All right everybody, I am pretty disappointed in Hoppes as of late. Seems to take FOREVER to clean a rifle using it, and goes through too many patches. So what are you all using to clean your barrels out? Wipe-out? the stuff with Blue in the name?
thanks everyone.
Red
Posts: 4740 | Location: Fresno, CA | Registered: 21 March 2003
Butch's Bore Shine and Butch's Gun Oil. At this point after shooting around 200 total rounds out of my 7mm-08 Rem Ti, it takes about 8-12 patches to get the barrel back to clean without brushing. One dry patch to get out the solvent and one oil patch to lube the bore. I don't notice any difference with the 1st shot after cleaning.
Posts: 318 | Location: Pinhook River, Florida | Registered: 27 March 2004
I use the same combo of shooters choice and sweets. Occasionaly I use JBs to clean up if I shoot a lot. That combination was shared with me at the range by a member of a national shooting team.
Hppe's #9 for most cleanings and Sweet's 7.62 or Barnes CR-10 for heavily "coppered" barrels. I've also found that if you leave Hoppe's in the barrel overnight, it dissolves most of the copper anyway. jorge
Posts: 7149 | Location: Orange Park, Florida. USA | Registered: 22 March 2001
You're not afraid of pitting the barrel leaving that stuff in there overnight?
I just had a very good barrel pit badly on me, so I'm running scared. It was chrome-moly. I had used CR-10, Shooter's Choice Copper, Hoppe's Benchrest -- a whole smorgasbord of cleaners so I don't know what hurt it.
Most of the rifles I have do as well or better if they are not cleaned. The majority of the barrels are factory barrels and most have tool marks.
The rifle I shoot every week or more often is a Kimber 84M in 260 Rem. That rifle has not been cleaned for at least 70 shots and it's shooting just as well as it ever did and it stays sighted in.
When I clean a barrel I use Hoppes 9 and a brush and wipe it out. That just knocks it down and spreads it out. It seems to work well for me.
When something goes wrong I get all the stuff out!
I have never tried Blue Wonder or Wipe Out. If it were easy to get I might.
Don G, The bench rest shooters here in town have been using Blue wonder and are tickled to death with it. I used it and it cleand my bore faster than anything I have ever used. I do not leave it over night. The cleaning process is drastically reduced and I think I am growing hair again. Okay I exagerate some. I am really sold on it.
Posts: 4917 | Location: Wenatchee, WA, USA | Registered: 17 December 2001
The quickest way I've found is to clean powder fouling out with whatever, and then wrap a JB Bore cleaner patch around a bronze brush and make several passes. Switch patches with one soaked with Kroil followed by a patch on the brush treated with JB bore brite. You can have a bore sparkly clean in 10 minutes or so. The easiest way I've found is to squirt Wipe-out foam in and leave it for 15 minutes. Run three or four patches through. Squirt in Wipe-Out again and wait for an hour to hour and a half. Run a few more patches through. Oil with good bore treatment. This takes a couple hours but only 3 or 4 minutes of actual cleaning.......DJ
Posts: 3976 | Location: Oklahoma,USA | Registered: 27 February 2004
I can get the powder fouling out with a patch over a jag wetted with most any solvent, followed by a dry patch, all in 30 seconds.
Then the hours turn into days of trying to get the copper out from firing a dozen shots.
Sweets 7.62 seems to work the best, but etches steel after 10 minutes, so I keep working it. I put Sweets on a patch over a nylon brush and give my right arm a work out. If that doesn't get out the copper, I mix FLITZ or JB bore paste with the Sweets on the patch. When my right arm gets tired after 200 strokes, I clean the Sweets out of there and work on something else.
I also use Shooter's Choice, Butch's Bore Shine, Pro Shot Copper Solvent II, Hoppe's, and Break Free Bore Cleaner.
The alternative to fighting copper is moly and Kroil. That is the system my accurate rifles are on.
My bronze brushes start as 8mm, turn into .311, then into .308.
I clean the Sulferic acid from moly paste dissociation with baking soda and water [the active ingredient may be water].
I clean corrosive primer products from the bore with grocery store amonia [the active ingredient may be water].
I clean things with Alcohol, and take it to the range, but I don't clean bores with it.
Kroil in a bore makes it easier to see imperfections and deposits in the bore.
I carry the objective from a pair of binoculars as a magnifying glass for looking at either end of the bore.
