this stuff works to clean grease etc off of rotors and seems to dry without a film. Could this be used to clean a gun? Would it eat the bluing? Seems like you could blast it with that at the end of the season and then wipe it down with a nice coat of oil. Just curious.- thanks

[ 04-08-2003, 23:20: Message edited by: dogcatcher223 ]

I use it all the time. Plastic and stock finish's can be ruined so I would test were it doesnt show first.

As stated above, be very careful of any plastic it touches as it will melt it. I have a shotgun that now has a new trigger group because of it. There are some little plastic parts in a lot of them.

Wear glasses. When you hose parts with it you can get splash back. It reeeeeally hurts in your eye. Second thing is it toxicity. I would bet it contains nasty solvents. Some of those are carcenogenic and liver toxins. Check the label on that issue. Wear chemical resistant gloves, nitrile, for sure. All in all it may be tempting to use but, I shy away.

I use brake cleaner as a thin degreaser, and carb cleaner makes a great carbon remover that is a bit less caustic to flesh and fragile parts. Carb cleaner is also formulated to leave a lube coating behind.

Bob

Pretty much the same stuff as Caseys gun blaster but about 1/3 the price. Can't go wrong.

That is what I like is it is cheap and it has some major pressure. Seems like it could really blast the dirt and grime out of the gun.

dogcatcher---

I use it by the case while polishing, and working on guns but DON'T reccommend ever totally degreasing any firearm unless it's being worked on or about to be reblued.

Use a little kerosene, mineral spirits or Stoddard's solvent and a flux brush and compressed air instead. That leaves the micro lubrication that steel counts on to lessen wear and friction.

I've seen MANY fine guns galled and ruined by 1,1,1, triclor and similar solvents.

After I have used Butch's Bore Shine or such on my bore, I use a patch or two with brake cleaner (degreaser)on them. I then let it dry and follow with a kroil patch.

Would it be safe to use for cleaning the trigger assembly?

You bet, just make sure to relube all wear areas because as noted above it can cause a lot of damage to completely degrease a firearm. I use brake cleaner to blast clean triggers, or the internals of my Ruger Mark II, or the gas tube on my Bushmaster. Just be careful of plastic, painted, varnished or rubber parts and make sure to relube all wear areas.

Never have had a problem with brake cleaner. It works exactly like the Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber for 1/4 of the cost. I've used it on Remington, Ithaca, Beretta, FABARM, Howa, Sako, CZ, Ugartechea, and Smith & Wesson firearms w/o a single problem.

I'm not a chemist but I think brake cleaner is the same stuff as gun scrubber, etc. Just a whole lot cheaper.

When you buy rifles from the CMP, they are usually pretty greasy and sometimes covered in cosmolene. Chlorinated solvents are just about the fastest working solvent on both and I use it all the time. I also use it to clean my shotgun barrels. One squirt and the plastic wad fouling just peels right off, no scrubbing.