Bore Solvent

[Forum Boss]

Lynn,

Just get a little plastic cup like they have for condiments at restaurants. Fill it with enough 50BMG to cover the bullet entirely. The open-top cup should provide enough air to work--it did so in other tests.

Weigh the bullet before immersion in the solvent, then rinse it off and weigh the bullet 24 hours later.

Knowing that some very respected shooters use and endorse 50 BMG, I would be VERY surprised if it doesn't remove a measureable amount of copper.

As noted above, WipeOut, when allowed to liquify and coat a bullet, removed 0.8 grains of copper in 24 hours when I tested it.

I've got some KG12 and I'll try to do the test with it as well.

 

[CatShooter]

Many of the solvents need air to work properly.

Very true. It's not the oxygen or nitrogen in the air that is needed, it's the water from the humidity.

Ammonia,NH3) is a gas at normal temperature and pressure. It's actually pretty tame stuff. Farmers spray NH3 on fields from pressurized tanks as a way of supplying nitrogen.

When it gets around water it's a whole different story. It dissolves readily in the water and forms NH4OH which is what we buy in bottles labeled ammonia, usually 4-5%. NH4OH is very caustic.

Aqueous ammonia,NH4OH) is what reacts with copper. It reacts by forming tetraaminecopper,II) hydroxide - Cu,NH3)4 OH, the blue stuff that shows up on the patch.

If the liquid the NH3 is dissolved in isn't water,it's soluble in many liquids) then there's no NH4OH to react with the copper. Admitting air,along with the water in it) will give the "ammonia" a chance to do it's thing. Or diluting the bore cleaner the bullet is immersed in with an equal amount of water will speed things right up.

28% aqueous ammonia will certainly quickly disolve copper without any need for air to be involved. The reason the 28% solution is popular is that's the strongest solution that doesn't need to be in a pressurized container at normal temperature/pressure.

If you ever have reason to strip the bluing from the last foot or so of a rifle barrel, put a Patch-Hog thing that catches the patch in a plastic soda bottle, run a few patches of Sweets into it and wait until the next morning.

Well... I got a question.

When I have time, I plug the chamber and fill the barrel with #9. With no air,and no humidity) it will remove ALL of the copper in 20 to 30 minutes.

There is no water in #9.

???


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[CatShooter]

There is water in Hoppe #9. The MSDS lists the ingredients as ethanol, kerosene, a couple trade secret ingredients, and aqueous ammonia,NH4OH) which is ammonia disolved in water.

Hoppe's #9 MSDS

The ethanol makes the aqueous ammonia miscible with the kerosene so it becomes one solution. The NH3 is there, already disolved in water, and ready to go.

That's cool - thanks.


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[FroggyOne2]

Believe it would be interesting to hear some input about barrel cleaning from the gunnies who head up the Army and Marine marksmanship teams. They shoot a lot more than any of us and their jobs, keeping their position on the team, as well as shooting results depend on their cleaning routines. I watched a military marksmanship team gunnery sergeant clean his rifle at an Oak Ridge meet 2-3 years ago and I would have sworn that his mission was to remove all the lands from the barrel. As I recall, His primary "fluids" were Hoppes and a bottle of off-the-shelf hydrogen peroxide.

I will keep an eye out for what they are using.. I will be at the Regional at Oak Ridge.. will report back on this.