I recently purchased a new bore guide for the Remington 700 action chambered in .308 Winchester made by PMA Tool.
The most sought after cleaning rod bore guide is the Lucas bore guide. I wrote a mini-review of a Lucas bore guide for the AR-15 a few years back. The Lucas uses a two-piece design with the primary guide body and an insert that centers the rod.
The benefit of the two piece design is that the insert is bored to a diameter that is very close to the diameter of the cleaning rod. This keeps the rod as centered as possible as it travels down the barrel.
The PMA Tool utilizes the same two-piece design with a primary rod guide body and an insert. The main guide is made out of black Delrin while the insert is made out of anodized aluminum.
The PMA Tool insert is “one-size fits all” in that you can’t specify what internal diameter you want the insert to be bored out for like you can with the Lucas bore guide. With the Lucas, you will measure your cleaning rod diameter and provide that to Lucas and the insert will be made to that diameter.
So depending on the cleaning rod, the amount of play or gap between the cleaning rod and the PMA Tool insert will vary.
Overall, I find the quality of the PMA Tool bore guide to be top notch. The anodized insert is very solid and the knurling is helpful to separate the insert from the guide body.
I like the fact that they engrave the action type and cartridge onto the body of the bore guide. I have several of the white Delrin bore guides from Sinclair, and I mix them up all the time.
As with many bore guides, the PMA Tool cleaning rod guide utilizes an o-ring to help keep the guide sealed to the action and prevent solvents from getting into the action itself.
The fit of the guide body in the Remington 700 action is excellent and it locks into place well.
The PMA Tool bore guide for the Remington 700 action will fit any action with a bolt diameter between .695″ and .705″ which also covers Kelbly, Savage, and Winchester.
If you are looking for a two-piece bore guide but don’t want to wait on the Lucas (which has long production times due to them being made to order), give the PMA Tool cleaning rod guide a try. They make them for several action types and I believe you will be more than satisfied with PMA Tool.
The PMA Tool cleaning rod guide that I acquired for the Remington 700 in .308 was priced at $55.95 at the time I purchased it.
One closing statement: I bought a Delrin two-piece guide sold by Brownells several months ago. The main body is almost always in-stock, but I waited several months for the insert. When it arrived, I found that the insert was not bored true to center. I never contacted Brownells about this, but I can say I was quite disappointed in this. I should probably contact them and let them know because this is actually a significant problem.
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