I am old school. I use non-chlorinated brake cleaner and Hoppes No. 9 for all most every cleaning job.

I'm just wondering if I'm missing something, and should add a third option to my cleaning supplies. Either a foaming cleaner, or something better for copper/lead fouling etc.

I don't have any guns with bores that are particularly dirty, and have been reasonably successful with what I have keeping every (non-ancient, pitted milsurp) bore shiny, but I'm always open to new suggestions.

I have gone modern on my greases and oils for post cleaning lube, but haven't altered my cleaning supplies in decades.

I'm open to any and all great suggestions.

Thanks.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ArtieS,

I use foaming bore cleaners but only on pistols. I would never put a foaming substance into any rifle bore of a gas-operated rifle. That stuff will seep in to the gas system through the gas port.

Lever actions, bolt actions, single shot rifles, recoil-operated rifles or shotguns which are not gas-operated, sure, but otherwise, no.

I recently used a foaming cleaner on an AR barrel, that was just a bare barrel. It did come out the gas port, but not all that much. Enough to get into the gas block, probably not much if any into the tube had there been one.

I use exclusively BoreTech products and Kroil for all barrel cleaning and carbon removal on AR BCG's and M14 gas system parts.

After purchasing a Teslong digital borescope, I now consider it an essential cleaning tool. I never realized how dirty my barrels were. It takes all the guesswork out of barrel cleaning. I just finished cleaning my early 2000'd GEN3 Glock 17. It took a lot of patches and scrubbing, but I got down to clean bare metal with no carbon or copper.

Now that I know what to look for, I just cleaned my P365 and it didn't take very long to get through the layers of copper and carbon.

I primarily use jags and patches but save the brushes for stubborn carbon.

The Teslong is only about $60 and it connects to my computer. Easy-peasy.

Tony.

Thank you, everyone. Very helpful.

ETA: I am going to order one of those Teslong Computer Scopes.

A

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ArtieS,

For removeable pistol barrels that I don’t have to return to service immediately I use immersion soaking in traditional Hoppe’s #9. I leave them in the solvent for two-three days (or longer), and then all the copper and carbon fouling can be removed with a few passes of a tight-fitting patch on a proper sized jag.

For nonported rifle barrels, I usually use foaming cleaner followed by TM Solvent, with the number of applications based on how many rounds have been fired. If I’ve fired a lot of rounds and believe that more aggressive copper removal is needed, it’s Butch’s Bore Shine or 7.62 Solvent.

For AR barrels I mostly use the TM Solvent.

I realize I am completely fossilized, but I still just use No.9

I use them a lot on milsurps and rifles I pick up in estates

muzzle in a tuna or cat food tin, and load up the bore,

I've tried the top 5 brands, all work about the same,

foam it up, let set overnight, load up again if needed,

brush, wipe, done, and usually much better than scrubbing with just hoppes or Sweets etc,

the only I did not like was Birchwood Casey, it was like snot,
worked fine, but the texture was just nasty,

I had some type of foaming cleaner that I used on bolt guns and such.
When I got a FAL I let er rip with that stuff.
I wound up tearing the whole gas system apart including the sight to clean that gooey green mess up.

You guys clean your guns...?

Ok, so I'm only partially kidding. Mine aren't fired much, so cleaning is infrequent. When I do, it's Hoppe's and patches. I suppose this is simply because it was how I was taught. Never really thought about it more than that.

Soaking pistol barrels sounds like a good idea. Might have to give that a try.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
For removeable pistol barrels that I don’t have to return to service immediately I use immersion soaking in traditional Hoppe’s #9. I leave them in the solvent for two-three days (or longer), and then all the copper and carbon fouling can be removed with a few passes of a tight-fitting patch on a proper sized jag.

I use the Hoppe's #9 'Barrel Jacuzzi' method as well...

Of course, resistant to change and a bit of a 'Luddite', I've always used Hoppe's #9 on my rifles as well. It's always worked for me (I've got a lot of piston guns though), but I'm gonna look into the 'benny6 method' and maybe come out of the dark ages!

If I need to clean a very dirty barrel on a handgun or a non ported and not a semi auto rifle, I plug the chamber end of the barrel with a rubber or cork plug, stand the barrel on end, or on a revolver I stand the gun up and hold it with a spring clamp, and fill the barrel with Ed's Red or Hoppes till the muzzle, I then place a plastic bag over the muzzle so the cleaning solvent does not evaporate. I leave it at least a few days, drain, then clean with a brush then pads.
Let the solvent do the work.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
ETA: I am going to order one of those Teslong Computer Scopes.

Never thought I really needed one. Nor that if I had one I would use it much. That turned out to be wrong. Having one opened my eyes about when things were really clean, vs "should be clean by now" and "appears to be clean". Also explained some odd behavior of certain rifles. Money well spent for sure.

(and I'm not a gun cleaning nut, I have plenty of guns that have never been cleaned inside in my lifetime if not longer. lol)

quote:

Originally posted by powermad:
I had some type of foaming cleaner that I used on bolt guns and such.
When I got a FAL I let er rip with that stuff.
I wound up tearing the whole gas system apart including the sight to clean that gooey green mess up.

sounds like the Birchwood Casey stuff,

it worked, but the clean up was a PITA,

Have tried a lot of different barrel cleaning products over the years and we always looked for the fastest and best to use in the shop.

We settled on two different ones. One was the classic mix of kroil and shooters choice bore solvent. The second was seal 1 (the paste and dip the brush directly in it). The kroil blend was great for plugging a barrel that was bad and needed that extra bit with the penetrating oil. For everything else, seal 1. Still use both and long out of doing it for a living.

Have tried the foaming bore stuff and never found one that did as good of a job and it always took longer. If I'm going to wait I'll just plug the barrel and let it soak.

I’ve been using Wipe Out and their Accelerator for years now.
I start with MPro7 and a nylon brush to get out the initial gunk, dry patches to remove that, then follow with the Wipe Out.
With this combo I haven’t used anything but a nylon brush and patches.
The foam cleaners I’ve tried have not been fast enough and this works better!

I’ve also used their carbon remover but that is better suited for outside or the garage - it puts out a LOT of fumes, hence the MPro7.
The copper remover and accelerator don’t have the stink problem and work REALLY WELL.

https://sharpshootr.com/patch-out/