"your snake never lies on a bench top" Actually, no. If I am shooting from a bench, I have along a one piece rod, solvents, jags, oils, patches, portable cleaning station and so forth. And the rod is wiped off right before I push it through the bore.
"you're pulling a dry bronze brush thru your bore?" The brush is bronze, the barrel is steel. If I'm shooting a long string from the bench for practice or what have you, it's not unheard of me pushing a dry brush thru the bore to break up some of the accumulated carbon and follow it with a couple of dry patches and go back to shooting.