What Do You Clean Your Weapon With

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Kroil and breakfree CLP , hoppes for the smell :evil:
or what ever free crap i have on hand.
 
Like my father and grandfather before me, I've been a Hoppe's No. 9 man for more years than I care to admit (or think about). If your gun room doesn't smell like Hoppe's, it's not a real gun room. :)
 
Soapy water for my black powder rifles.

Hoppes #9 for my nitro guns.

I'm not 100% convinced that every last molecule of copper needs to be removed every time I shoot. In fact, I think excessive cleaning could cause damage.
 
Brake cleaner, elbow grease, various brushes, boresnakes, shop towels, and four letter words. In one case, I had to use a sandblasting cabinet.

I'm not much on cleaning my guns.
 
Soapy water for my black powder rifles.
Click to expand...

I have a cousing that uses that method on his black powder rifles too. I've never tried it though.

I have to agree with the Hoppe's lovers. It's the best smelling stuff made, as well as an excellent product. My mother hates the smell of it, but then, she's insane. :)

I have some other solvents, Bore-Tech copper solvent for one, and it smells terrrible. It's like amonia, one big whiff will about knock me out :eek:

Anyway, on to what I clean my guns with:

While I use whatever I can get when I have to, the stuff I normally keep around is:

For solvents:
Hoppe's No.9 Copper Solvent (best.thing.ever.)
Hoppe's No.9 Solvent (great, but I fail to see the point of it if you can get copper solvent?)
Birchwood Casey Bore Scrubber, Spray Can (excellent for tight places)
Bore-Tech Copper Remover (okay, smells terrible and leaves a sticky feel though)

For lubricants:
Rem-Oil (very good, perhaps a bit thin)
Bore-Tech Gun Oil (also quite good, for pistol slides I think I prefer it)
Hoppe's No.9 Lubricating Oil, Spray Can (good if perhaps a bit thin, but then, it's spray so it about has to be)
Wipes Plus Gun Oil Wipes (these are good, but I think I'll get the Rem-Oil ones next time)
Gunslick Anhydrous Graphite (not sure if I like this stuff yet, just got it recently)
CLP (not fond of it, I'll elaborate below. Only have it because a gun dealer gave me a little bottle.)

Other:
Air Duster (great for drying solvent that you can't get to with a rag or q-tip, and also for blowing the little bit of fuzz left by q-tips out of wherever)
Soft Bristle Tooth Brush (for scrubbing.....)
Q-Tips (for hard to reach spots)
Bore Brushes (obviously.....)

I can't see the point in using CLP as a cleaner unless it's all you have. You'll have to scrub forever to get something off that copper solvent would almost wipe off. I don't think it's probably too bad for a lubricant though. I still don't really care to use it however. We had to use CLP in boot camp. The whole reason you spend half of your day there scrubbing your rifle is because the stuff is ineffective as a cleaner. I didn't realize just how poor of job it did cleaning until I compared it to copper solvent. However, if you like the stuff then that's great too. It's all about preferences.

I think WD-40 is a terrible thing to use on a gun. My Great Grandmother insisted on having her guns cleaned with it. In my experience anything WD-40 is used on is bad to gunk up fast.
 
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Lots of kerosene mixed with a little atf fluid and mobile 1 synthetic 5W 30. soak the whole thing scrub with a brush, blow every thing out with air and wipe down with a old tee shirt. Once its all clean and dry I lube the vital areas with hoppes 9 however I bet any oil would work fine.
 
I like to use Hoppe's 9. I fell in love with the smell back in the 60's. Lately I have been using Gunzilla and I am really impressed with it. Low odor (smells like whiskey) and remove rust, lead, copper, plastic, and carbon.
 
Outers foaming bore cleaner for the bore, along with a bore snake. Limited use of Hoppes #9 as needed to remove powder residue, but it's not usually necessary if the gun was well lubricated to start with. I would use CLP but absolutely despise the smell (don't care for the smell of Hoppes either, but at least it dissipates quickly).

I use Mobil 1 as the primary gun oil, Tetra or Shooters Choice gun grease as needed, and Rem Oil to make blued finishes shine.
 
I notice that some folks here seem refer to cleaning their gun as merely cleaning and lubricating the action, with seemingly very little thought to the bore.

I guess I have always put more emphasis on the bore.

When my son was in police sniper school, IIRC, they were taught to use one part Kroils, one part Shooters' Choice and one part J-B. I still have a bottle that he gave me afterwards and it works wonders cleaning the bore.
 
Back in the 80's, I used Hoppes 9 to clean the guns and I would also wipe them down with Hoppes 9 and it left a thin coating of oil-type film that one could wipe off with a clean rag, even a year later.

Did Hoppes change the formula of the #9 in some way? Any more, it seems I clean my gun well, then wipe it down with Hoppes 9 and about 6 months later I pull my gun off the rack and there is a sticky brownish residue on the metal where it used to be oily. The only way to remove this sticky stuff is with more hoppes.

Does Hoppes 9 leave such a sticky residue and/or does cheap gun oil leave that kind of residue?

I have about a quart of Break Free. I think I am going to go back to that.
 
Hoppes and the foamy copper-removing stuff (can't remember the name, only use it once in a great while) for the barrel.

Rubbing Alcohol and Rem oil for cleaning the rest of the gun

CLP for lubricating.
 
My mix

Brake cleaner, Break Free and Mobil 1 50wt. I use clenzoil for fine rifles and shotguns aka safe and range queens. I did an experiment with Mobil 1 on one AR for 5000 Rd's. It wipes clean pretty easy and had zero problems so far.
 
I clean this way:

Windex/ ammonia D on a cotton patch in a bore guide jag once, twice and then once dry. Repeat until clean

Rem oil on all moving parts, oiled patch down barrel.

When lead settles in, use of hoppes is sometimes needed.
 
In 50 years of shooting and cleaning guns of all kinds, I have used almost every solvent out there. My primary solvent is now Gunzilla, Seems that every time I clean, it gets easier, seems to make the barrel turn loose of the crud and metal fouling a lot easier. If it needs a little extra lube such as my AR, just a few drops of Mobil 1.





i
 
Somethings don't change over the years.
Hoppes #9 for cleaning, Breakfree CLP for lube and protectant.
If only room for one bottle in the carry kit, it's CLP.

I am not afraid occassionally to use WD40 for cleaning and exterior wipe-on wipe-off protection, but WD40 is not a lubricant.*




* Squirt a little WD40 in a tin, set it up, and check it ever so often: as the solvent evaporates, the protectant becomes gummy and wax-like: you don't want that inside a mechanism.
 
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