I've bought my last cleaning solvent
 

I got a gift card for Gander Mountain for christmas this year, so the other day I went to a store to find something to buy. I ended up buying a jar of Hoppes Elite cleaning gel. The jar stated that the stuff was non-toxic which made me sceptical about how good it was, but I thought I'd give it a try.


The stuff had very little odor- a faint ammonia smell if anything. It was very thick, which I found nice- I'd dip a patch in it, and the stuff wouldn't not drip off all over my shop floor. I took a rifle that I had cleaned previously and followed the directions- ran a patch, waited 5 minutes, brushed with a bronze brush, then ran patches through again. The stuff took a lot of crud out of a bore that I had deemed clean in the past. I spent some time and cleaned 5 more rifles, and 4 out of 5 of them gave up some fouling to the bore cleaner.

I then tried it on a badly pitted and fouled mauser bore- it took me 5 minutes to clean it until it was mostly shiny again. When the rifle was new, I had spent a week trying everything I had including filling the bore with brasso and scrubbing and scrubbing it with JB bore paste, and It ever got this clean.

I'm sold on the stuff.:)

RE: I've bought my last cleaning solvent
 

I’m going to have to try that gel especially if it doesn’t smell. I’ll check around town to see if they sell it and give it a try. Thanks for the info....

RE: I've bought my last cleaning solvent
 

Does it remove copper build up?

RE: I've bought my last cleaning solvent
 

Sounds like good stuff. Montana Extreme cream is supposedly a good one as well but contains ammonia and from the smell lots of it unless I am mistaken. I have been using Wipeout and can't believe how well it works and it has no ammonia. Still not sure how they do that.

RE: I've bought my last cleaning solvent
 

Never tried it but I did read an add in a mag that stated it cleaned Carbon, Lead and MOST Copper fowling. I guess one would have to try it than follow up with a dedicated CR solution like Sweets 7.62 or Barnes CR10 just to see if it pulls more blue & how effective it is for copper removal.

RE: I've bought my last cleaning solvent
 

It sounds great. Do you all think it would work on surface rust on an old gun. I am cleaning up an old gun that was given to me. To be honest, I have only cleaned guns that were new to me and they never got rusted. This gun has rust on the under side on flat areas. The barrels are in great shape. What do you all think I should use for the surface rust.

RE: I've bought my last cleaning solvent
 

I've been using it since the fall. It works awesome! I believe its made by MPro-7 for Hoppe's.

I've found it gets stuff out that other cleaners couldn't. Somehow it get under or into the carbon. Its fast and doesn't smell. It will remove light copper by freeing up the carbon around it but a copper remover will always work better. As for rust? I can't say, but they do recommend its use as a cleaner on the outside of the barrel also.

I'm sold on it.

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RE: I've bought my last cleaning solvent
 

The following site has some good barrel cleaning information:

http://www.6mmbr.com/borecleaning.html

They use a two step process, first cleaning the powder fouling out followed by the copper fouling. Thats what I do. Notice that for powder fouling they recommend either GM Top Engine Cleaner or MPro-7 and they say that MPro-7 is also sold as "Hoppes Elite". Must be good stuff. Guess I'll have to try some.

WipeOut, which I've come to really like, is their copper solvent of choice. Good stuff!

RE: I've bought my last cleaning solvent
 

Great info and I'll try it, but am I the only one who will miss the smell of Hoppe's #9? I grew up with that stuff. My wife won't be disappointed though.

RE: I've bought my last cleaning solvent
 

Thanks for sharing that info with us. I will give it a try too.