Cleaners, Ammonia, and Firearms...

[SilentStalker]

Ok, I got to thinking today about most of the cleaners out there for firearms and as most of you know ammonia eats aluminum and a lot of modern day rifles, like the AR15, are built using aluminum. So, wouldn't it be a bad idea to use any kind of cleaner with ammonia in it? I mean obviously the barrel and other parts are not aluminum but what if you drop some on the parts that are? I mean I know it won't eat it away instantly but say there is some somewhere you do not know about and you get done cleaning your rifle, put it back in storage only to return to it 6 months later to find that some of the aluminum has been eaten by the ammonia? Am i wrong in assuming that this is bad? I am not exactly the neatest person when it comes to cleaning and sometimes I just do not have the time to be real meticulous with it.

 

[Robert101]

I don't use ammonia based products to clean my AR type rifles. I typically use transmission fluid in the barrel on a wire brush. If stubborn deposits persist, I use a little ChoreBoy on a bronze wire brush to get the copper or lead out.

 

[dfariswheel]

Every bore liquid solvent I know of will evaporate or dry out long before it could damage the gun from a spill.
That is unless you manage to find a place in the gun that would allow a big slurp of solvent to pool.
Most people don't use that much solvent just to clean a gun.

In other words.... stop obsessing and go shooting.