Bond Arms Snake Slayer [HD] Cleaning & Features

The Bond Arms Snake Slayer is a modern, two-shot derringer that comes in multiple calibers, such as .357 Magnum, .38 Special, .40 S&W, .45 Long Colt, and .410 shotgun shells. It is a single action pistol, with multiple barrel options coming in 2.5", 3.5" and 4.25".

The Snake Slayer has a swing open barrel release and the release lever is easy to operate. The ergonomics on this pistol aren't anything special but for how compact and simple it is, it's not a deal breaker.

The Bond Arms Snake Slayer does have retracting firing pins that alternate to fire each barrel. The grips come standard with rosewood, but you could get aftermarket grips if you prefer.

There's also a push in safety and spent casing extractor, and Bond Arms even makes speed loaders for it. If you're looking for a powerful pocket pistol for concealed carry, then the Snake Slayer may fit the bill!

Here's a transcript of the video:

Today we are going to be showing you how to field strip and properly clean the Bond Arms Snake Slayer. This has been called the new style derringer and these types of pistols have been around since the late 1700’s. Mainly used for personal defense it only has two shots in it, but it does pack a wallop because you can use loads like the .410.

Now we’re going to show you how to take apart and clean the Bond Arms Snake Slayer. Sorry if I chuckle a little bit, for the takedown mentioned but it’s really not that hard to take down or to break apart this firearm. Literally, first what we’re going to do is make sure that the gun is empty and free of any kind of ammunition. As you can see, it is clear and this gun is ready to work on.

But in order to clean it, that’s basically all you need to do right there, is just open up the chamber and just pull down a lever and now it’s ready to clean. All you need is a little hex wrench or a star wrench to take the barrel off and that’s all you really need to do. It’s as simple as taking out this pin and that barrel comes off. That’s pretty much how you disassemble the Bond Arms Snake Slayer.

Of course, you could go more intricately and take out this pin and take off the grips so you can get to the main spring for the hammer but that’s not entirely necessary with this firearm. I have a 45-caliber brush right here and we’re going to start off with out barrel. That’s the other cool thing about these guns, is that you can take these barrels off and you can put different chambered barrels on there. You can get a .38 special, 9mm, whatever you’re most comfortable with.

Like I said, we’re just going to get some gun cleaner in this barrel. Now here I use Hoppe’s Elite Gun Cleaner. It’s great for picking up and breaking down any kind of powder fouling which is like unburnt powder or powder residue and then also copper, brass, anything that has adhered to the metal in your gun. This stuff will help break it down so you can get it out. Now the easiest way that I found to clean out the barrel or at least get a coating of that gun cleaner in there is just to keep that brush on your cleaning rod and wrap your cleaning swab around it. That’s all you need to do.

You do a couple sprays, again there’s two barrels on this so make sure you get the upper and the lower one. That’ll just keep that solution in there and it’ll help start breaking all that down. Now there’s still some cleaner on this so I’m just going to kind of wipe the bore end of the firearm and since there’s not really too much to clean here, I’m just going to put a coating on the bolt face of this firearm.

This isn’t really a bolt; I just call it a bolt face because I tend to say that very often. It’s basically just where your firing pin holes are. I’m going to wipe down the inside and that’s really all you have to do. This gun breaks down further but for field strip purposes and cleaning purposes, that’s about it. If you have any excess powder fouling or anything around your extractor, which is right here, this little part, make sure you take a nylon brush to it. You can even take a toothbrush and scrub it a little bit.

There’s a spring inside here that’s probably good to get with a nylon brush. You can put some gun cleaner; I don’t have any gun cleaner sitting around in there. Something to mention is that this gun cleaner, the Hoppe’s Elite, along with other cleaners, you’re going to want it to sit in your firearm for a good five or ten minutes.

But for the purpose of this video, we just wanted to show you what to use and how to use it. I usually stay away from all oil because oil will attract more dirt and more powder fouling and you’ll end up having to clean your firearm more each time that you use oil. If anything I will use just a small amount, just to give it a little bit of lubricity.

