[bdhawk]

what is a good all around good bore cleaner. someting that works for lead and jacketed stuff.

[sm]

Lead:
Invest in a Lewis Lead Remover.

Or...since mine walked off...

100% Copper scrubbing pads ( Chore Boy for example) un-ravel one and use a few wisps on an old brush with anything like machine oil, clp...don't matter. Lead cleans by mechanical action much easier. Just pulls the lead out.

Some solvents are for powder /lead fouling. Others for copper fouling ( jacketed bullets). Some have ammonia and best to not use ammonia around NICKEL guns. Ammonia will seep and the nickel will flake off the base metal.

You will find a bunch of various products and approaches in replies and upon doing a search.

Me, pistol bbls get the lead out . Jacketed I rarely clean bores. I shoot Jacketed...so I rarely clean a pistol bores considering the lower velocity of pistol ammo as compared to rifle ammo.

Dunno, 800 - 850 fps in a pistol is not the same as 2400 fps in a rifle using jacketed ammo to me.


Then again I rarely clean the bore of anything - chambers yes.

Exceptions are lead bullets, exposure to elements ( rain, mud, snow) plastic build up on shotguns...

I treat new bores or new to me with RIG...or if I do a cleaning...

Just me. YMMV

[roo_ster]

Lotsa good stuff out there. Just don't use the old sulphuric acid dip & you'll be OK.

HEAVY Lead:
Copper ChoreBoy like above post with bronze brush & solvent of choice

Powder, Etc:
Ed's Red, without the lanolin. It just plain works & is cheapcheapcheap.

Jacket Material:
Any of the ammonia solvents will do the job, but be REAL careful & read the instructions. I happen to have a bottle of Sweet's 7.62 at the moment. It works fine.

Ed's Red ought to handle 90% of your cleaning solvent chores.

CLP or your favorite lube/protectant after cleaning.

[Valkman]

I made up some "Walmart Ed's Red" that was posted here I think - 1 gal lacquer thinner, 2 quarts lamp oil and 2 quarts Type III trans. fluid. This stuff does work very well for cleaning, I must say.

Most of the time though I will just take a Bore Snake, put a little FP-10 on the bristles and run it through the barrel a time or two. Easy and fast. When I really want to take the gun down and clean it, like a detail strip, then I'd use the Ed's Red.

FP-10 is a CLP and will usually clean the bore very well.

[Mikul]

Here's a quote from GA Precision, a custom rifle builder.
We’ve used a number of solvents over the years and have found that Shooter’s Choice is excellent at removing powder fouling and Barnes CR-10 is good for copper removal. Another solvent we’ve had excellent results with is Butch’s Bore Shine. This solvent is good at attacking both powder copper fouling.

Another product that I have heard good things about, but never used is Montana Extreme.

[stevelyn]

Except for heavy copper fouling, I use MPro-7 for all cleaning including the bore.