What is the best cleaning rod material for stainless steel  barrel? Thanks.

Get a COATED DEWEY rod,do not use anything else/this is the advice in ALL the good ar15 books.Also,do not use stainless brushes in bore/nylon is preferred.

The best rod is one that does not touch the bore.
Buy yourself a good rod guide with a straight solid stainless or coated rod.
You will get what you pay for.

QUALITY coated one piece,or QUALITY hardened stainless one piece rod.

From there it takes on a Ford VS Chevy flavor.

I have used both coated and uncoated over the years,and have many Accuracy 'smith  friends that will argue over the two to no end and no real winner.

I have been using Dewey products for years now and am kinda used to them and find them "Comfy".Before that I always used Parker Hale.I also have a couple of Pro shot rods but the things aren't as "Framilliar" to me and mostly sit,though they are outstanding in quality.

From a personal standpoint I can tell you that the Dewey coated rods WILL NOT hurt your rifles bore if used properly with a quality guide and good practices.
From there "Best" becomes subjective as your personal habits will evolve during the cleaning process(Visions of chickens feet,and tongue of bat are proper)that you adopt.

You really do get what you pay for.Buy it once and cry a little.It's worth it in the end.

Best of luck!
E4E

I use a 36" Boretech rod and a Sinclair rod guide w/ solvent port on my 24" barrel. Seems to work okay.

www.boretech.com/

Yes, you asked for the finest.
Now, go do the right thing.

Dave S

I'm going to play devils advocate here for a while...

Dewey coated rods are ok, but if you use one for any period of time, you will notice that the coating on the rod will get scratched in a spiral pattern that is consistant with the rifling in the barrel. I believe that the SOFT coating on the rods will pick up grit and dirt during the cleaning process and act as a lap, and possibly damaging the rifling when you are cleaning your barrel.  The other problem i have with the Dewey rods is the poor quality handles on them. Eventually, the handles fail to rotate the rod properly, so that after about 4-5 strokes the cleaning jag unscrews from the rod, staying in the bore.

Right now i prefer the PRO-SHOT Stainless steel cleaning rods. THey are Micro-polished and will not embed dirt and grit in to the rod as will coated rods and aluminum rods.
Here is a link to their site.

http://www.proshotproducts.com/page3.html

The biggest problem with cleaning rifles is that people use improper methods to clean them and end up cleaning too much and actually doing more damage then good.

Wha6t ever you choose, coated or non, always use a boreguide and always clean from the breech.

KyARGuy

Quoted: www.proshotproducts.com/page3.html KyARGuy

If you use a rod guide and a wrap-around patch, in theory, the rod will never touch the bore, so it may not make any difference. Of course, that's in theory.

Boretech - They're the "best".