I've never tried a boresnake (I have never subscribed to reusing a dirty cleaning element) but I do use the Otis stuff. I use Otis primarily when I am away from the gun room (field use) and only when I have to but I do use Otis on my M1A and the Garand and the 10/22's even at home because I was taught to never run anything in the tube the wrong direction so I use Otis on those. I don't have the right setup to run stuff chamber to crown for those firearms. I do take the coated rods, I lean toward the Montana Extreme stuff, on hunts where weight and size don't matter, you know, base camping near a road.
Otherwise, it's a coated, ball bearing equpped rod with a chamber guide. I have a Possum Hollow (yard sale item but I'll eventually buy more, it's slick) that works for most the long action 30 cal stuff and I use the Wheeler thing for everything else.
Always chamber to crown with anything that contacts the bore. Remove the jag or whatever after it exits the bore before retrieving the rod/cable.
I try to never run a brush. When I do, it's an older brush wrapped with a patch. I'm not saying that a brush is bad but I was taught to not use a brush unless it's an old bore that has pits and such and even then only sparingly. I recently cleaned my bothers Sporter '03 he bought from the friend of a friend of a friend and I used a brush and maybe 2-300 patches before all the fouling was out of that barrel. It borescoped in beautiful condition and the accuracy improved greatly.
Here's my regimen:
1) I wet a patch with Butch's Bore Shine (copper removal) and run it through the bore with a half caliber undersized jag (so, if it's a 7.62 bore, I use my 7mm jag, 7mm...use a 6.5). Let it sit for 12 minutes, no more.
2) Run another BBS patch with a caliber correct jag. Inspect for blue/green.
3) Immediately remove the BBS with caliber correct jag/patches and Naptha (Zippo Lighter fluid is primarily Naptha but you can buy Naptha at Home Depot for far less $) You don't want that copper removal stuff to contact the bore for more than about 15 minutes. I run Naptha patches until I get a real clean patch.
4) If I did find blue/green on step 2, I start again at step 1, repeat until no copper detected.
5) If no copper detected, I start with Hoppe's #9 on jagged patches and run them until I get a real clean patch. Other carbon/powder/lead solvents will work and maybe better.
6) Run Naptha patches until those are real clean.
7) Start again at step 5. Repeat until clean.
8) Run a patch with the WD40 long term corrosion inhibitor stuff.
Before I go shoot/hunt, I run a Naptha patch or 2 through the bore and shoot at least 2 fouling shots prior the critical shot(s).
I know all the fairly recent discourse about cleaning too much but, old habits die hard (post 13) and I'd rather my accuracy not fall off due to a lack of cleaning. Besides, in my possibly limited experience (I've only been shooting for 5+ decades and only shot out maybe 6 or 8 barrels, others have vastly more experience), I have not noticed a degradation in accuracy that I can blame on a clean barrel and I have never shot so many rounds that the accuracy has degraded due to a fouled rifle. I clean it if I have fired anything more than the fouling shots and I plan to store it for more than just a few days or, if I've been in wet conditions, every evening.
