your guns all the way apart and clean every piece, you can at least run a bore snake through the action and the barrel, and that’s sometimes good enough to keep your gun in good working condition.
But you still need to tear it down and clean it up every once in a while. What makes that job so tedious is the cotton patches you have to keep changing out. They get gunked up and just start smearing stuff around, rather than actually cleaning. I got an email a while ago from a company called Swab-Its, and these things help make cleaning my guns a little less unenjoyable.
Swab-Its are foam swabs, and they’re disposable. They are like giant Q-Tips, but the swabs are made of foam, instead of cotton. They won’t shed pieces in the action or the barrel, like the cotton patches do. You’ll use fewer of them, and the best part is, you don’t have to keep threading new ones through the eyelet of your cleaning rod.
They’re more expensive than cotton patches, but they’re worth it. Especially if you actually use them, and because of that, increase the life of your firearms.
