so i have heard from multiple sources (and it is generally accepted as common knowledge) that bore brushes (of the metal verity) can age a barrel prematurely.. would those hopes bore snakes with the brushes in the front end (and cloth for the rest) quality as one of these, and would these hurt the barrel as bad/at all?

While metal brushes can wear a barrel a bit... they are always made of much softer metal than the barrel itself. More damage is done by metal cleaning rods with grit on them than by brushes.

Go brushless with WIPE-OUT

The .22" boresnakes are fine.  It's when your buddy runs your 9mm boresnake down the .223" bbl that issues occur.

dont worry about it

No, they do not damage a barrel any more than a bullet passing through the bore.  The bristles are brass, much softer than barrel steel.

Most of my bore cleaning is with nylon brushes and cotton patches, with an occasional application of Wipeout.  Cotton is made up of hydrocarbons and lignans - mineral compounds that have some abrasive qualities.  Given enough time, cotton will wear down ordnance steel.  

As for boresnakes, I've never used one, but I've always wondered about them getting dirty after a few uses, then pulling that dirty cord through your barrel, possibly leaving some dirt behind in the process.  Is that a valid concern? - CW

You can wash the boresnake.  The claim by Hoppes is there is far more surface area on the boresnake then in any number of cotton patches.

Kind of goes to (clean to much you wear it out) ridiculousness.  Never will a cleaning implement put more stress on the barrel than being fired.  The bore snakes are quite handy and a quick wash takes care of previous dirt.  

The bullets being fired out of the barrel will wear out the barrel well before any noticeable wear is introduced by the boresnake. It's easy, convenient and quick - and you can wash the boresnake to have it clean for the next time around.

I agree with the posts above.
If you are concerned about the "damage" a dirty bore snake will do, realize that all the dirt on your boresnake was previously in your barrel.  Every bullet that you fire is squeezing an oversided bullet down to the diameter of your bore and pushing it through all the dirt from the previous shots at greater than the speed of sound.
If you think a dirty borse snake will damage your gun, you should certainly NEVER fire more than one bullet before cleaning your barrel..  And since you know that cleaning barrels "does more damage than shooting them" (oft quoted on ARF.com) then you basically should just replace your barrel after every shot.

I've recently read a well thought out article about rimfire cleaning, and in it author mentions using nylon brushes since brass will eventually wear down the edges of the rifling... Makes me wonder what shooting a bullet down the bore (especially one that has carbon/powder residue etc it) would do!  I'll never shoot my rimfires again!  Don't want to ruin those barrels!

ETA: the one thing about snakes that does make sense, is to be careful to pull them out in line with the barrel and not at an angle.  If you pull at an angle you could potentially cause some eccentric wear to the crown, and that could effect accuracy (probably only noticeable in a super precision benchrest type of gun)

I know British ordnance inspectors in WWI found that their pull through bore cleaners were eroding muzzles, but if I'm not mistaken, they were on a chain.

This.

And the snake is made of cloth, so it has some give to it...

Don't worry about it - this is more myth than reality.  GCA did a study in 2009, where they used a sectional steel rod on a new barrel and rubbed a full stoke 35,000 times, while purposely pressing against the wall of the barrel.  Increased erosion from this was measured to be negligible, compared to bullet wear.

Abrasion isn't the issue, hot high velocity gas etching is the issue.