Household Ammonia

[metroplex]

I've been using Household Ammonia mixed with Outer's Bore Cleaner with some good results to clean out my barrel.

I've rarely been able to get rid of all the fouling using BreakFree CLP (it does protect metal from corrosion fairly well tho) so I decided to use some household ammonia (according to the MSDS, they're at most 4% Ammonia Hydroxide so its not the industrial grade stuff). It cleaned the bore to a mirror-like shine but there's still some streaks of copper fouling. I was told this is not something to worry about.

Any comments?

I can't use Ed's Red in my rifle for a number of reasons, one of which is the painted rifle finish. Ammonia doesn't seem to have an effect on the finish (Brake cleaner and carb cleaner do have an effect).

 

[Tim]

I go the expensive route (

) and use Barnes CR-10 to remove copper fouling.

Ammonia just the same. Sure does eat the copper! Perhaps you need to alternate wet ammonia patches, then dry, then brush with a commercial bore cleaner, then more ammonia patches. I have had to go to this extreme on several badly fouling bores.

Key is, don't let the ammonia sit in your bore for very long. And be very sure to oil well after to avoid rust.

If you are not shooting a precision rifle (say under 1" groups at 100 yds) you may not care about a little fouling...on the other hand, I have a 375 H&H that will spray 'em with the least bit of fouling.

Tim

 

[MolaKule]

The only problem I see with Household Ammonia is the amount of water they use with which to dilute it.

As Tim said, attept to dry it out and use a protective oil.

 

[Jakebrake]

Yes...be sure to dry it thoroughly after the ammonia...then use a good lubricant. Also, ammonia cleaners have been thought by some to react harshly with double base powders. I use Sweet's with a nylon brush, and then I alternate that with a well fitting brass jag and good patches with JB compound. Removes ALL copper and powder fouling with a little work.

 

[1sttruck]

Household ammonia tends to be low in ammonia compared to some of the 'get the copper out' bore solvents. I have some Shooter's Choice but there might be better stuff around. I use to use 'strong ammonia' which I borrowed from work, they were kind enough to also le me borrow a Nalgene container to keep it in, and it worked very well. It's dangerous stuff though. An old technique for evaluating a chemical is to open the container 18 inches or so away from you, and to carefully waft some vapor towards you while you're lightly sniffing. It took me about 20 minutes to recover after doing that the strong ammonia.

 

[JohnBrowning]

The concentration of ammonia is too small. When Col. Hatcher hit upon useing Ammonia to clean badly fouled bore he was useing a solution of 28% Ammonia. He was useing this in very poor steel barrels. The steel today is much better! He would plug the chamber end and let it soak over night.

Barns CR-10 is the best stuff for copper fouling. Shooter Choice is my second pick! I like shooters choice the best for all around use because it works on plastic,Copper, lead and powder fuling very well.

Generaly I will hit the bore with a quick spray of lube to lossen things up. I put my bore quide in place and scrub it about 10 times and then dry patch. Then I put on a jag and wet patch about 10 patchs of Shooters choice. I let it set while I strip the rest of the gun down and the bolt etc.. or other firearms. Then I hit with a nylon brush. Rinse with a non-clorinated fast evap solvent. I then run some more patchs with shooters choice to see how they come out. If they are good I rinse it out again and then oil.

I have never had Ammonia attack any firearm steel in anything made since 1941. Some BR guys are afraid of Amonia and Remington does not like it either. BR guys often use Butch's Bore Shine or a 50/50 mix of Butch's BOre Shine and Kroil if they are shooting a lot of Moly coated VLD bullets like Bergers.

 

[416Rigby]

Use Sweets 7.62 if you want an ammonia-based cleaner. Very strong stuff, use outdoors only.

 

[metroplex]

I couldn't find any CR-10 locally so I had to order from Barnes.

I'm starting to see streaks of copper in the entire rifling of my .311" bore, which isn't good I think.

 

[416Rigby]

CR-10 is pretty-good, not nearly as potent as Sweets though.

 

[416Rigby]

I've used Sweets on old mil-surp rifles, and I was amazed by the layers of metal fouling it stripped out of the bores.

 

[metroplex]

I got the CR-10 today so I'll see how it does

But what you said about Sweets has been said about CR-10. I'm not sure what to believe anymore!

 

[metroplex]

I heard the opposite.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

CR-10 is pretty-good, not nearly as potent as Sweets though.
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CR-10 won't deteriorate your brass bore brush.

 

[metroplex]

http://home.sprynet.com/~frfrog/cleaners.htm

Out of all the copper removers, Barnes CR-10, 10% Janitor Ammonia, and Sweets 7.62 looked like the best.

However, the patch that had Barnes CR-10 was uniformly blue. Sweets was partially bluish/green and the Janitor ammonia wasn't as uniform. This leads me to believe the CR-10 was doing a much better job w/o spending as much time.