You can protect the crown with a rod guide at the muzzle end. Boresnakes are awesome for quick cleanings, but don't get guns anywhere near as clean as using a cleaning rod properly. However, I'll say that most people actually over-clean their guns by a huge margin.
Run a dry patch through the rifle before you shoot it just to make sure there isn't anything in the bore (even oil). Make sure the action is lubed properly (I'm to the point where I use grease on everything because it works better and lasts longer than oil for 90% of what needs lubing). Then shoot it. Shoot it until your groups start opening up. Don't be surprised if this doesn't happen for well over 500 rounds. Keep track of how long that takes and you'll have a good idea what kind of a preventive maintenance schedule to run. If your groups start opening up at 700 rounds, then you clean the rifle every 600.
I'll run a pistol until it starts to malfunction. I'm at about 400 rounds on my P220 and it still works great. I expect I'll wind up cleaning it again here in another couple hundred because it starts getting dirty as heck at about 600. I still haven't shot it enough to get a malfunction out of it - I usually clean it once a year whether it needs it or not.
.png)
