Here's a great way to help the guys overseas, especially if they go outside the wire at all. Many of the them run out of gun cleaning supplies. If you had to do it twice a day while living in the sandbox, you'd understand why this happens so often. Send over packs of those cheap dime-store or Home Depot paint brushes. The 3/4" and 1" wide ones work well on rifles, and the bigger ones like 2" wide brushes work great on the .50 BMG's and Mk 19's etc... Also you can send handfuls of the el-cheapo tooth brushes. Even used ones if you boil them.. be courteous, tell the soldiers they've been boiled. Toothbrushes work great on gun parts. Another good idea is to go to www.hoppes.com and click on the flag for "Support the Troops - Project Bore Snake." This will take you to project bore snake.org. A bore snake is Hoppe's brand name for a special barrel cleaning rope that you can pull through a gun barrel in and clean it in a jiffy. On the project bore snake page you can click on the link to purchase one snake, or even dozens if you wish. You can even buy pre-assembled kits of 4 or 8 units (for different calibers) or mix and match as you se fit for the guys you are supporting. If you are not knowledgeable of weapons, here's a quickie list: M16's and M4's are .223 caliber Most sidearms are 9mm or .45 caliber Most squad auto weapons (SAWs) can use a .30 caliber snake Browning Machine Guns (BMGs) are .50 caliber Some men carry shotguns, which will be 12 gauge Here's the best part: buying on the bore snake site enables you to get them at a huge discount below retail, donations and purchases through project bore snake are all tax deductible, and they will ship directly to any soldier's address which you provide. Last but not least, you should send gun cleaning solutions and lubricant. There are several brands that are mailable, but if you can't send anything like this, it's not the end of the world. From my experience and correspondence from them, most of the guys seem to be able to get enough - unless they are really remote. They will let you know. Hope this helps.... Steve R.

Steve,
What a great and extremely useful post.  I have been trying to piece together bits of info on this for the past few weeks.  You put this the puzzle together perfectly.  I will be printing out this summary and it will have it's own page in my AS notebook. 
Thank you so much,
Kaylynn

I just bought the Walmart pre-assembled cleaning kits. Hope that was suficient for them. Also, my guys asked for q-tips.  They said they used them on their guns.

Steve,

Thanks for the helpful info.  Another thing is shaving brushes.  We found a drugstore closeout in 2004 and bought 4 and sent 2 of them to our grandson in Anbar Province, Iraq, who was using a SAW.  We sent the other two to another unit.  We had heard about using those before we heard about the pain brushes.

Gran

You might want to check out the earlier posts regarding the bore snakes, too....(hope this is the right link).

 http://forum.anysoldier.com/forums/p/6278/36305.aspx#36305

Steve and all,

 

I just read on the www.ProjectBoresnake.org site that they have ceased operations.  I have copied part of what I see, but it indicates that troops can now order the materials directly.  Let your troops know.  See below.

 

 

Project Bore Snake Has Ceased Operations

In September 2008, after raising over $210,000 and shipping nearly 32,000 bore snakes, "the Project" was informed that the U.S. military procurement system is now satisfying requests for bore snakes. US troops may order bore snakes using these National Stock Numbers (NSN):

-->

.223 Cal.	1005015238701
9mm	1005014770932
.45 Cal.	???
.30 Cal.	1005014782261
.50 Cal.	1005014782263
12 Ga.	1005014770933

 

 

AS Junkies, I have purchased and sent some of those preassembled gun cleaning kits from WalMart and they were well-received....and ON CLEARANCE SALE these last few weeks. Check out their sporting goods departments.

 

Debbie

empressfrancis,

Thanks very much for the update!  I didn't realize they stopped that program, the last batch of snakes that I sent over was in July.  But, for those of you who want to send a snake anyway, most gun stores and sporting goods stores carry them.  Even though the military procurement system is in place for them, it doesn't necessarily mean that all the troops know it yet.  Keep up the good work all!!      Steve R.