By and large, gun cleaning products and lubes are a marketing gimmick.

Obturation said:

Tp zombies... They don't care about brains anymore, these days they'd starve to death (again) anyway. now they seek that soft sweet tp.

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AAAAaaaaaahhhhhh ... good point that I had completely failed to consider.

"soft sweet tp" ... if that is accurate and the tp zombies only like it soft, I may be safe because Scott TP is like 1200 grit sandpaper.

I agree with 90% of what your saying, but I have seen group size shrink by 500% after using Sweet 7.62, as have many others. Shooters choice will take the lead out of my fast leading Springfield GI in two passes. Had I cleaned it with a brush, that barrel would have been shot out years ago. Lubes on the other hand, yea, pretty much all gimmicks.

CrypticStatic said:

Ballistol has worked for me for years now. A good non-toxic CLP that you can use on just about anything and anywhere.

I happen to like the smell too.

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I was planning to go to Ballistol once I ran out of the stuff I have, but didn’t know it smelled. Lol

As for WD-40, I don’t know about using that stuff and leaving it on. As a lubricant, it leaves a lot to be desired, although it is good for displacing water. It is also a penetrating lubricant. Meant to get past fastener thread and possibly primers. I’m not sure if it will kill primers and negate loctite.

WheelGunMan said:

I like Rem Oil for lubricating. I use oil sparingly and mostly on pivot areas. As far as barrel lube Hoppes 90 provides enough petroleum when cleaning with it.

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I've heard rem oil was pretty lousy and was mostly mineral oil with a teensy weensy bit of teflon. I havent used it much. I turned away from it once I read that, that and at least a couple people told me it was really lousy for rust prevention. I have a few full cans of it somewhere....

Obturation said:

This thread got me thinking. My poor super redhawk has been neglected. Fired a mountain of smoking hot loads and hasn't been cleaned beyond a wipe down in maybe 1000+ rounds and never taken apart to do it (3000+ rounds). So I got all my junk and scrubbed her out, note -a toothpick will only hold the hammer spring for about an hour, then it says bye bye.
View attachment 904689

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My first Redhawk had its own disassembly pin that stored inside a hole in the grip, IIRC. Now I just use a bent paper clip.

Elkins45 said:

My first Redhawk had its own disassembly pin that stored inside a hole in the grip, IIRC. Now I just use a bent paper clip.

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I have the pin, but the case with the accessories is buried under a bunch of other gun boxes. I thought I'd just fudge it, the strut rod only shot about 15 feet and the spring went 5 feet the other way and the "foot" stayed right where it sat.

I’ll use brake cleaner on the semi-auto barrels and Hoppes on the rest of the gun. I’ve found Wilson Combat oil to be very slick with good penetration.

I once had a Sig P225 and it wouldn’t run right without a thin layer of wheel bearing grease on the rails!

I almost 100% agree. Just a question about soap and water. Which soap? Dish soap? Hand soap? Laundry soap? Shampoo? Bar soap? Liquid soap? Borax? Vegan soap? Body wash? Shaving cream? Scented soap? Unscented soap?

Y'all know what day it is? Not saying this is one but....

Kerosene is a great cleaner and it's cheap. Works just as good as Hoppe's because Hoppe's is about 95% kerosene in the first place.

DustyGmt said:

I've heard rem oil was pretty lousy and was mostly mineral oil with a teensy weensy bit of teflon. I havent used it much. I turned away from it once I read that, that and at least a couple people told me it was really lousy for rust prevention. I have a few full cans of it somewhere....

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I don't use it a a rust preventive..I use it as a lubricant. Works great on hair clippers and trimmers too.

any solvent will remove powder fouling, mineral spirits would do 90% of what other cleaning products do. I don't use it though, I go with Hoppe's cause it lasts a long time and was designed for use on guys, but - if I was concerned about the cost I'd just use mineral spirits for 90$ of cleaning as it is low cost. I have a bottle of Shooter's Choice as well, use it so infrequently it will probably last my lifetime.

I'll take Shooter's Choice, WD-40, or Safari Charlies for a solvent for cleaning and some nice Mobil One for an oil and some Shooter's Choice or similar grease for those applications

DukeConnor said:

We used to hose out our M16's and M60's with hot water. Armorer threatened to do terrible things to us if we were caught doing it.

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An ex-Army friend of mine at work used to take his M4 into the shower with him. (To clean it.)

An early late night cable gun show host considered it necessary to flush out a NEW gun barrel with boiling water.

The cleaning products I use have been around since the 1910s
They worked then
They work now
And they cost much less than the new stuff.

I'm good with that

PDF file of Hoppes 9 ingredient list:
Kerosene (petroleum) 8008-20-6 Carrier/ Solvent Ethanol 64-17-5 Carrier/ Solvent propan-2-ol 67-63-0 Carriet/ Solvent IARC Carcinogens, OEHHA REL Amyl Acetate 628-63-7 Fragrance 2-methylbutyl acetat 624-41-9 Fragrance methanol 67-56-1 Carrier/ solvent CA TAC, CA Prop 65, OEHHA REL Ammonium Hydroxide 1336-21-6 Active diammonium peroxodisulphate 7727-54-0 Active r-p-mentha-1,8-diene 5989-27-5 Fragrance 1,8 cineole 470-82-6 Fragrance 4-methylpentan-2-one 108-10-1 Fragrance CA Prop 65, IRIS Neurotoxicants, IRIS Carcinogens geraniol 106-24-1 Fragrance naphthalene 91-20-3 Fragrance CA TAC, CA NL, CA Prop 65, IARC Carcinogens, ATSDR Neurotoxicants, US EPA PBTs, US NTP Carcinogens, CA Priority Pollutants, OEHHA REL, CA Priority Chemicals Nerol 106-25-2 Fragrance Citronellol 106-22-9 Fragrance 2-Hydroxybenzoic acid methyl ester 119-36-8 Fragrance p-Cymene

A lot of folks like to say they would use anything else other than WD-40 and I say there are a lot of worse things than that out there.

Battery acid for one.

I got some Sweets the other day and went to smell it and just about fainted. Pretty sure it took my two favorite and only brain cells with it. Wouldn’t straight ammonia be cheaper?

Speaking of alternatives, I once heard Hoppes is not far off from mineral spirits. I have used mineral spirits to good effect on shotguns and use it for light cleaning on rifles.

Oil. The only oil I have large supplies of is sewing machine oil which is the same thing as way oil if your a machinist. It has lubrication and rust preventative properties and costs about $15 a gallon. You do the math.

I agree with the OP that many of today's expensive cleaning products are a bit silly. Nearly anything will remove powder fouling, including soap and water.

Two issues I have with the thread:

1) Serious copper fouling needs to be removed with chemicals or abrasives.

2) Belittling WD-40 is the shooter's version of virtue signalling.