cleaning rod help

[greyling22]

is there a best style cleaning rod?

aluminum and brass apparently pick up grit and turn into files, coated steel rods pick up some grit and the coating gets damaged, and steel rods make me a little nervous.

and how important is the bore guide really? I've mostly shot lead out of carbines, but have started shooting more and more bolt action semi-precision stuff, and my gun cleaning kit is.....basic. By the time you add optics and all the reloading gear, not to mention time invested in putting it all together and getting to the range, I'd hate to screw up a a barrel because I was too cheap to buy a $30 cleaning rod or whatever. (rifles are small bore. 223, 257. )

 

[rcmodel]

aluminum and brass apparently pick up grit and turn into files,

I have seen no evidence of that in the past 55 years of using cleaning rods.

I use one-piece Kleen-Bore stainless steel rifle, or brass pistol rods.
http://store.safariland.com/kleen-bore/onepiecekits.html

Jointed rods are likely to do more damage then what the rod is made out of, because each joint is a rough edge when it runs across the muzzle crown..

rc

 

[Snag]

I'm a fan of Tipton one piece graphite rods.

http://www.midwayusa.com/find?&sortby=1&itemsperpage=20&dimensionids=4294846261&newcategorydimensionid=4055

 

[45crittergitter]

+1 on Tipton non-metallic 1-piece rods.

 

[slowr1der]

I'm also a big Tipton fan. It's all I'd use.

 

[greyling22]

ok, tipton it is. how about a bore guide? can I get away without one? never used one before, but that doesn't mean I was correct, and I was broke. and young. (some things never change.)

 

[45crittergitter]

Cleaning from the breech, the guide mostly keeps crud out of the action. Cleaning from the muzzle, you need it to keep from dragging attachments and crud against your rifling.

 

[BADUNAME37]

If one is careful to wipe the rod after each pull through the bore, and if one is careful about not scraping the bore or muzzle with the rod, it is possible to clean a rifle, any rifle, without wearing anything out.

I prefer to push a clean rod through from the muzzle, then at the receiver apply a patch into the slotted jag, then slowly pull straight out from the receiver to the muzzle.

Also, I keep the three sections about one turn loose, and I twist the rod as I am carefully pulling, so the rod will rotate with the rifling.

I have cleaned guns forever this way and have yet to make an accurate tack-driver anything but accurate, and CLEAN.

 

[A-FIXER]

Good choice on the tipton and just get there universal bore guide kit spend the extra and get the one with the AR fittings.