Gun Cleaning, Is Hoppe's good enough?
- Thread starter MIKE10538
- Start date
Chris McDermott
New member
Both work just fine. If you have heavy copper fouling one of the ammonia based cleaners works faster, Hoppe's calls their's Benchrest. Picking cleaning supplies is more of a preference than something that can be absolutely proved better or worse. The Foulout systems may be the one exception, but you still need standard solvents etc to remove the powder fouling and expose the bare metals for the electrolytic action to work on the lead and copper. The biggest advantage of the Foulout systems isn't the cleaning action, it's that they can reliably tell you when your barrel actually is completely clean of metal fouling without examining it with a high-priced bore-scope.
Except for artic cold conditions, where you need a dry lubricant that won't freeze solid like grease or oils, lubrication is also pretty much a matter of preference & opinion. Dry lubes may attract less fouling than oil or grease, greases may stay put better than oils, and gum up faster with fouling or cold.
There are recipes for home-made cleaners (Ed's Red I think is the most well known); or you can buy the commercial cleaner of your choice for whatever price you are comfortable with; and use the lubricant you believe in and like the most. It's more a matter of preference on how you want to care for your guns than a matter of something NOT working.
Except for artic cold conditions, where you need a dry lubricant that won't freeze solid like grease or oils, lubrication is also pretty much a matter of preference & opinion. Dry lubes may attract less fouling than oil or grease, greases may stay put better than oils, and gum up faster with fouling or cold.
There are recipes for home-made cleaners (Ed's Red I think is the most well known); or you can buy the commercial cleaner of your choice for whatever price you are comfortable with; and use the lubricant you believe in and like the most. It's more a matter of preference on how you want to care for your guns than a matter of something NOT working.
Steve Smith
New member
I used to use Hoppe's, until I started having some leading problems with a barrel. I would use the Hoppe's and the bore would come out looking pretty clean...then I used Pro-Shot right after it, and my patch came out looking like a negative photo of my bore. The worst part was that it was all lead. Literally stripes of lead on my dry patch after using Pro-Shot once. I stopped using Hoppe's that day. I recently used some Butch's bore shine...I stopped using Pro-Shot that day! 
I've tried them all, and gave up Butch's for Mpro7. (If anyone from Colombus , Ohio shoots at NASR, I'll give you all my old bore cleaners!) Mpro 7 cleans better, has zero odor and doesn't burn the hands!
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"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with Army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege." Wilson vs. State, Ark. 1878
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"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with Army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege." Wilson vs. State, Ark. 1878
I use Powder Blast! by the makers of CLP. It does a decent job blowing off the lead from the hard to reach places like trigger assemblies, but then I use some Hoppe's afterwards, and all this other crap comes out. So the Hoppes cleans a lot better than the Powder Blast. I have a friend who uses Simple Green.
I'm sure gumout is good. Do the "styrofoam cup" test, serious "gunk" solvants will dissolve right through the styrofoam cup right away.
Hoppe's is not the best, but it's proven to be pretty good and reliable.
Albert
I'm sure gumout is good. Do the "styrofoam cup" test, serious "gunk" solvants will dissolve right through the styrofoam cup right away.
Hoppe's is not the best, but it's proven to be pretty good and reliable.
Albert