There is nothing wrong with CLEANING a rifle with boiling water and soap. That is still one of the best methods of removing fowling bar none. It will take the fowling out without question. Although the other day to prove a point... friends and I were shooting. He cleaned his rifle with boiling water and soap bath as normal. When he was positive he had it clean, I took a patch with some Butch's Bore Shine on it and swabbed his barrel. It came up black streaked. Yet his water bath showed the patches were clean. So judge for yourself next time you THINK your rifle is clean. When you water bath it and they are nice and white clean, run a solvent patch after that and see what you get.

In all my years of swabbing with a patch dampened with isopropyl alcohol, I've never experienced a problem other then a very excellent inexpensive swabbing compound. If one of those patches were to ignite (I've yet been able to get one to.. you'd think pushing that to the breech and then firing a cap or primer into it would ignite it) what is it really going to do? Probably burn a little and other then that nothing.

A problem I had when swabbing with water based soap and what not swab solutions, especially in traditional rifles, was an increase in hangfires and misfires. I am sure this is directly related to the water based swabs infecting the bore and then the dry patches that follow it were unable to clear or clean the total problem.

People need to use the swab solution they have the most confidence in. They need to clean and protect their rifles in the manner they also have the most confidence in.