How many people use Bore Guides when cleaning their guns?

I use them on any rifle that I have that can be cleaned from the breech. On the others I use a cone shaped protector on the muzzle. I like the ones that Sinclair sell.

I have never owned or used a bore guide in my 50 years of shooting/ cleaning; I have never noted any negative effect to my rifles by not using one but I am not sure that I would know what to look for. Since I am careful when I clean my firearms, maybe I circumvent the kind of damage that I hear about. I am sure that a bore guide adds to the overall quality of the cleaning process - it certainly will fall into the category of cheap insurance - I have never used one.

This is the first I've heard of a bore guide. I'm careful when I clean but my normal method is nontypical . I use a wooden dowel usually or for guns that are tough to get to the breech, a wad of choreboy tied to a length of paracord . I will look into it further but I don't know if I'll become a believer, basically all my gun cleaning supplies can be bought for a couple bucks at any hardware store. Cut up t-shirts for patches, qtips, tooth picks, you get the picture. I've spent hundreds over the years on cleaning stuff and haven't had anything wow me, so I just keep it simple. Works for me.

Get a generic multi-caliber bore guide such as Tipton. Look up ''Tipton Universal Bore Guide.'' Covers all caliber I think excludes .17hmr. Centers your rod going down the bore, no potential of damage to throat etc.

Forced to clean from muzzle, I guess sometimes the solution is too simple, use a bore foam i.e. WipeOut, leave it set for a few hours/ longer is better, spray the blue goo that was in the bore out the end. If you really want to get fancy put some oil on a boresnake & pull it through.

Or better yet just borefoam for everything followed by a pull through snake with some XXXbrand oil. Raise your right hand, repeat after me; ''I will never nick, ding, or otherwise ever~ever hurt my barrel chamber, throat, muzzle , or anything inbetween using XXXbrand borefoam.''

Garand Collector's Assoc. did an experiment on this issue. They found that using the most aggressive methods to ruin the muzzle the experimenters would ruin their rotator cuffs before the muzzle got another point on the MW gauge.

I have a bore guide. I seldom use it. I do use a top quality one piece cleaning rod with care.

I don't use them but I've thought about it. I don't think it can be a bad thing and it can only help.


However.... to me, wiping off the rod 1st is as habitual as shaking the orange juice before I pour a glass.

And with just a minimal amount of effort, there is generally very little rod to barrel contact..... and that the rod is a soft-ish material on relatively hard rifle barrel..... and all at room temperatures.

I dont think that those conditions are any worse than shooting the gun in the 1st place with the bullet screaming out of it with horrendously hot caustic gases filling it heating up the barrel to untouchable temps only to be followed by many many many more shots.



Now, if I was a precision shooter, Id use it because when competing in any sport, you're always searching for the elusive Nth degree of any possible advantage.

I am among the cleaning proletariat. I use a 3 piece aluminum rod, without a bore guide. Yes, it's savagery, I know. While I don't compete in rifle games, I live a happy and contented life.

Two varieties intended for British Enfields.

P5 Guy said:

... They found that using the most aggressive methods to ruin the muzzle the experimenters would ruin their orator cuffs before the muzzle got another point on the MW gauge.

Click to expand...

Their rotator cuffs, too.

Nope, I'm just careful The guns I've shot the most and cleaned the most never had any damage from the heavy cleaning I used to do back then. Now I'm just lazy and only clean them when they have had dirty ammo, or a lot of ammo put through them.

I literally have to clean my guns after every use or even the stainless ones will rust up solid in days (if not mins, stupid hawaii weather). So for the simple fact that a rifle may get cleaned every week or two for its whole life, I use bore guides and coated one piece rods religiously.

A guy who'd been on a lot of hunting trips to Africa said his PH used empty brass with the primer socket drilled out to fit the rod. The case also functioned as protection for the bronze brush when not in use. Cheap and functional and can be made in camp.

GBExpat said:

Their rotator cuffs, too.

Click to expand...

