I have a Hawkeye borescope, and recently tested a boresnake on a .22 rimfire rifle. While not a Luger, this might help you with your understanding of how they work. The rifle had uniform, grey fouling in the barrel from 300 rounds of target ammo. There was a little bit of leading and copper fouling present also. I used a brand-new Boresnake with Hoppes 9 solvent and in 1 pass it got rid of most of the visible powder fouling. Nine more passes with the Boresnake made no significant difference to the visible cleanliness of the barrel. The origin of the lands at the throat was sharply defined, and for shooting purposes (not preservation purposes) I could have gone back to shooting the rifle, although not with best accuracy. It did not do anything to remove the leading and very little to remove the copper fouling.
I then cleaned with a bronze brush, solvent and patches as usual, and got a good bit more fouling out of the barrel. Result: I consider the Boresnake a very useful tool for a quick/rough cleaning (especially in the field or on the range, say to get sand out of a rifle, etc.) when it is more convenient than a rod, patches and brushes. But it will never replace them in my cleaning kit.
Hope this helps,
John
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John
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