Sorry Dave but I have to disagree with you. :0
It's not a good practice to use, and in my opinion, never use, any metal brush including brass in the barrel as the rifling is so fine and the metal used in barrels in airgun's is not like the metal of powder burners. The metal in most guns (with the exception of higher end guns) are very soft metal by comparison. Brass is definitely not to be used. Many good barrels (the rifling) have been ruined doing so even one time. I have looked down the barrels of an awful lot of guns, hundreds of them, and often times it's pretty evident that metal bore brushes have been used. Also with pellet examination. But the damage has already been done and there is nothing I can do for them.
Quite often, once any metal brush has been used on a barrel, the gun and it's accuracy will never be the same. Almost never will cleaning the barrel improve accuracy or groups unless it is really bad. It's one of the reason that many of the guys after purchasing a new gun have made the comment "The more I shoot it the more accurate it gets".
If you do feel that you need to use a bore brush, it should be made of Nylon bristles and be sure that the twisted wire tip of the brush does not have sharp edges. If it does, remove any extended edges and put a drop of good glue on the tip to cover it and let it dry thoroughly to cover the metal. Then you can apply GooGone to the brush to clean it. After brushing it, use patches and a pull through line to finish, pulling through as many patches as needed.
A lot of the guys out there complain about their accuracy and that it changes and at the same time create their own problem. Most airgun's barrels seldom need to be cleaned until they have had several thousand shots through them and even then do not necessarily need bore brushed. The exception to this might be in some cases where people lube their pellets. Barrels need to be cleaned only when the velocity has decreased enough to impact the accuracy. The little lead and deposits that is in the barrel acts as both a lubricant as well as sealing surface properties for the pellet. In most cases, cleaning (especially excessive cleaning) of the barrel will both decrease the velocity as well as the accuracy. It can take anywhere from 100 shots to several hundred shots for the barrel to "break" itself in again. I have a number of guns that the barrels were cleaned when new and never been bore brush cleaned since and when I do clean my barrels, I usually do no more than run a dry patch or two through them. That's all they need. And when I thoroughly clean them I use no more than patches and GooGone.
When I send guns back to my customers, every one of them get a cleaning and lubing guide with special attention toward barrel cleaning.
Just my pennies worth.
Fer git da bore...jist cleen da action an da stock wiff Re-Oil
