Brownell's doesn't have Ed's Red. Are there other carbon removers that are just as good? I've been using KG #1, and it has worked satisfactorily. Is Ed's Red better?
Is Ed's Red still available ?
- Thread starter Ironworker
- Start date
hpshooter
Gold $$ Contributor
Plenty of recipes for Ed's Red on the internet and I believe a search on this site will provide the formula.
6.5 forever
Silver $$ Contributor
Bore Tec C4 works well for me.
Dimner
I do believe in Captain Crunch.
Sorry about this, my post above was off the top of my head and not correct. I made a gallon and a half so long ago, I forgot the actual recipe.
In my research I found many people have substituted the ATF with Marvel Mystery Oil. Users who have done this (including me) have had success with this substitution. This substitution was done because
- ATF ingredients have changed a bit since the original recipe
- MMO can be cheaper depending where you shop
As for acetone.... most people omit it. Two reasons for this
1) It's more useful for those shot gunning and that have plastic wad buildup in the bore. There is not much benefit for the rifle shooter.
2) Unless you keep your supply of Ed's Red completely air tight at all times, the acetone will evaporate out of the mixture. Even in containers that seem air tight, this stuff seems to evaporate.
I went back through my notes and here is the actual formula information I received from Ed Harris. Hell of a guy.
Original Ed’s Red Recipie:
- 1 part Dexron II, IIe or III Automatic Transmission Fluid - GM Spec D20265 or later
- 1 part K1 Kerosene
- 1 part Aliphatic Mineral Spirits federal spec TT-T-2981F (CAS# 64741-49-9) or Stodard Solvent/Varsol (CAS#8052-41-1), a.k.a "oderless mineral spirits"
- 1 part Acetone (CAS#67-64-1)
- For each gallon of Ed's Red produced you can also add 1 pound of anhydrous lanolin (CAS#8006-54-0), which helps to neutralize fingerprints but it's really not necessary and current formulations generally omit it.
- 1 part Marvel Mystery Oil
- 1 part kerosene
- 1 part oderless mineral spirits
Dimner
I do believe in Captain Crunch.
Ed's red has it's uses. The main being how one would use a CLP type product. Mainly I use Ed's Red to clean and soak AR15 parts that have carbon caked on from the gas operation. If one does any of the CMP high power competition formats with an AR, you use a ton of cleaning solvents. The processes I ended up on was to strip my BCG and place the parts in a tupperware container of Ed's Red the night after returning from CMP league practice (100-150 rounds fired). Then a week later, the night before the next practice, cleaning those parts would be super quick. It cut atleast an hour off my cleaning time.
Ed's red does not take the place of bore solvents like Hoppe's #9 or Shooters Choice MC-7, or Butch's Bore Shine. No CLP can do what those solvents can.
I just ordered some from Midway.
c3d4b2
Silver $$ Contributor
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