Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters The best gun CLEANER

Teslong bore scope, otherwise, you are clueless in what your barrels need....become your own expert in your favorite chemicals.

Hint: Good Bronze bristle brushes are the key, use for about 50 strokes, then save them.

I have a huge shelf full of all the most popular chemicals, Teslong bore scope says the chemicals are WAY DOWN the list of most important thing to consider....Good bronze bristle brushes...throw them away often.

FREE ALL penetrating oil actually has a chemical in it that is made to penetrate hard baked on carbon....takes some soaking when it gets this bad.

Fine Bronze wool wrapped in a used brush that you saved after 50 rounds on is simply amazing, and the Hawkeye Bore scope and Teslong says that the fine Bronze wool does not scratch, Krieger, Brux, Lilja, Pac Nor, and Bartline barrels

. https://www.ebay.com/itm/234178545565

For those that would think that the Fine Bronze Wool would scratch their fine SS barrel, my Hawkeye Bore Scope with it's 25X magnification says different!

Teslong bore scopes are the best investment a rifleman can make for his guns. You soon see that a lot of the claims made by chemical sales are snake oil....humbling to say the least.

One thing to remember when reading where a guy likes this and that, what is that particular guys application. For instance, is he a guy that is a benchrest shooter that cleans after every 7-10 rounds or is he a guy that shoots Steel at PRS matches, P. dog shooter with high volume shooting. Various shooting disciplines requires vastly different cleaning methods.

Consider this, a benchrest shooter shoots approximately 10 shots with 28g of powder = 280g of powder fouling in between cleanings. Now take a F class shooter where he fires 60 rounds with an average of 45 g of powder = 2700g of powder fouling in the barrel. Now consider a p. dog shooter who shoots 450 rounds with 26g of powder = 11,700g of powder fouling All three of these examples require different attention to barrel carbon fouling.

Also, barrels are very different in how smooth, uniform, and wear characteristics, especially factory barrels.

I would urge everyone reading this post to buy a Teslong bore scope, I just got my brother a new one after he dropped his Lyman, and the new Teslong was $70 shipped.

https://teslong.com/collections/rifle-borescopes

Wipe Out, Patch Out.......................................!!!

This.

BT Eliminator is the best I've used. Gets out carbon and copper fouling and no smell.

I use M-Pro7 bore solvent for general cleaning and carbon removal. It has no odor and is non-toxic. If there is significant copper fouling I use Montana Xtreme Copper Killer. The fumes of Copper Killer are pretty potent but it definitely works.

Thanks, I find this helpful. A few questions
A. You mentioned bronze wool on a "worn out bronze brush" And am I reading right that this is pretty much as good as a new bronze brush?
B. How do you keep the bronze wool on the brush? Just wrap it around? If so, will I need to watch for bronze particles in the barrel?
C. In your observation, is there a particular chemical cleaner that works well for general application? I am a hunter, no competition shooting for me. But I do shoot more than some hunters, probably 500-750 rounds a year in my 3 hunting rifles. I tend to clean after 60-80 shots, so maybe 4,000 g powder fouling in the barrel.

Shooter’s Choice for powder fouling…wet patches, ten or so strokes with a bronze brush, then a couple of dry patches. Maybe a couple more wet patches followed by some dry ones. Wipeout after that for the copper. Two or three applications depending on the rifle’s tendency to foul.

Tactical Advantage which is made by Wipe Out.

Since copper equilibrium never gives me excess copper...never needs copper removal.

Properly sized lead bullets gives me no excess lead fouling.

Just about any bore cleaner will remove carbon fouling, but most likely to use Hoppes #9.

I’m in the same camp as gunwriter Charlie Petty on the subject of the best this and that. Lots of stuff works and so I use what’s available to me at any given time.

Surprised no Ed’s Red acolytes have chimed in yet.

Jevyod

"Thanks, I find this helpful. A few questions
A. You mentioned bronze wool on a "worn out bronze brush" And am I reading right that this is pretty much as good as a new bronze brush?
B. How do you keep the bronze wool on the brush? Just wrap it around? If so, will I need to watch for bronze particles in the barrel?
C. In your observation, is there a particular chemical cleaner that works well for general application? I am a hunter, no competition shooting for me. But I do shoot more than some hunters, probably 500-750 rounds a year in my 3 hunting rifles. I tend to clean after 60-80 shots, so maybe 4,000 g powder fouling in the barrel."

