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May I continue to gush at the effects of modern gun cleaning chemicals and tools?
It's in distinct contrast to the stuff I had to deal back in the Army.
We got paper towels, Break-Free CLP, a well worn toothbrush and a bore brush.
Something I noticed was we needed to clean the guns several times and it was primarily because Break-Free CLP was really good at loosening things up once it had sat, but sucked for immediate effect.
I think we should have soaked them down with the stuff and come back in a few days.
But that's unthinkable to the Army, so we had to clean off all we could, then do it again when they were no longer clean thanks to the CLP dissolving stuff from unseen areas.
The amusing thing is I'm not really using much different equipment, just different chemicals.
My toothbrush gets replaced regularly.
I'm still loving Boresnakes.
Shooter's Choice (or Hoppe's) has an immediate effect on the crud and I sacrifice t-shirts to the cleaning. Most of the time I use cloth patches to apply the solvent.
There's probably better stuff out there, but I'm happy with what I have.
I learned from my dad and other veterans of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam that Hoppes was all you needed, even on the high end European shotguns that seem to take up residence at my Skavenly lair. I've tried a few others, testing them on lower quality firearms, but I keep returning to what works for me.
ReplyDeleteThose two chemical cleaners are also staples for me. I also use generic "Windex" for cleaning milsurp rilfles after shooting corrosive ammo. Actually any soapy water product will do but that stuff I get at Dollar Tree for $1.25 comes in a convenient spray bottle. I use the bore brush sparingly, most of the cleaner is applied with patches. As McThag notes, old clothes, in particular T-shirts are a cheap source of patch materials. It would be better for me except most of my old t-shirts are black and they don't work as well for cleaning. Not because they don't clean as well, but because it is harder to see how dirty they still are after being pushed through the bore. Word to those who haven't tried it... Shooters Choice will disolve some plastics VERY quickly. Not a problem for most polymer used in guns, but watch out for cheap toothbrushes, ammo trays, etc. I've sometimes found that I can get clean patches with one, then run a patch of the other and get more out, so I often use both. I kind of like the smell of Hoppe's #9 (not the "Copper Cutter" formula... whew, that stuff is nasty) although I've been assured by ladies that it is not, in fact a good cologne (alas). I usually like to finish off with a little Hoppe's Gun Oil.
ReplyDeleteOne comment to Plague Monk - A thing the real old timers didn't have to deal with as much when cleaning shotguns was plastic fouling from the wadding, because wadding back in the old days was mostly cardboard, paper or some kind of fiber material instead of plastic. Getting the plastic foulding out of shotguns is the area where Shooter's Choice is pretty much unqualed by anything else I have used. I think the ability of it to disolve plastic I mentioned earlier is not an accident.
-swj