I like to store rifles with motor oil in the bore, but always clean it out before shooting.
whipe out works the best for me. I have left it in a chrome moly barrel for two days and no damage. I assessed the condition with my fiberoptic endoscope.
Posts: 2608 | Location: Moore, Oklahoma, USA | Registered: 28 December 2003
Damn, this is one that is really like noses huh? everybody has their own. The Blue Wonder was the one that wouldn't come to mind, that and the wipe out I think I will try. I have used Sweets long ago, in fact here is a little anecdote on that.
About 5 years ago I guess I came out from where I was working then and jumped in my explorer. Well it was a typical Fresno summer, 95-100 degrees, windows were up, and I didn't realize it but the new bottle of sweets that I had just picked up did not have a good seal on it and hand leaked in the car, that combined with the heat, when I jumped in I almost passed out. the thing that kept me conscioius was that I never close the door in summer here until the car is going and the heat gets out, so I was able to roll out and clear my head.
Thanks guys, I will start with the blue wonder, then try the wipe out, and go from there. I do like the Shooter's Choice by the way.
Oh, somebody mentioned the smell of hoppes, my fiancee and friends think I am crazy when I say I want a cologne that smells like Hoppes and leather. :-)
Red
Posts: 4740 | Location: Fresno, CA | Registered: 21 March 2003
Ditto on the Blue Wonder and the Wipe Out - both work extremely well. As the younger shooters at the range say (regarding these cleaners) "its the s**t" (which I later found out means it is really good) - after a shooting session, I go to the workshop, open a container of Hoppe's #9 (for the atmosphere / aroma) and then clean with the others - great products!! Don G - I use both products on SS and CM barrels, no problems at all - KMule
Posts: 1300 | Location: Alaska.USA | Registered: 15 January 2002
I usually start with Kroil and clean with it until it stops removing much crud, then do a JBs patch followed by more Kroil. I usually stop when the Kroil stops cleaning , but if I really want to get the last of the copper I continue with Hoppes Copper Remover which I leave in overnight. Their instructions allow for leaving overnight. I may be doing one or two patches a day with the Hoppes for a couple of weeks and still be getting a little color on the patches, but I wonder if my brass jag may be doing that. When I am finally happy it is clean, I treat as per instructions on JB bore shine, and clean up again with Kroil. I only go the long treatment if I am changing a barrel from jacketed to lead or vice versa.
Posts: 247 | Location: Wyoming | Registered: 20 March 2004
Hoppes is not nor has it ever been a copper remover. It works a little better now that benzyne has been removed from it. Wipe out is good but expensive. Day in day out Sweets 7.62 is the best thing going.
Posts: 89 | Location: south central kansas | Registered: 08 August 2002
Quote: All right everybody, I am pretty disappointed in Hoppes as of late. Seems to take FOREVER to clean a rifle using it, and goes through too many patches. So what are you all using to clean your barrels out? Wipe-out? the stuff with Blue in the name? thanks everyone. Red
Red, truth be known, Hoppe's No. 9 was never really much of a solvent! yes, it did remove powder fouling, but was not much good for metal fouling, either lead or copper. However, whatever the formula was, it was a very good rust preventative, but it seems they have altered the mix somewhat, and it is no longer as good at preventing rust as it was years ago! About the only good thing I can say about Hoppe's anymore is that it has retained its' great "gunroom perfume" odor. I still keep some Hoppe's around for this reason, but clean with Shooter's Choice and use Birchwood-Casey Sheath to prevent rust.
I got this recipe from the folks at Precisionreloading.com In a small precision oiler bottle, mix 2 thirds Shooters Choice and 1 third Kroil. This takes the place of the Hoppes #9. To get out the tough fouling, whether it be copper or lead, I use an Outers Foul-outII--that's the electrochemical unit. Works like reverse electroplating.
Posts: 4799 | Location: Lehigh county, PA | Registered: 17 October 2002
Don G, All of my barrels with one exception are CM and I use it on all of them. The fellow that told me about this has had 5 National BR records and still holds 3 of them to my understanding and he is totally sold on it. I do not know what his barrels are but I will find out. I know he said it makes barrel cleaning so easy and I have found that to be true also.
Posts: 4917 | Location: Wenatchee, WA, USA | Registered: 17 December 2001
I am a neat/clean freak, but I don't understand why it seems to take some 1500 passes to clean out their rifles. Maybe I just don't shoot anything that fouls that bad, or maybe that is why my .221 is now a .17...kidding.
