It is also preferable to use a bore guide which will keep the rod straighter and will keep cleaning solvent out of the bedding. There is a relatively inexpensive method to correct these commonly available bore scratchers. At electronics surplus stores and at some electronic supply stores you can find 4 foot or longer lengths of heat-shrinkable tubing for about 25 cents a foot. It comes in a variety of colors but most common is black. I selected the thicker semi-rigid variety over the very flexible variety because I felt it would be more rugged.
Application is easy.
Larger sizes are available for larger diameter cleaning rods. The newly coated .22 cal cleaning rod will no longer fit in .22 cal bores but should work on bores .25 cal or larger. As an additional benefit, the multisegmented rods will now no longer have a tendency to unscrew apart during use. As a test, I soaked unshrunk and heat-shrunk tubing in various solvents for 24 hours. After 24 hours, all of the test samples appeared undamaged.