absolut_beethoven
Member
Welcome to my small non-scientific test of non-toxic solvents. Specifically, non-toxic gun cleaners and copper solvents. I did quite a bit of research and reading about these solvents, mostly here on THR and the links that some helpfully provided, because I was keen to switch to something that works well, but is both user friendly and doesn’t harm either the user or the environment.
So, thanks to my CC and Midway, once I had decided on the candidates, it didn’t take me long to assemble the contenders.
In no particular order – M-Pro 7, Hoppe’s Elite Gun Cleaner (supposedly identical to the latter), Gunzilla, and two special purpose bore solvents, Bore Tech Eliminator and Hoppe’s Elite Copper Terminator.
The candidate for this test was the barrel (and bore) of my brand new HK P2000. I had given it a light cleaning prior to putting 200 copper FMJ rounds through it for the first time. Too tired to clean it that night, I only managed to clean it the following day with the Tetra CLP that came with my cleaning kit. Unfortunately the Tetra CLP didn’t do anything to remove the copper fouling.
Up first was the M-Pro 7 which I emptied into a small clean glass so that I could compare it to the Hoppe’s Elite Gun Cleaner. Sure enough, these products are, IMHO, 100% identical. There are no cleaning instructions on the Hoppe’s bottle, but fortunately M-Pro 7 took care of that department. After the cleaning and a quick rinse in an industrial strength ultra sonic cleaner - also filled with a biodegradable non-toxic cleaning solution – the barrel was rinsed with distilled water. Excess water was blown off with compressed air and then the barrel was dried on a warm air dryer. While the barrel itself was spotless, the copper crud inside the bore hadn’t budged. As it was the end of the day, I decided to let the barrel soak overnight in the M-Pro 7. However, cleaning it the next morning after its all night soak, still didn’t do anything to remove that stubborn copper crud.
Up next was the Gunzilla. They recommend leaving the bore thoroughly soaked for 15 minutes or more if the barrel is really dirty. While my barrel wasn’t that dirty, the copper crud that was there was stubbornly refusing to go. So I let the wet barrel sit for about 4 or 5 hours before giving it a quick clean (with M-Pro 7) and rinsed and dried exactly as above. Once again I was left with a spotlessly clean barrel, but unfortunately, the Gunzilla did nothing to dislodge the copper crud. I could have let it soak overnight, as per their recommendations for stubbornly dirty bores, but I didn’t think the few extra hours would make that much difference.
It was now time to move on to the heavy duty products and see if these specialized bore cleaning products fared any better than the previous two gun cleaners.
First up was Bore Tech’s Eliminator. I closely followed the cleaning instructions on the label, except for increasing the soaking times. After the first sopping wet swab was run through the bore, I let it sit for an hour. After a thorough scrubbing with a tight fitting nylon brush, I let it sit for another 30 minutes. Cleaning and rinsing was exactly the same as mentioned above.
Aha! Now I was actually beginning to get somewhere. Once again the barrel was spotless on the outside, only now the bore was a whole lot cleaner than it was before. Unfortunately it still wasn’t 100% spotless. Still, I was very happy to see that the Bore Tech Eliminator removed about 95% of the copper crud.
Strictly speaking this last part of the comparison isn’t really fair, because now the bore was 95% cleaner than before. Still, I felt it was worthwhile seeing if the Hoppe’s Elite Copper Terminator could remove the last stubborn bits of crud.
Once again I followed the cleaning instructions on the label, and once again I increased the recommended soaking times in order to maximize the effectiveness of the solvent.
Voilà! The bore was now finally 100% perfectly clean. As pristine and as clean as the day it was made.
The next time I go shooting I’ll try the Hoppe’s Elite Copper Terminator first, so that it won’t have the unfair advantage that it had in this test.
I also bought a bottle of Mil-Comm MC25 gun cleaner, but I forgot to use it this time. When I saw that the regular cleaners weren’t making a dent in the copper crud, I was keen to move on to the stronger solvents.
One thing that I should mention is that the barrel, and the bore too of course, is virtually 100% oil and grease free after being cleaned with the M-Pro 7. Unfortunately I forgot to buy some EEZOX, because that is the ideal condition in order to apply this protective coating and highly effective rust preventative. Oh well, next time. In the interim I gave it a light coating of Boeshield T9 and lightly greased the usual contact (and wear) points.
I hope that you guys find this info useful. All comments are welcome.
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