I brush with Shooter's Choice (4 or 5 passes), and follow that up with a few patches soaked with Hoppe's #9. The Shooter's Choice seems to work on the copper, and the Hoppe's picks up the powder residue, smells good, and triggers the feeling of bliss that I associate with working on my guns. It's probably due to a chemical that will cause me to lose all of my hair and grow a third arm out of the center of my chest. I did lick my fingers once by mistake, and I forgot where I was for a few minutes...kidding, again.
Follow that with a few dry patches to remove the solvent, a bore mop with Rem Oil, then a couple more dry patches. Done...a clean, shiny, protected bore every time. I'll have to give the Blue Wonder a try to see if I have been missing anything...
Posts: 120 | Location: New Hampshire | Registered: 13 January 2004
Gentlemen I start with a fe patches of Shooters choice and some brushing to get powder and other fouling out. A few clean pathes to dry the bore up and them Forrest bore foam, which seems to be good for soaking 24 hours or soo.
I also use hoppes no:9 copper remover and sweets 7,62 depeding on which weather it is
My experince is that JB paste is good for removeing carbon fouling in the throat, but messy to work with.
I use Shooters Choice or Quicksilver (Mercury) outboard motor cleaner for powder fouling. They work about the same. If I have been shooting jacketed bullets (which I seldom do)I them remove the metal fouling with Sweets 7.62. The trick to easy removal of metal fouling is not to let it build up, but clean down to steel each time.
The process is I wet a brush with SC and do about a dozen fore and aft passes through the bore. This is followed by patched weted with SC until they come clean. Depending on how rough the bore is, this takes 6 to 10 patches. A dry patch follows and that is that unless I have fired jacketed and then I use Sweets. When it is all over, I push a damp patch with Break Free on it to protect the bore.
Posts: 263 | Location: Corpus Christi, Texas | Registered: 23 December 2002
Im gonna have to try some Blue Wonder. Is it just me or do standard chamberings have less problems with copper fouling than Magnums? I get nervous about using aggressive cleaning soloutions too often, the usual #9 with an occaisional patch of JB's seems to work for me. I do keep a bottle of Barnes copper remover on hand but it mostly comes out when I aquire a new/used rifle.
Posts: 10188 | Location: Tooele, Ut | Registered: 27 September 2001
I've used a little bit of everything and have settled on a Shooters Choice/Kroil mixture for powder fouling. I let it sit in the barrel for about 30 minutes before scrubbing the bore with a bronze brush wetted with the same mixture. Then I patch that all out.
For cleaning copper (if it needs it) I've been using CR-10 or Wipeout.
I highly value the opinion of Customstox, so I might have to try this Blue Wonder soon.
Posts: 407 | Location: Olive Branch, MS | Registered: 31 December 2003
Generally, I start by using a clear bore cleaner made by Breakfree which is great for cleaning out the powder fouling. Depending upon how much the rifle was shot, I take one of two courses. If it was not shot a good bit, I will finish off with Breakfree to lubricate the bore. If it was shot a good bit with jacketed bullets, I will clean up the barrel with some Wipe Out or another cleaner that will attack copper fouling. I will not leave a rifle overnight with anything in it but Hoppe's #9 or Wipeout.
I find that cleaning powder fouling out helps the Wipe Out "flow" down the barrel. I leave the Wipe Out in the bore overnight, and then clean out the bore finishing with patches soaked in Breakfree.
I try to leave my barrels with just a little coating in them. Occassionally, I will take them down to bear metal, but the next time I clean them, I will leave them clean but with some fouling in them.
If I am hunting, I carry only Gun Sheath, and use parts of the impregnated paper to clean the bore and coat it with rust preservative. It is good stuff and does not attract dirt. Ku-dude
I mix 2 parts of Shooters Choice with 1 part of Kroil for a general cleaning of the barrel. I may or may not use JB Bore Compound or Sweets Copper Remover. It depends on the state of the barrel. If I use a copper remover I switch to nylon bore brushes since the ammonia eats up the brass bristles of the normal cleaning brushes. When you use nylon brushes I'd recommend Sinclairs for their stiffness. Other nylon brushes tend to be too soft and defeat the purpose of the copper remover. I then use another dose of Shooters Choice and then finish up with a good lube like Rem Oil. I've heard good things about Montana Extreme as a bore cleaner, but haven't had a chance to use it yet. Best wishes.
