No matter how much I scrub a bore with patches and solvent, I can’t get all the copper fouling out. For that, I need to turn to a bore brush, and the general rule of thumb seems to be one complete back and forth stroke for each round fired. 50 rounds fired (which I sometimes will do), and it’s 50 back and forth strokes with a bore brush. The copper literally has to be scraped out of the barrel.
The problem with this, of course, is that a new bore brush takes a lot of force to drive through the bore, and in doing so, the cleaning rod I’m pushing it with flexes if it is not supported while the bore brush is in the bore. That can cause the rod to bear on the chamber entrance or the leade in the chamber, and that can damage the chamber.
The Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit is a contraption that allows you to protect a bolt action rifle’s chamber from the cleaning rod. An added benefit is that it prevents solvent or oil from dripping into the action. The concept is good; the execution is slightly flawed for some firearms in my opinion. That said, I’ll continue to use it on my bolt action rifles.
Here’s how the Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit comes to you:
The pieces include a tube, an end piece with a slot for adding solvent, a sleeve that includes a combination bolt/set screw, an optional bore guide for an AR-15, and three different rubber funnels (for lack of a better word) based on the caliber.
In the photo above, the bore funnel is the red rubber piece on the left end of tube. Its purpose is to align the tube to the barrel. The two red rubber pieces above the tube in the photo above are for different size bores. The brass piece above the tube is the combination set screw/bolt (its use will become clear in another photo below). The stubby black at the top right of the photo above is the AR-15 chamber adaptor. The red rubber piece on the right in the photo above is guide that guides the cleaning rod into the tube. You’ll notice an elliptical cutout in it. The elliptical cutout’s purpose is to allow you to add solvent or oil to the cleaning patch at that point. The idea is to not insert a cleaning rod into the rifle with a solvent or oil soaked patch. This is to prevent the solvent or oil from dripping into the action as the cleaning rod and patch are inserted into the gun.
There are some things I did not like about the Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit.
The above notwithstanding, I think the Tipton Universal Bore Guide Kit is still a good purchase. It seems to work well, and it prevents cleaning rod flex when running a tight-fitting bore brush through a rifle barrel, so it does what I want it to do. I paid $13.01 for mine when I bought it on Amazon. For $13, it’s a decent deal.
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