so.... i havent cleaned my rifle in say 4 months. by that i mean the bore, as i always wipe down the outside and the bolt.
heres the deal. i had read in the gun rags and on this forum that cleaning without a bore guide was potentialy very harmfull to the bore and throat of my rifle. so after shooting about three boxes of ammo i decided it was time, and i ordered a guide off midway. i just started the process, and whoa is it dirty. im glad i can now resume my normal regimin of cleanin between every box. i know its not neccisary, but i shoot more at targets than deer, and im still testing factory ammo for it.
I don't use a bore guide, never had a problem with wear/damage etc.
In my opinion if you use a good, one piece coated rod then you don't run a high risk of doing damage to the throat area, like you would with a two piece aluminum setup.
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God Bless the United States Military
With today's modern smokeless powder it's not too much of a concern about the powder damaging or pitting the barrel. However though the copper fouling can be a problem if left for a long time. I use a good copper solvent and let it soak for about 3 minutes and then run some solvent through it again and turn the gun upside down to get the other half of the barrel exposed to the cleaner. Repeat the process until the patches no longer come through blue or green. After that take a flashlight and look at the first couple of inches of the muzzle end and if you still see the copper color in the barrel, repeat until the copper residue is no longer visible. Works for me and it increases the value of the weapon when you sell the gun and someone looks down the bore and it looks new.
There is a lot of truth to bore and muzzle wear,proven time and again by the military having to clean so much but also by civilians cleaning a lot.A bore guide is a help in preventing throat erosion and an absolute must when cleaning from the muzzle,unless you are one of the lucky ones smart enough to use a bore snake. ,,,sam.
i also bore snake at the range. for the copper i use hoppes benchrest.
it seems to work really well, much better than regular hoppes on copper.
i also use a one piece rod. and i dont put brushes in my barrels, although
i have been toying with getting a jag of the appropriat size.
what do you guys use to get the copper out.
I'm going to take my cleaning rods and Loc-Tite them together (except where they swivel) and then slip heat shrink tubeing over them and heat.
I've heard that a soft coated rod could result in scratches in the bore due to the soft coating picking up micron sized dirt and dragging it along the bore. I like to use Shooters' Choice - Copper for copper fouling. It's a bit expensive, but I would rather pay now than a lot later for a new barrel. I also love their plastic formula for my trap gun. I have brushed it till it shines like new and put that stuff in there and let it soak, it resembled paint after you apply pain stripper.
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Gun cleaning 
