The big ones. While I know the smaller ones exist, I misunderstood "Universal" to mean universal. Especially since there are instructions for using those patches for .22s. The .22 specific patches weren't available until about 2 years after I gave up on the Otis for .22 bores. Glad that they are working for you. I honestly believe your final question is an accurate statement.Originally Posted by GyroF-16
I am an unabashed follower of Uncle Pat, and while I was answering a specific question @LittleLebowski summed up my AR cleaning philosophy. Boresnake is good 'nuff...no overthinking, no overcleaning. Possible...err...likely undercleaning, but not that important in my world.
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) I have a 50cal ammocan filled with home brewed Ed's Red bore cleaner. Recipes available online, and just now with a google search I learned that Brownells is listing it premixed. Dropping the bolt carrier group fully assembled into the can and leaving it overnight, then disassembling, brushing with a nylon brush and hosing off with brake cleaner followed by a good lubing works for me. I have had zero issues with the black extractor spring insert and D ring being damaged by the Ed's Red. In fact, according to my notes they last longer than my gas rings tend to. I use it for all my pistol barrels and stripped steel/Al frames, but I am leery of putting my pistol slides in there because I have seen tritium capsules launch themselves from sights under recoil.
My own experience with cleaning .223's is of course much less than a lot of people here, but I have mostly been using an Otis cleaning kit. There is definitely a learning process in how to size the patches correctly! But I find now that I have things hopefully figured out, I can get pretty consistent results with the 3" universal patches, and the same patches are big enough I can use them for other cleaning tasks as well. I feel using a good solvent and the patches, I can get a much cleaner barrel than with a Boresnake. While I'm not so sure how relevant that is with our Colt 6920's with their chrome lined barrels, I doubt my Mini-14 barrel is as resilient towards poor maintenance. And even with the AR's, changing barrels is a bit more complicated and quite a bit more expensive here (barrels are controlled parts here so swapping barrels involves either dealing with the police or paying a gun smith to do it for you, not to mention finding a quality aftermarket barrel might not be as easy as in the US in the first place), so I would prefer to extend the service life of any barrel as much as possible. While opinions on what proper barrel maintenance is vary greatly, for my tiny little brain it seems logical that the cleaner I can keep the barrel while not using products or methods that would add additional wear, the longer the barrel should probably last. Or, at the very least, it shouldn't hurt. Most I can lose is a bit of time, a few cleaning patches, and some solvent. Seems reasonable to me to err slightly more towards over- than undercleaning in my circumstances.