I’ll do that here around the hinge and also near the trigger and that’s about it. Since we have had that cleaner sitting in there, I’m just going to go ahead and take my brush and go in a few times in each barrel. Now as you notice I’m going in through the backside of the barrel. There’s a very short period of rifling in here, about an inch. That’s why I go in through the back.

Again, this is not a gun that’s made for accuracy, but of course every little bit helps, so stay away from the muzzle end of the firearm because this is where your crown is and that’s where the rifling ends and of course if that gets nicked or scratched in some sort of manner, it’ll throw your bullet off when you’re trying to aim properly. This is a gun that you would use within three feet so it’s a point and shoot type of firearm.

Now that we’ve scrubbed it out, I’m going to take one of my patches and wrap it, going through the backside of the barrel and as you can see that’s why we clean our gun and that was just from one barrel. So I’m going to use another clean patch and I’m going to go through the bottom barrel. That’s really all you have to clean. Of course I put some gun cleaner throughout the head and the bolt face. I’m just going to wipe that off.

If there’s a lot of residue you can always take a nylon brush to it but it wasn’t that bad so I’m just using a cleaning swab and of course if any kind of moving parts down in here like the disengage for the barrel. If its not working properly you can take your nylon brush with some gun cleaner then you can use also these q-tips. You can get these q-tips at any kind of gun store but a better option would be to go to Wal-Mart or go to the dollar store and get some regular q-tips. They work just fine.

This will help you get inside any kind of crevices or anything like that. Another area that you might want to address is where the hammer hits the firing pin. Actually just to show you, I’m going to take a little bit of this gun cleaner on this q-tip and I’m going to go throughout this. There’s a little bit of powder fouling coming out of there.

Now of course since I put gun cleaner on there, I want to be able to take it off too so I’m going to take this other clean q-tip and just go through anywhere that I took that q-tip with the gun cleaner on and just wipe it down. You don’t want to leave that gun cleaner inside. Now your Bond Arms Snake Slayer is clean. So now what we’ve got to do is reattach the barrel.

It’s very simple it’s just lining up and taking your star head righty-tighty, lefty-loosey of course. You don’t need to tighten it to the extent where it’s not going to come out but just tight enough then you’re ready to carry for concealed. Now were going to go over some additional details for the Bond Arms Snake Slayer. This firearm comes in a variety of different calibers; .38 Special, .357 Mag, .40 S&W caliber, .45 Long Colt and like this one’s chambered in, .410.

The sight radius is pretty easy to acquire and on the back of the slide you’ve got a rear groove sight and up at the front a fixed blade sight. The barrels are interchangeable, so Bond Arms actually makes several different barrels for this firearm. You can do a two and a half inch barrel, three and a half inch, or four and quarter inch barrel which is great because it allows you to have multiple firearms in one essentially.

Here’s your barrel opening lever and it’s extremely easy to use and find with your thumb and this is your extractor for your spent casings and it makes it really easy to extract the shell casings and load another two rounds. Bond Arms actually makes a speed loader just for this. The ergonomics of this firearm aren’t anything special, you can see it’s pretty wide; it’s a little bit chunky and a little bit heavy. But for what it’s used for it doesn’t need to be anything complicated.

This pistol will be used in a close self-defense situation probably even point-blank. The trigger here has about six pounds of pull pressure on it but it doesn’t have very far to go as you can see here. It is single action and has retracking firing pins that way it’ll alternate between which barrel fires. You do have to pull the hammer back every time you want to fire, like that, and it does have a safety here. The grips don’t have very much texture on them and the come stock with rosewood grips. Of course you can change those out of you wanted to.

This is a fantastic firearm if you’re looking for a small gun that carries a big punch. If you enjoyed this video and want to see more like it, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you have a friend who would enjoy this, share it with them on Facebook. You can always find more videos from us about firearms care, concealed carry best practices, and utilizing the Urban Carry line of products just by searching “Urban Carry Holsters.” That’s it for today and the Bond Arms Snake Slayer. Until next time, keep calm and return fire.