Dew questions from a noobie

[BPTactical]

As others have stated, stick with a 5.56/223 for your 1st AR. Pistol caliber carbines can be finicky and carry their own inherent maladies that for someone new to the platform can be frustrating to deal with.

Everybody has their own cleaning ritual. Some folks keep their rifles surgically clean while others will wait until you have to chip the carbon off with a hammer. Pick a happy medium.
AR's like to be clean and well oiled. I generally only give the bore a real good cleaning when I see a degradation in accuracy. More firearms are ruined by excessive cleaning than any other factor. I will clean the bolt and carrier thoroughly after each outing paying attention to get all of the carbon off of the bolt and carrier.
As far as the bore goes a wet patch or two down the bore, let it sit for a few and then dry patches until they come out pretty clean. The "cotton tip" thing you are talking about is a bore mop and generally useless on a rifle, you will go through solvent quickly. Just wet patches will work well. No need to scrub brush it unless you are doing a real thorough cleaning and are wanting to remove copper and deep fouling. If you insist on scrubbing the bore use the nylon brushes, they are easier on the bore. Oil a patch and run it through a couple of times and just let the oil sit in the bore. Just run a dry patch down it before you head to the range and you will be fine. Invest in a chamber brush and use it-you want to keep the chamber clean but go easy on the bore.
Cleaning rods- shitcan the cheap aluminum 3 piece rods. They are the worst thing in the world for a bore. Invest in a 1 piece steel (coated) or stainless rod.
Always clean from breech to muzzle.
If you are going to shoot Wolf ammo out of your AR be ready for two things: 1- you are going to get real good at cleaning the bolt and carrier, Wolf is pretty dirty powder and really carbons up. 2- you will stick a case in the chamber and the odds increase the dirtier the chamber gets (remember that chamber brush) keep a cleaning rod handy when you go to the range and are shooting Wolf.