For those of you who want a bore guide but refuse to spend more than $1.65 for this convenience, this should do the trick for you.

I trimmed mine with a utility knife just so it slides nicely against the first shoulder of the chamber. The larger flanged end sits by the buffer. To assist in removing it when I'm done, I tied a short length of paracord using a nail knot.

A small length of appropriately sized pvc would work as well and be even cheaper but this seems to work fine so far. enjoy.

Really?? That's what you think of your rifle??

Nice right? Works great!

I like it.

Hmmmm...my Otis cable doesn't need a bore guide. I would dremel an opening on the top to apply your solvent. With a clean eye dropper of course.

Brilliant, "The Crapper Bore Guide"  one could make a fortune.

It's not a rod guide, that's for sure.

The Army didn't give me a bore guide...

After researching what a bore guide is, I'm rather mystified by why use one. I've been using rifles and shotguns for over 50 years and cleaning them that long. My Dad was adamant that every firearm be thoroughly cleaned after every use. So I always have and have never left a dirty firearm for more than 24 hours.

I have never heard of or used a bore guide. They seem rather useless to me and only designed to separate a person from their money. Just my opinion of course.

All of the cleaning rods I have used have either a slotted bronze end piece for the patch or a bronze or synthetic bristle brush. Now I admit that it is probably possible to damage hardened steel with bronze, but I think it would take a determined person to do so and maybe some people cleaning barrels are just such people. But it seems to me that it would become apparent to them from the effort being expended that they are damaging something.

I think that if the bronze slotted end pieces or bristle brush was damaging the barrel with "normal" usage, the damage would have become visible to me on bore inspection after 50 years. Now I have heard of steel bore brushes, but why anybody would buy them is beyond my understanding since they could definitely damage something.

Also, I have been seeing bore snakes around for a long time, but never bothered with one. The rods worked. Yesterday I purchased one for my new 20" 5.56 mm barrel. Used it on the new barrel to see how it works and it works very well.  Also, it would seem that by lowering the bronze end weight into the barrel, it would be extremely difficult to damage the barrel extension or the barrel.

So, I am left with wondering why a bore guide????

A borescope of a couple hundred barrels that have been religiously cleaned without a rod guide illuminates their necessity. If you clean barrels.

I've seen a great number of rifles with throats washed out from 4-8 o'clock due to the abrasive action of a rod, and this is with high quality Dewey and Tipton rods.

Would/Could the same damage be caused by the use of a bore snake instead of a rod? After having used the bore snake, I like the ease with which it is possible to clean the barrel with one. Or are there other disadvantages to using a bore snake?

After rereading your post, I think I understand that you are saying the rods cause the damage from repeated usage. Many, many usages. Right?

If so, then I can understand why I have never seen the same damage since I have only ever cleaned the firearm (including the bore) after use. "Use" for me means "hunting" since my only range experience is visiting trap shooting events with my Dad 50+ years back. As such, I only cleaned our rifles/shotguns 2 or 3 times  per year during the appropriate hunting season. So after 50 years I would only have cleaned the Deer rifle 50 times and the shotgun 150 times max.  Could that amount of cleaning produce the damage you have seen?

I guess that if a person is visiting a rifle range weekly or monthly, then they could quickly accumulate the damage you report. If I am misunderstanding or reading your post wrong, please correct me.

Also, I think you are saying that it wasn't the rod ends, but the length of the rod rubbing against the chamber throat that caused the damage. Correct?

If the bronze rod ends or brushes were causing the damage, it seems that I would be apparent the length of the bore would also be washed out with the rifling almost gone(?). So the bore guide is only to protect the chamber throat and not the length of the bore.

Yeah, you got a handle on it.

A boresnake wouldn't do that, but they can also come apart inside the bore.