Stainless steel cleaning rods

Yes. The stainless rod is harder than your barrel. You stand a good chance of damaging your crown or chamber throat. IF you use a bore guide and are carefull when you push out the muzzel, you might be ok but I dont want to take a chance.

The only time I use a stainless rod is on shotguns. Dewey coated rods are cheap enough that anyone can afford them and they want damage your barrel.

The benefit of a hard steel rod is that dirt won't embed in it like it can in an aluminum or coated rod.

John

If I use a cleaning rod, I like fiberglass. The critical area stainless steel rods can damage is the muzzle.

Mostly though, I've pretty much went with bore snakes.

No problem.
They are as good as it gets.

Just get the one-piece rods, Not the jointed ones!

Thats all I use, and all I have used for years.
Two rifle and a handgun.
Mine are Kleen-Bore brand.

http://store.safariland.com/kleen-bore/product386.html

rc

Yes. The stainless rod is harder than your barrel.

Click to expand...

Can this even be close to the truth?

Probably.

It is probably harder then a mild steel .22 RF barrel.

Might not be harder then a 4140 ordnance steel centerfire barrel.

But it doesn't matter anyway.

They are polished, and can't harm any barrel, unless you use it like a pool cue on the muzzle crown!

The point is, they are too hard for grit & grime to become embedded in them like a plastic coated rod or an aluminum rod, and there are no hard abrasive fibers in them like a carbon-fiber rod.

rc

I use one piece stainless rods almost exclusively - I also use a bore guide whenever possible and cleaning stand. The rod itself doesn't touch the bore much anyway, doesn't embed with particles or have any sharp joint edges. Good stuff IMO

Can't speak for anyone else but here goes:

I wouldn't have a problem if;

I had a good bore guide

Only pulled the end fittings from receiver to bore

and

Was able to attach end fittings at receiver with relative ease


Otherwise, not a chance that I'd push one through a bore out of fear of bowing.

My rods have lasted much longer since I invested in a couple of rod cases - powder coated aluminum. I never could find a safe place in the car for a bare rod or two.

www.sinclairintl.com/gun-cleaning/c...291_a_7c3470_a_7c749011460_d_749002939_d_5739

It's cheaper to make one out of plastic pipe.

John

So which is worse - soft metal rods that can't hurt the barrel directly but can hold grit that can, or harder steel rods that won't hold foreign material but that have the ability to cause direct wear?

If you wipe the crap off of them they won't wear the bore!

You guys are making a mountain out of a mole hill if you think a polished stainless steel 1-piece cleaning rod with a built-in brass bore guide and a ball-bearing handle is going to harm a bore!!





Heck, we used to clean our 1,000 yard match rifles in 5th. Army AMU with phosphate coated, jointed M-14 cleaning rods!


You won't live long enough to see it if a stainless rod ever wears a bore I betcha!

rc

Rc nailed it....again.

+1 to RC's comment above.
A Stainless steel cleaning rod is likely to be made from a common alloy such as 300 series. (Most likely 304) 300 series alloys are not hard and shouldn't pose a problem if used with reasonable care. A muzzle or bore guide would be a plus.


NOW,.. if you OCD types really want something to keep you awake at night obsessing over, consider this!
....Clean bare aluminum oxidizes almost immediately when exposed to the air, This oxide coating is Aluminum oxide.
Aluminum oxide is very hard & sharp! so much so they make sand paper & grinding wheels out of !
Sweet dreams! HaHa!



Hope everyones New Year is a Blessed one!

Don't feel alone!
Apparently nobody knows what the best cleaning rods are.

We all have our favorites, and we all have good arguments for & against everything else.

Just be aware that jointed rods are more likely to ding a crown, or pull apart in the bore and get stuck.

Pick accordingly for a home shop cleaning rod.

Jointed rods have a place in the grand scheme of things too though.
That being a rod you can pack hunting or in the field or the range to knock out the mud after you slip and fall down.

Don't try that with a Bore-Snake.

rc

I also use the S/S rods that RC recommends along with a rod guide.

Only time i deviate from this is cleaning a lever, pump, semi auto in .22 rimfire. I then use the weed whacker line option.

I have no use whatsoever for the bore snake.

I don’t understand the "rod embedded with grit" argument.

If it is grit that is left over from the firing of a cartridge, then the firing of that cartridge and another cartridge and another cartridge, etc. will cause more damage to the bore than me running a "grit embedded" aluminum, plastic or carbon cleaning rod a couple/three dozen times down it.

If it is grit (dirt, sand, dust, etc.) that has found its way into the bore at the range, then once it becomes imbedded in the cleaning patch, swab or brush and I continue to push that patch, swab or brush through the bore of my firearm, the same "embedded with grit" argument holds.

I don't know anyone who throws away their bore brush after just one use and the brush is in contact with the bore for the entire duration of the cleaning stroke so are we damaging the bore by using an old "embedded with grit" brush?

I doubt any of us are damaging the bore of our firearms or even the crown (to the point where accuracy falls off of the table) by using stainless, aluminum, plastic or carbon cleaning rods.

Use what you're comfortable with and can afford to use.

All the best,
Steve

Steve, you need to have a long talk with a benchrest shooter and/or one of the masters that make barrels for them.

JCWIT...you are probably correct, though I know I don't clean my barrel after every shot ;-)

All the best,
Steve

Neither does any bench rest shooter that I know of.

A couple that I have talked to stated they swabbed with Kroil on a regular basis.

The limiting factor to my precision is me and certainly not my firearms or the cleaning rods I have used.

All the best,
Steve