True, you don't have to have one, but they are highly recommended and they're cheap insurance to prevent you from possibly damaging the chamber/throat area of your barrel when cleaning. Also, they make life a LOT easier when properly cleaning from the breech end of the barrel. $20-30 for a good universal guide one is a lot cheaper than having to possibly replace a barrel or two due to self-inflicted damage.
Some will recommend a bore-snake, and I have several in different calibers for my lever guns and AR's, but they're basically for quick field cleanings and not thorough cleanings. They are great to pack when you go on a multi-day hunt or to put in your range bag to do a quick clean at the range, but at the end of the range day or hunting trip you need to do a proper cleaning with a rod and jags/brushes to get the built-up fouling out. Anyone who thinks that pulling the little 3" length of bristly wire on a bore-snake through their barrel once or twice is going to remove all the carbon and copper fouling from their bore is just fooling themselves.
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