This is my first post to the forum. I've seen many questions as to cleaning procedures and break in cleaning. I served in the U.S. Army for 8 years. I did a tour in Iraq fro. 2003 tob2004 back when the ear first started. Steel and even brass cleaning rods will wear your barrel, especially the muzzle/crown. The thing its effective bore cleaning I've found, and the least invasive is as follows...
Obtain a length of 550 cord...36inches should be sufficient.
Tie three half-knots in one end...each approximately .5in from the next.
Thread the non-knotted end through the bore, from breech to muzzle.
Liberally apply CLP to the first knot that will enter the bore...moderate CLP to second knot, leave last knot dry.
Pull cord through barrel...(wrapping free end around cleaning rod will help to give additional grip surface for pulling.

This procedure leaves the bore shiny,  spotless and it doesn't wear the bore. I did this my entire military career and still do so with my civilian rifles.

Cool, man. Thanks for your service.

Sounds like a Bubba Bore Snake.  I like it.  Into my survivalist notebook it goes.  Thanks.

Great tip, got plenty of 550 in the B/O bag.
And yea...Thanks for your service.

I like the concept, and have 300m of 550 cord.

Have you run patches through the bore after the cord to see how well it actually did?

Not if used correctly, and then it would take many years of constant intentionally rubbing the bore with the steel. Which just so happens to not happen when three sections of standard military cleaning rod with a bore brush or eyelet with patch is pulled from breech to muzzle. This is the method that used to be taught in the Infantry. While this simple pull through has merit, it does indeed keep the bore clean enough for field purposes, but it most certainly does not remove most of the fouling, for that you need much more exposure time with the CLP or other quality bore cleaning oil.

It helps if you let the barrel soak in some heavy-duty solvent for at least 20 minutes, then run the boresnake through 3 times. It may not be factory-clean (at the microscopic level), but what guns are after having used them for a while? Looks pretty shiny to me when I'm done with it.

Thanks for your service. I am an Iraq war veteran also and was there in 05.

Your cleaning method is an old trick that the Russians came up with to clean their AK barrels. They tied a few knots in a boot lace, dipped it in solvent and pulled it through a few times.

That being said, brass brushes and rods will not damage anything. Brass is much softer than the steel of the barrel and it is being pushed through very slow with solvent or oil on it. Think about this: every time you fire a live round, you are slamming a bone dry, extremely tight fitting brass bullet down the barrel at over 3,000 feet per second and that takes thousands upon thousands of rounds to wear out the barrel.

Pushing a wet brass brush on the end of a brass rod at less than 1 foot per second isn't going to damage anything, ever.

Plus there's about a zero chance a rod is going to break off and leave you with a blocked bore and no way to get it out.
A boot lace or any other cord.....not so much.

There's a reason the military stopped using the old brush and thong cleaners that used to be kept in the butt trap.
They break.  You're screwed.  In combat.