Unlike the fictional character “Private Pyle” in the movie Full Metal Jacket, very few shooters actually enjoy cleaning their firearms after a trip to the range. It is time-consuming, messy, and does not involve propelling bullets downrange. It is especially messy if the arm being cleaned is a direct impingement AR-15 rifle.
When I was a kid and brand new to shooting, I enjoyed cleaning the family .22 rifles after my brother and I returned from an afternoon of shooting with our dad. That was because we got to spend more time with dad AND more time handling the guns. But things change eventually—and today, cleaning is a chore.
Fortunately, today’s vast majority of firearms do not have old school blued finishes on their carbon steel parts. The finishes applied and the materials used on today’s generation of firearms mean that these guns don’t need to be cleaned as often as the old school guns did—but they still need to be cleaned. This means anytime I can find something to make that process even the slightest bit easier I will likely take advantage of it. Enter reusable Swab-its foam gun bore cleaning swabs.
Back in the day, all gun bore cleaning patches were made from cloth. They did a great job of removing light fouling and evenly dispensing cleaning solvents and gun oil. Most basic gun cleaning kits come with inexpensive synthetic cleaning patches.
The current crop of synthetic patches are, well, just not the same as cloth. I mean…they do the job, but only a minimal job.
Most of the time, regardless of stated caliber size, it takes at least two of the synthetic patches to fill the bore for cleaning since the synthetics are thinner compared to cloth patches. And I don’t know about you, but it always seems that one or more extra synthetics end up getting dropped on the floor due to their slickness. The slickness also means that they don’t clean as well. Surely there is something better out there in the 21st Century that will make the job more efficient and the cleaning more effective. That’s where Swab-its Firearms Cleaning Products come in.
Swab-its foam cleaning swabs mark a radical departure from the traditional cleaning rod, jag tip, and patch—a method developed in the days of the flintlock rifle. And they definitely have some major advantages over the jag-and-patch cleaning method.
When I first heard of Swab-its foam swabs, I assumed that they were designed to be single-use, throw away items like foam paintbrushes. My assumption was wrong.
All Swab-its cleaning swabs can be cleaned with grease-cutting dish soap and warm water. Rinse them out and blot dry. If you want to clean the swabs faster, use mineral spirits and squeeze out into a paper towel—just don’t do it inside.
There are several products available in the Swab-its lineup. A Bore-whip is a non-metal pull-through cable with a foam tip. It allows you to clean a rifle barrel in the proper direction—from the breech to the muzzle. Many firearms don’t allow for easy cleaning in that direction, but Bore-whips allow you to do the job without major disassembly of the gun being cleaned.
A Bore-stick is a 3-in-1 pistol cleaning rod that replaces the separate rod, jag, and patch. It is a one-piece design with the swab affixed to a flexible plastic handle.
Bore-tips are a bit more conventional, as they consist of a foam tip that screws into a standard cleaning rod. One pass with a Bore-Tip (or, for that matter, a Bore-stick or a Bore-whip) provides 360-degree bore cleaning coverage—something that you can’t do with patches and a jag.
For detailed cleaning in tight places there are Gun-tips, which are sold in a nine-pack of various sizes. They are designed to replace cotton swabs for detail cleaning. Unlike cotton swabs, they leave no lint or fiber behind. And like all the other Swab-its products, they are reusable.
Swab-its sent me a sample package of Bore-tips, Bore-sticks, and Gun-tips. Fortunately, I had a dirty gun laying around (ok, there were several but I chose one), my Beretta M9A1 that I had just finished firing during my police department’s annual qualification. While not filthy dirty, it would give me a chance to get a feel for these products.
I was impressed. I only used Bore-sticks and Gun-tips to clean the Beretta. The Bore-tips would be used for cleaning an AR-15 in the future. But I can report that the two products I used worked exactly as advertised.
It was definitely a new experience using the Bore-sticks. The diameter of the foam tip was just right. Full contact was made with the entire bore on the first pass with solvent. I pushed the stick all the way through and started again. I realized that I had never had a perfect bore fit like this using cleaning patches. Either I used just enough to make contact, or too many and the cleaning rod got stuck in the bore. Not so with the Bore-sticks. Two solvent passes, and a final dry pass, and I was satisfied.
The Bore-tips worked great in the intricate areas around the trigger assembly and hammer mechanism. And again, just as advertised, the tips left no trace behind, and allowed me to get to areas that would have only been easily accessible to a certified Beretta armorer.
It struck me that these products are perfect for bullseye or other precision match pistol and rifle shooters—the folks who know the importance of an un-marred bore. There is no metal in them to contact the bore. If I were still maintaining a sniper rifle as part of a team, I would be sure to use the Bore-whips to maintain it. Of course, Swab-its products are perfect for the average shooter as well.
Prices for Swab-its cleaning tools are priced like products you would expect to throw away. Most of their products are available for $10 or less, depending on type and amount. You can also buy in bulk. If you want to be meticulous as you clean, and are cleaning multiple handguns, you will want to have a supply of Swab-its tools on hand for each gun.
I didn’t expect to be as impressed with Swab-its products as I was. The company has done its homework. Learn more at www.swab-its.com
