That or they sell .50 caliber cleaning brushes at most muzzleloading stores. They will screw right into the end of your ramrod and if you have a T-handle on the other end, you have a pretty good cleaning rod. Personally I have a seperate range rod for cleaning and loading the rifle at the range and home. The ramrod that came with the rifle is used for loading in the woods only. Although I do practice a few times with it on the range just to make sure I can load the projectile under hunting conditions..

As for running a bare brush down the bore, I have done it and not noticed any damage to the bore. I have also ran them with a patch wrapped over them too. The patched brushwill pick up a lot of fowling too when it is on the brush and it is a way to keep good solvent in contact with the bore and the brush at the same time.