HuntingNet.com Forums - Damp Bore Patches

leehop

It does have ammonia in it and that is what makes it such an excellent product for the job at hand.... it is a cleaner and it evaporates rapidly + plus it carries water with it when it evaporates. One other advantage it neutralizes powder residue...

Quote:

I use windex with viniger to clean my blackpowder brass. Ammonia will cause rusting in barrels if not cleand well.

This is simewhat of an old wives tale.... straight amonnia left on metal will accelerate the rusting (oxidation) process. But there is not enough ammonia in windex to even begin the process. When I do clean my barrels I use Butch's Bore Shine - which is loaded with ammonia, Still not enough to really do anything but clean the barrel to raw metal....

This whole process was tested by a major barrel manufacturer.... and as stated by Dan

On the road, a bottle of any of the commercial black powder cleaners is handy. That, a handful of patches, your jag, and a small "to go" bottle of Breakfree is all you need. Windex (yes, with ammonia) is a very good bore cleaner.
Dan Lilja of Lilja Precision Rifle barrels has never seen any damage in one of his barrels caused by the use of ammonia. Dan writes: "The rumor is that copper-removing cleaners with ammonia will pit and damage the interior surface of a barrel. Ammonia is very effective as a copper remover. We use solvents, such as Butch's Bore Shine, to remove copper during the break-in. We routinely leave Butch's solution in the barrel over night too. Again, I repeat, we have never seen a problem with ammonia in the concentrations found in commercial cleaners, in either our chrome-moly or stainless steel barrels. This includes examination with our borescope." Black powder enthusiasts have universally praised Dan's personal favorite barrel cleaning solvent, "Butch's Bore Shine."

Bore Shines % of ammonia far exceeds what you will find in the house hold windex product. Check this out at:

http://www.riflebarrels.com/faq_lilja_rifle_barrels.htm#Ammonia