Hoppe's 24035V BoreSnake Viper Shotgun Bore Cleaner - 12 Gauge Cleaning Kit for Shotgun Maintenance | Perfect for Hunting, Shooting Range & Firearm Care

I have been using bore snakes for about 5 years and have used them for rifle, pistol and now shotgun. I kept putting off getting one of these for my 12 gauge because Im cheap and the cleaning set I had was working fine. Then I bent one of the push rods and I had no other excuse left so I ordered one. I did a lot of searching around and decided on the Viper after reading most of the reviews on about 4 other options.PROS- This bore snake takes about 2 pulls through to get the barrel clean on my 870 after a full day of hunting birds. The bristles are strong and are very efficient at removing carbon from both smooth bore and rifled barrels. I also like the plastic guide on the pull string , that makes it easy to get the snake started without a lot of fuss. One other thing I liked that other snakes did not seem to do was put a heavy cap on the pull string base. Now I’m not sure if its weighted or just heavy duty but I have never had a snake string pull itself down the barrel without some shaking or shoving. The orange lube pad works well only needs a few drops to coat the entire barrel.Good as well as bad- A lot of reviews commented on the durability of the pull string. I have been watching this closely and I do not see any wear and tear. With that being said I can understand why this seems to be an issue as this snake can be a bear to wrestle down the barrel. The fitment is extremely tight and you need to put a fair amount of torque on it to get it pulled down the barrel, especially past the orange sectionCons- the orange lube pad I believe is slightly oversized and tends to be a pain to get into the barrel without pushing it through by hand. It’s just the way it is designed I guess but it could have been slimmer at the very end to ease this issue.Overall- I like this product; it works well and makes quick work compared to using cleaning rods. Even though there are changes I would like to see happen the results greatly outweigh the issues that I spoke about. Get it, you will not regret it, I didn’t.