Looking for super easy, super clean method of cleaning semi-auto pistol barrels, I was thinking of getting a skinny jar with a cap, filling it with Hoppes-9, and dropping that sucker in for a few says.

Would this work for pulling ALL copper off the lands in addition to ALL of the carbon out of the bore ?

Do any of you guys have any true or semi-true majik along these lines ?

You can get "all the copper" with an electronic cleaning rod. Why do you want to? Bench rest shooters do it to gain tiny, tiny accuracy improvements. It won't corrode your barrel, it won't help your accuracy (unless you are much better than most) and it's a pain in the ass. Run a bore snake thru it a couple of times and call it good.

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
Run a bore snake thru it a couple of times and call it good.

This.

In reality, any oil and brush will clean your barrel.

I use Sweet's 7.62 Solvent. Follow the directions.

PC

I soak pistol barrels in Hoppes for two/three days all of the time. It's not magic, you still need to run patches to clean them but it certainly loosens up the fouling with little effort and no risk of harm. it works for revolver cylinders as well (except nickel plated!).

Overworking overthinking over cleaning. It takes me a sum total of under ten minutes to take a filthy ( for example 5 day class in desert with over 1k fired) gun from dirty to ready for action. As long as it is clean enough to function ( in all honesty should not take much as most guns run fine dirty anyway) it is clean enough. Leave the spotless white glove inspection nonsense to military boot camp.

I’ve cleaned removable pistol barrels by immersion soaking in Hoppe’s #9 (the original stuff) for many years now. After soaking for a few days it’s often possible to remove all metal fouling and powder residue with nothing more than a few passes of a couple of tight patches on a proper jag. When that doesn’t work, a few runs with a bore brush followed by patches will do it.

The effectiveness—or, more accurately, ineffectiveness—of traditional methods is very apparent when conducting armorer inspections of agency weapons and this method helps make it possible to ensure that new people start out at least with completely clean guns.

I’m not much of a housekeeper and have gotten over the thrill of cleaning guns long since, but the method is the most effective I’ve ever found that involves practically no effort and that has minimum effect on the barrel itself.

I’ll stress that I use only the original Hoppe’s #9 solvent for prolonged immersion soaking. I have no idea whether other solvents, including other Hoppe’s products, would be as effective, and especially whether they might cause damage to the barrel steel. I can attest that what I use has no adverse effects even if a barrel is left in it for several weeks.

The Hoppe’s should be removed from friction surfaces with a degreaser like 91-99% isopropyl alcohol before lubricating the barrel for use. That’s not a must, but it is best practice.

Added: I use 8 ounce wide mouth Nalgene bottles for my soaking. They’re unbreakable, impervious to the solvent, and tall enough for even a 4.7 inch full size P320 barrel. They are of course available on line, but places like REI that sell camping supplies often carry them as well.

https://smile.amazon.com/Nalge...keywords=nalgene+8oz

I have an olive jar full of "benchrest blend" (Shooter's Choice and Kroil) for soaking barrels. Two or three days and they clean up easily.

I do have one gun that I am running the Schuemann protocol on. Brush out the CHAMBER vigorously, leave the bore alone. We will see.

Hoppe's 9 in an olive jar for a couple days. Do not forget and leave it 2 weeks. You may get pitting.

I've used the soak method for cleaning pistol barrels for many years and it is effective. I always start out by dry brushing lose crud out followed by a patch on a tight jag. Then into the Hoppees for a couple of hours to several days. I've tried adding some Kroil... maybe an oz or so and that seems to help loosen metal fouling if it's particularly bad, but I'm always afraid of leaving the barrel in that mixture more than an hour or so. After the soaking, run a nylon brush through several times, followed by a few patches, decrease with alcohol or non chlorinated brake cleaner and put a light coat of oil inside and out. You're good to go.

Be careful of some metal finishes. I wouldn't use this on nickle for sure.

I have never tried the soaking method with chrome-lined barrels, but advise against it. Otherwise I have left SIG barrels in the Hoppe's #9 for weeks with no adverse effects.

I am another user of olive jar and Hoppe's #9. This combo has worked like a charm for years.

I thought that I had invented this method: skinny olive jar and lots of Hoppe's. It's good to hear that other people are doing it with success.

quote:

Originally posted by GaryBF:
I soak pistol barrels in Hoppes for two/three days all of the time. It's not magic, you still need to run patches to clean them but it certainly loosens up the fouling with little effort and no risk of harm. it works for revolver cylinders as well (except nickel plated!).

+1

Hoppes #9 will make nickel peel off if you leave it on nickel long enough. I'm not sure if it has the same effect on chrome, but I don't think I'd try it. I just use a wire brush and hopes #9 and run it through the barrel a few times without soaking it and get my barrels 98% clean and that's good for me.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
Run a bore snake thru it a couple of times and call it good.

This.

In reality, any oil and brush will clean your barrel.

Another. I run the brush through, a little wet, to loosen everything up. Then a few patches. It’s so fast to clean I do not understand another way. I use break free to clean, then run a patch with some cop through once I’m done.

I tried the olive method, which works great on dirty barrels, but I ate several of the olives to make room for another dirty barrel, and now I'm not feeling very well. Is there a step to this method that you guys forgot to tell me?

I march outside with some nitrile gloves and some NON CHLORINATED carb cleaner if I want to do more than snake one of my guns.

I thought I did, too!

quote:

Originally posted by DoveEgg:
I thought that I had invented this method: skinny olive jar and lots of Hoppe's. It's good to hear that other people are doing it with success.

Just give any pistol or rifle barrel one shot of foam bore cleaner and let it soak overnight.

I learned the hard way when collecting old milsurp rifles with frosted and pitted bores. More damage is done to firearm bores from improper cleaning than any other reason.

Below a 1943 No.4 British .303 Enfield rifle with a frosted bore. One shot of foam bore cleaner removed all the copper and carbon with no brushing.



Spare the rod and spoil the bore.