I never claimed that brake cleaner has mineral spirits.
And yes, you are correct, regulations are slowly forcing a change in the composition of gun cleaners.
That's NOT unique to gun cleaners. Virtually every class of chemical product has been affected by changing environmental regulations.
What's also not unique are the new ingredients replacing old ingredients. They're not magically created for this one product/use.
They're not concocted of Unobtainium, Unicorn Farts, Elf Smiles, and Tears from Honest Politicians.
They are, for the most part, pedestrian, commonly available, every day chemicals.
The ONLY thing that makes them "special" are the efforts of the marketing people who sell them.
For example...
Outer's/Gunslick Nitro Powder Solvent contains, among other things... (drumroll, please!)
1. Solvent Naptha. That's a fancy name for... MINERAL SPIRITS.
2. Turpentine. (Love the smell of turpentine)
3. Gun Oil (yep, it's on the MSDS just like that. There's the magic, I guess!)
4. Amyl Acetate. That's the most special chemical in there, and it's pretty common across many industries, including the drug industry.
Hoppes No. 9, on the other hand:
1. Ethanol (basically grain alcohol. You can get the same thing at a lot of liquor stores)
2. Kerosine (which is an earlier spelling of kerosene).
3. Oleic acid (used I think as an emulsifier and maybe a surfecant)
4. Amyl Acetate again
5. Ammonium Hydroxide, used, I'm assuming, as a surfecant.
Those 9 ingredients, in one form or another, are found in a wide array of gun cleaning products.
As I said, there's nothing special about any of them. They all do a fairly decent job of cleaning a gun, but they do it at an exorbiant cost that is all out of proportion to their actual composition.
The only reason for that is that FAR too many in the gun community have bought into the theory that "Wow, my guns are really special, so I need special products to clean them and lubricate them!
If it doesn't cost AT LEAST $132 a gallon I don't want it!"
Yep, that's the equivalent cost of a gallon of unicorn farts in the guise of Hoppes No. 9 will cost you at a rough average of $4.14 a 4 ounce bottle.
I swear to God I'm going to mix up a gun cleaning product...
Call it MIKE'S MYSTICAL MAGICAL MONKEY OIL
Put lots of claims about its power and its suitability for use in cleaning all firearms.
The brilliant part of it's going to be that I'm going to charge $37.50 per 4 ounce bottle.
Based on how quickly people in the gun community are willing to shell out their money, I figure I'll be a multi millionaire in less than a week...
So, how many bottles can I put you down for?