We see ads for cleaning everything with them.
I use either the pumice or plain formulations on my hands to clean everything I get on them.

Why wouldn't one of the citrus base cleaners work to clean barrels on firearms.

They seem to work as a polar and non-polar solvent, or at least can emulsify non-polar substances.

If they have water in them, couldn't they be based with a organic solvent?

LouisB

Nosey minds want to know!

[ 10-31-2002, 19:46: Message edited by: TCLouis ]

The one I sell is water base. I not choose it. If for some reason I had to use it and I can't think of why then I would wipe the barrel with a water soaked patch.............

I can't imagine wanting to run Citric acid through a barrel!!!

Most of the newly popular citrus cleaners don't contain citric acid, they are based on an organic solvent called D-Limonene which is pressed out of the citrus peels...Used to be a good market for it, unfortunately the prices have doubled in the last year due to huge increase in use and poor orange crops in Florida and Brazil.

Mike

Hate to be the wet blanket here, but what the hell is wrong with Sweets or Butch's or CR-10 - you know, the solvents specifically designed to clean bores??? You can certainly clean a gun with pure ammonia and do a great job of removing the copper from your bore. Of course you also frost the barrel in the process, but the bore sure is clean.

Creativity and experimentation are better left to cake baking and are not desirable traits when it comes to guns, but then again, this is what keeps folks like Jack in business....Hummm, maybe Orange Clean is a good solvent - try it and let us know how badly you screw up your bore (only joking!)

Spit is better!

Never forget!

zero drift: what do you mean by "Of course you also frost the barrel in the process..." tell me more about this frosting. i ask because a lot of surplus mausers and other rifles are advertised as having frosted bores. is this from being cleaned with ammonia??

Maybe I'm buying the wrong products but I've yet to buy a good citrus based anything. I tried a citrastrip on a gunstock, would have worked if I had a month to work with it. Zip Strip to rescue smell and all. I'd use them if they worked. dempsey

I've got a couple of 600 series S&W revolvers that appreciate my using the citrus cleaner, as does my nose, the floor, benchtop and lungs,� and my wallet.

At $4.99 for eight ounces, it is the best thing I have found for cleaning powder residue from the exterior surfaces (incl. cylinder faces� surprisingly enough.

A full day (100 � rnds) at the range does require Lead-a-way to get the crud of the cylinder faces and frame topstrap/recoil shield corners.

Of course, you do have to get over the "environmentalist/green" connection w/ these products. And don't ever mention you use them to clean guns� it doesn't seem to fit into "their" mission statement.

After three years, no changes can be seen on the surfaces. I do not use it in the bore.

Vitamen C does not work as well on gun barrels as it does on folks...steel has a natural immunity to vitimens I spect.

Soap and water works well.