Cleaners

[greener]

What are the better cleaners (bore, receiver, etc)? Are there any that are better for stainless, not good for blued or nickel plated? Saw the notes on brass sanding disks for leaded barrels. But for a general, all round cleaner, which ones work well and which ones would you stay away from?

[Bullseye]

I've always stayed with the old standard - Hoppes #9. It has never failed me. Yeah, I get all the new stuff people send me, but I always end up going back to the Love Potion #9. Mixed up my own cleaner too, using Ed's Red recipe, but I didn't see any real big difference in the results.

I'm not sure what sanding disks you're referring: maybe you mean the Lewis Lead Remover Kit? That works remarkably well for getting the lead out of a fouled barrel. Those brass screen disks are the best.

If you use Sweet's 7.62, be careful. This cleaner has a very high percentage of Ammonia in it. This makes Sweet's work very well, too well, it totally de-greases your barrel. This solvent soakes up all the oils that reside deep within the pores of the metal, and this condition can leave you vulnerable to moisture penetration and pitting. If you use it, be sure afterwards to run several patches lightly coated with oil through the barrel to re-coat and protect it. I've used it and it is great bore cleaner, just remember to oil after and you'll have no problems.

I've also got to say this once again. Don't dip your bronze cleaning brushes into your solvent jar. Yeah, it scrubs really great, but your contaminating your solvent with that brush. The solvent is designed to attack and loosen brass and copper. Copper is the main ingredient in bronze and brass. When you dip your brush, you introduce minute bits of copper into the solvent and overtime this will weaken its effect in cleaning your barrel. I always take a clean cloth patch and dip that into the solvent, then I wrap the patch around the bronze brush and scrub away in my barrel. The patch has the solvent, the bristles of the brush poke through the patch in the barrel to deep clean, the cloth collects the tiny bits of loose copper in the rifling, and everything gets squeaky clean.

Hope this helps.

R,
Bullseye

[greener]

I try to stay away from ammonia because it has a nasty habit of chelating some metals and making them go away, like your bronze brushes. Was running out of Hoppes and wondered if there was something better out there. I haven't had much of a problem because it is rare that my limited collection doesn't stop at the workbench and get some sort of cleaning before their allowed in the house. Picked up some bad habits near Fayetteville about 37 years ago and can't seem to shake them.

[toyfj40]

What are the better cleaners?

There are about 150-users here... you'll likely get 140+ more ideas...
mine is that "keeping it lubed" is key... then, the Cleaner just
needs to wash-away the lube with the gunk, and replace the lube.

Yes, bores get Pb and Cu troubles, so keep some Sweets/ Kroil/ etc around
for those special-fouling/cleaning needs... then re-lube.

I, also, use #9-solvent. it's cheap and widely available.
then #9-grease along the Bolt-metal-on-metal surfaces
and #9-oil most everywhere else... go shoot...
[repeat]

Contrary to some opinions, I shy away from the All-n-One cleaner/lubes.
I'm just stubborn and want to let a cleaner/solvent do ITS JOB
as best it can and let a lube do the best IT can...
(in a combat situation... all-n-one is just fine as there'd be OTHER priorities
to take care of as long as my "tools" get what they need)

one more story: Summer-2005, I had time in a trip to check-out 'Camp Perry'.
it was for the basic-two-day Pistol-beginner-school
(I had to cancel the basic-Rifle-school, due to having to return early),
but one question posed to an Armorer(sp?) about lubes...
he replied: "as long as it smells bad, use it. avoid the Good-Smelling ones"
I suspect it was his joke, just to say lube-it with whatever you have.
I'd assume his response would be similiar for 'cleaners'.

Camp Perry SAFS

[Bullseye]

I remember my first trip to Perry. I got there on orders a day early. I decided to take a trip down to the range and man was I awstruck. All I saw for what looked like a mile was multiple banks of pistol targets and little green benches - Wow, what a sight!

R,
Bullseye

[toyfj40]

I remember my first trip to Perry.

Here are a few photos from my Camp Perry Trip

[Ripsaw]

Hoppes #9 and Eds Red homemade bore cleaner minus the lanolin, are my cleaners of choice. Both seem to leech there way under copper fouling allowing it to be removed. Not near as fast as the ammonia based products though, this is an over night process.

Ed's Red Recipe
http://www.9mmlargo.com/eds_red.htm

Ripsaw

[Blindpig]

I. too, am a long-time fan of good, old Hoppe's #9. Lately, I've been using their Barrel Scrubber in the spray can. I always finish up my clean/lube with Break-Free CLP.

[ruger22]

Hoppe's everything........

[ruger22com]

While hoppes is a good cleaner, I prefer to strip by parts down to the bare metal when I do a cleaning then relube....so I use:
1) any good orange based cleaner (like those found in the windex area of the grocery store). they 100% degrease.
2) then rinse off ALL the degreaser in clean warm water.
3) dry the parts...really dry
4) relube. On contact points away from ammo dirt (like in a trigger section) I like to use white lithium grease or Milcom TW-25B grease on contact points, a silicone dry lube (like reminton dry lube) on other sliding and moving parts, and break free-CLP (from walmart) on a bore snake thru the barrel to leave a protective coating inside the barrel.

I use this on both my rifles (everything from a 10/22 to a garand) and my mark series pistols. (I have a mark II 22/45 and a Mark III 22/45 hunter)

If on occasion the slide does not function well with the dry lube, I will then use break free CLP on it also.

-Bob