Yeah I know, I need to proof read better

I was cleaning a rifle I bought yesterday and decided to make one of the "Safari" style bore guides. I'll report back once the barrel is clean.



Edit:

It actually collects a fair amount of gunk that would otherwise end up in the chamber, the tip of the brush changes direction inside the neck so it gets a bit tousled but for field work that's ok.

Best feature is as a brush case, I've got a few brushes full of unidentified lint and fluff and god knows what so I'll definitely make one for each of my rifles.

I'll expect thay the brush will fit entirely within the body of the 30-06, being a good 1/4" longer

This is definitely a carryover of the hyper accuracy precision shooting world that many of the normies have also decided to adopt in an attempt to get just a little closer to being one of the real thing without putting in any of the work.

Nonetheless, I’m sure it does more good than harm. Like I said, I use one. Not always but really it was just a fun lathe project.

I never have.

Then again, I'm one of those simple grunts, that for 28 years used an Army issue segmented steel rod to clean my Army issue weapon. They give out kits with coated cables a lot these days too. I do like these, but you can't hunt rabbits with them like you can a blank, and a section of cleaning rod... lol. I've really only been buying civilian rifles since I retired in '09. Prior to that, I've owned maybe 4 or 5 rifles my entire life. Now I have 9 at the same time. (Yay for me) Can't shoot them all in the same day, and I don't get to the range every week, so it's not like I'm doing it that often.

One thing I've got used to is the easy storage of the segmented rods. I like the little green pouch that you can attach to your gear, throw in your vehicle, your tool box, whatever... If I were to use some fancy one piece aluminium, or brass rod then I'd have to worry about finding a safe spot for this long, skinny, easy to bend thing, and I sure as heck couldn't use it in the field. What if I trip, and plug the barrel in mud, or the extractor breaks, and I need to punch out a fired case...

I do have a number of the modern alternatives... the Bore Snake. I know, I know... a Bore Snake is the Blackhawk Serpa of the gun cleaning world... but they work for me. Scrunch it up, store in a zip-lock, stuff anywhere. Once they get too filthy, and I think there may be a bunch of bad crap embedded in it... it gets replaced. Now, I do have a couple of nice bolt guns now, so I may try getting some bore guides, and one piece rods for them, but in all honesty, no more than they get shot, it's probably not needed.

I have them but never use them. I am very careful about "putting it in the hole"
Seriously , one needs a "guide" to clean and AR 15 ?? Even a high class bolt action, just slide it in.
Brass jag and aluminum or composite rod. Brass bullets go down the bore all the time with carbon and nasty other stuff.?

Yet so many people use "Bore Snakes" and run the same fouled dirt filled rope in their barrels over and over.!

Amazing that none of my Revolvers have ever seen a "guide" and the get cleaned from the muzzle all the time!

How many use an action cleaning set and clean the lug recess area as well as the chamber?
Just curious
J

I will admit that I do not clean the bores of my firearms after every use. I do it after I reach a certain round count or after use in poor weather. That said I have never used a bore guide either. Do keep in mind that my firearms are not anywhere near match quality nor are my shooting skills. I have a couple .22 rifles that have seen close to 200K rounds that still shoot as good as when new so my methods seem to work just fine to me. I have shot out barrels due to throat erosion and cleaning them never seemed to degrade the accuracy so far as I could tell.
I may have to revisit this with some research.

Never used one. Heck, I've never even seen one.

I have a one piece cleaning rod coated with nylon or teflon or something.
I feel silly, but I had no idea that so many people used these things.

I have a multi-caliber Tipton bore guide I use for all of my rear-accessible guns....except one. I have a target rifle where I got a caliber-specific guide from Sinclair. On that gun I also clean the bolt lugs and use a chamber swab/mop.

Not sure if it makes any difference.....but I do it anyway: When I'm cleaning that gun with a brush - after the brush exits the bore at the muzzle - I remove the brush from the rod so when the rod is brought back through the bore nothing is attached to the rod. I admit the only benefit of doing that may be me trying to satisfy certain obsessive behaviors I have.