Brass brush bore or not?

There is a long thread on this site that says never use a brass brush on your 22 barrel.  S&W's instruction
book for the 41 says use a brass brush.  Who's right?

I think it depends on whether you need to remove leading or not!
Over cleaning is the worst.
Lead RF bullets with lube pick up abrasive dirt particles that will hurt your barrel worse than a stiff brass cleaning brush!
IMHO

Otherwise, just run a mop thru occasionally.

I don't believe brass brush will damage your bore, but the question is, do you really need to do it? Just clean your barrel every once in a while with cotton patch and Hoppe's #9, and if there's a severe carbon build up in your chamber, you can use product such as Slip2000 Carbon Killer. If there is a leading in your .22 gun, that means something is wrong with your gun and/or ammo.
Just my 2c.

thanks-it did not make sense not to clean the barrel if needed

I really like these RamRodz bamboo sticks with stiff cotton-like ball on the end

When I purchased my Erma the owner told me he never used a brass brush on the bore, only cotton patches with hoppes. Using CCi SV requires the chamber to be cleaned with a brass brush on a special handle so it can be twisted in place (with Hoppes) to remove the heavy wax that comes with the CCI SV. Norma Tac 22 SV does not leave the chamber fouled but if I run 60 rounds of CCI and let the pistol cool down the wax may cause a few FTEs until it warms back up.

Patchworm and a chamber brush.  Never saw the need for bronze bore brush in a .22.

Larry Carter always said to leave the bores of Hammerli 208s pistols free of bore brushes. He just recommended cleaning the chamber with a bent .25 caliber bore brush. It works for me! I just use a piece of plastic line trimmer with one end cut to a sharp point and the other melted into a ball. .22 cal. patches are poked through the pointy end of the line. I just pull through with a patch soaked in solvent and follow with a clean dry patch. I like to pull the patch through from the muzzle end, so fouling from the chamber isn't pulled through the rifling. Of course the Hammerli bores were smooth and never leaded when good ammo was used. If you have a .22 pistol where the barrel collects lead, you have to do what you have to do.

I never understood the idea of how something much harder on the scale can be destroyed by something much softer. Good brush made of aluminum and bronze only should not mess up the barrel no matter how much you poke at it. Same idea as nylon and brass sight drifters. That said I bore snake my pistols for the ease of use and all in one polish. Few drops of clp at the front and snake away. 
Unless I am missing something, or some guns have much softer barrel materials, which is hard to believe.

Phosphor bronze wire is very hard.  Almost 50 Rockwell C.   

For most 22s a nylon brush is adequate.  That’s what I use.

If the barrel is removable, you can soak it over night in an olive jar filled with Hoppe's #9. Then just push a patch or two through it and it will be spotless.

I use a piece of para cord with some knots tied in the end.

Wobbley wrote:Phosphor bronze wire is very hard.  Almost 50 Rockwell C.   

For most 22s a nylon brush is adequate.  That’s what I use.

I would love to see a test of that. Barrels areusually 35-45 hrc from my knowledge. I cannot find any references to brushes, but if I can bend them with my (gloved) fingers, then they can't be that hard. Mostly copper and all.

It is usually made from very fine drawn wire…so… properties tend to be very high.

The twisted core is soft enough to bend.

I had some stainless steel brushes. I couldn't believe the amount of fouling they got out of a 22 barrel ...
Until it occurred to me maybe it wasn't fouling.
It was steel, and under a microscope the ends of the bristles were like chisels. Rifle still shot well, but the brushes were quickly discarded.

I think the big issue with bronze brushes is that there's a tendency to stroke them back and forth, running the bristles across the crown. Really time consuming to unscrew it and reattach at the breech to pull through, so we cheat.

A rimfire barrel likely to be much softer than a typical CF.

People get very picky about their cleaning regimen. I'm not sure it matters so much, so long as you're not getting alibis. I bore snake (has copper/bronze brush embedded) 2-3 times through my barrel about every 200-300 rounds through my .22 (Pardini SP), which is about how often I take the whole thing down for regular cleaning (brush off bolt face, feed ramp, check for broken parts)

I still think that, in most cases, bronze bore brushes do more harm than good in most .22 pistols. The bore snakes are even more stiff, because they are supported by the cloth. If your .22 pistol still gets sub 1" ten shot groups at 50 yards, whatever you are doing is probably working.

I met Lones Wigger at the OTC as he was cleaning his rifle with a brush….

Generally I use an oiled pull thru patch before shooting at the advice of Bert Brookes, the Eley rep at Camp Perry.

I've generally converted to all nylon brushes..with today's bore solvents such as boretech and patch-out..they work fine and those 2 solvents are very safe.