Review: Swab-its

As much fun as the shooting sports are, once the fun is over you need to take care of your equipment.  This includes cleaning your firearms.  Contrary to popular belief, your firearms do need to be cleaned and lubed to maintain proper function and accuracy. 

Everyone is familiar with the standard cleaning kit consisting of cleaning rod, brass bore brush and cotton patches.  These have worked well for many decades.  But they do have their own disadvantages.  A traditional patch does not conform to the round shape of the bore and you end up using numerous patches to obtain a clean bore.  A bore patch does not reach into the nooks and crannies of modern semi-auto firearms.  You could use old-fashioned Q-tips, but they are made of cotton which leaves cotton fuzz everywhere, they are short and don’t have flexible shafts.  Finally, you end up with a pile of trash to be thrown away. 

Now there is something better to help clean your firearms.  Bore-tips and Gun-tips by Swab-its (Swab-its).  Both of these items use a lint-free synthetic material that is washable and reusable.  No more throwing away piles of cotton patches or Q-tips. 

Gun-tips:

Gun-tips are simply a synthetic Q-tip with a plastic, flexible shaft.  They are great for getting into the nooks and crannies of modern firearms.  They come in various sizes and lengths and do an excellent job of cleaning the junk out of your firearm.  Another great use is to help apply lubrication.  You can put the lubrication where you want it instead of spraying lube everywhere and hoping it goes to the right lubrication points.  Just pick the one you need to help with your cleaning. 

Sample of Gun-tips

Use Gun-tips to clean into deep pockets. 

Great for applying lube where you want it

Bore-tips:

Bore-tips are a caliber specific combination of cleaning jag, bore mop and cleaning patch in one.  Bore-tips thread onto a standard cleaning rod and can be used to apply cleaning solution to the bore as well as removing loose particulates (just like a cloth cleaning patch or cleaning jag) once the brass brush has been run through several times.  Due to being round in shape and conforming to the shape of the bore the Bore-tip is more efficient than traditional cleaning patches.  They are also great for applying a uniform coat of oil to the inside of the bore for long-term storage.  

Sample Bore-tips

Bore-tip replaces cleaning jag, bore mop and cleaning patch

Use as cleaning jag, bore mop and cleaning patch

 Conclusion:

I like both of these products from Swab-its and think they will be a useful addition to your cleaning kit.

They may seem expensive but they are washable and reusable.  In the long run you should save money and reduce waste going to the landfill and more efficiently clean your firearms.

-Mez

11/13/2014

Do Your Magazines A Favor...

...clean them.

I spent a good hour today cleaning a gun I'd borrowed from a friend of mine.  With the help of one of the guys at the gun shop, I gave it a deep cleaning, which I'd never done before.

I love BoreSnakes - they are amazing for field cleaning your weapons at the end of the day.  Because I'd used the BoreSnake after I went shooting, the deep cleaning wasn't half as bad as it could have been.  The drawback to using a BoreSnake is that you have to have one for each caliber you shoot, but it works so well, I don't mind owning one per caliber.

In addition to cleaning my friend's gun, I tore apart his magazines and cleaned those, too.  Here's a big, BIG tip for magazines.  Don't over lubricate them and then drop them on the ground, as a lot of IPSC shooters do.  The oil attracts the dirt, which gums up the magazine spring and can cause feed problems.  And it's just plain gross.  One of the mags that I cleaned today had a furry black spring that looked like a coiled up caterpiller (I forgot to take pictures, I was so grossed out).

As long as you don't make a habit of dropping your magazines on the ground (one of my pet peeves, just put the damn thing in a pocket or back in the mag carrier), you shouldn't have to clean you magazines very often, but be sure to do it on a fairly regular basis.  The last thing you want is a preventable mis-feed in an emergency.