Jevyod, the bronze bristle brush does most of the hard work on getting out the fouling, and they do their best work in the first 50 strokes of their life. After that, wind in some Fine Bronze wool in the brush. In heavily fouled barrels, I use the Montana Extreme copper cream and it is a miracle worker on hard carbon and of course the copper is the easiest to deal with.

Concerning bronze particles, this would be the same as broken brush bristles. When you are through brushing, push 4 wet patches through the bore, then 4 dry patches, and I use a punch type of jag resulting in no pieces of the wool or brush left in the bore.

I have all the cleaners mentioned in this thread. You can save some money by googling " Ed's Red" home made solvent, it is good. Some people are forced to clean in the house, so the smell of ammonia is a no no for them.

I clean in the garage, and I use the Montana Extreme Powder solvent, the Montana Extreme copper Killer, then go to the Montana Extreme Copper Cream for difficult applications. I prefer not to soak, as I like to clean the rifle and call it done. I have noticed that when shooting big magnums, pushing 4 wet patches of the Penetrating oil called Free All through the barrel prior to leaving the range seems to get the carbon to turn loose easier. I put a small zip lock bag over the muzzle and rubber band it on.

On my factory Remingtons, I clean every 30 or so rounds as I want exceptional accuracy of 3/8" or so, and some of the barrels are really a pig to deal with.

Accuracy expectations can vary from person to person and cleaning techniques often runs with personality types.

The inexpensive Teslong Bore scope is an incredible addition to gun care. Again, a lot of this talk of this or that favorite cleaner often is more important than stressing the use of very good bronze bristle brushes that you throw away often, or use the worn brushes with the Bronze wool wound in the brush.

Again, my favorite Barrel blank brands are Brux, Bartline, Krieger, Pac Nor, Lilja, and Hart. I shoot a lot of large hunting calibers and benchrest rifles also. Bronze wool does not scratch any of these very, very fine barrels. You can always depend on a Brux to have an absolute mirror finish in side where you could see the slightest scratch of any kind, especially in the leade angle and beginning of the throat The bronze wool will get mushed down in the brush, and you will have to add more on really carboned up barrels.

Good luck!

Yeah, bronze wool will not scratch the bore.

Most of the rest...funny stuff.

I agree with Petty, and would add that the best cleaner is actually you. Taking a few minutes to swab things out and wipe your firearm down using any old cleaner is the best.

Agree.

Bore Tech is my favorite...........it works well on powder & copper fouling & has no real odor.

Sometimes if a gun is very dirty, I will use Shooters Choice or Butch's first to remove most of the powder fouling & finish with BTE.

Or if I don't want to finish & just let the gun sit, I may use Wipe Out or similar.

Sweets works about as good on copper as BTE when it's fresh, but it has a distinctive odor & IME / IMO, it has a shelf life when the ammonia breaks down making it much less effective over time.

MM

NAGW, but I use mostly Montana Extreme Bore Solvent unless really fouled. If so I use Wipe Out overnight, then finish up with Montana Extreme solvent. Works for me!

Most of the bullets i shoot have pure copper jackets. Copper fouling is the norm. I use kg2 on a bore snake that is 3 or 4 sizes larger than the bore diameter:
375 caliberbore snake in 338 bore
45 caliber bore snake in a 416 bore

Its a tight fit and really runs the bore polish against the fouling.

Copper fouling is gone by 20 passes. No chemical bllsht, no overnight soaking.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1078729062

I tried a lot mentioned here. But found the above works for me. Hasbeen

You just disproved your "expertise," once again. You not only misspell Eezox, but apparently don't know it's not a bore cleaner.

I have used all the "cleaners" (meaning bore cleaners, not lubes) mentioned so far, and have owned a Gradient Lens bore-scope for close to 20 years. Like Keith, I have found that without a bore-scope the effectiveness of various bore cleaners is only a guess.

A lot of it depends on how fast you want the barrel actually cleaned, along with whether the fouling is powder or copper. After using a BUNCH of solvents over the years, am also convinced that effectiveness varies with regional humidity.

The latest version of Hoppe's No. 9 is more effective than many believe. How well it would work for you is another question. I shoot enough that my preference is for faster working solvents.

One type of solvent I do NOT use anymore is water-based ammonia. These definitely can etch bores if left inside a bore even a little too long. This info has been around for at least a couple decades, but too many rifle shooters base their opinion of the effectiveness of solvents on whether they can see copper streaks inside the muzzle.

Many shooters, out of ignorance, over clean their firearms.