I recently purchased my first AR, (16" Bushy A2), and am looking for cleaning/maintenance suggestions and instructions.  I don't know if this info is contained in the users manual, since I did not recieve one with the firearm.  I am very familiar with bolt action firearm maintenance, but have no experience with AR's.  Do I need any "special" additional tools,brushes, etc.?  Any chance one of the experienced members is working on putting together an  outline, or, would you suggest a good reference source that contains this information?  Thanks!

Okay, I'm a newbie.  I just bought a chrome lined Bushmaster M4 clone and I'm confused on how to clean it.  Bushmaster's site only says to use patches and CLP in the chrome lined barrel (6-12 of them) with no mention of a brass bore brush.  Are patches all that is needed?  Will a bore snake with the copper wrapping work?  

Use a bore snake .22cal with the first ten inches soaked in CLP. BEFORE you pull bore snake thru bore fire some CLP in bore. Do this twice and your bore is clean. More rifle bores are wrecked by over cleaning these days. You are shooting non corrosive ammo in a chromed bore.

Use a bore snake .22cal with the first ten inches soaked in CLP. BEFORE you pull bore snake thru bore fire some CLP in bore. Do this twice and your bore is clean. More rifle bores are wrecked by over cleaning these days. You are shooting non corrosive ammo in a chromed bore.

 A .22 cal boresnake with CLP drawn thru the bore twice is plenty good enough.