If 100 people answer, you will get 50 different answers.

Decide what Tripps your trigger, buy it, use it, be happy.

 

Decide what Tripps your trigger, buy it, use it, be happy.

The point of this thread is to ask experienced users who know what works best and why.

 

What Stuffer is saying is that there is no agreement as to what is best. Based on my own experience plus 15+ years of reading what other shooters use and swear by, I agree with Stuffer.

I really don't think you can make a bad decision on what to use, unless it would be to go to extremes. You don't need the latest, greatest, nor strongest chemicals or abrasives to do a good job of cleaning your shotgun. Pick a solvent (most any will do, but I suggest you avoid the harsher ones) and pick an oil (again, almost any lightweight oil will do) and use them with some degree of regularity and everything should be fine.

Now prepare for about 5 or 6 pages of comments on what everyone thinks is best, but don't be surprised when you are just as confused after 6 pages as you are right now.

 

Pick a solvent, a light oil, and a med weight oil. A boresnake (10 ga works great on 12's), I use heavy wood dowels, and shop towels for most of the push the towel through game.

A one piece rod works good if you feel the need to get after things with a bore brush.

 

I dig through the cleaning box of stuff and use whatever comes out first.
G-96/hoppe's/brake clean.
I have never really had a problem with plastic stuff in the barrel, but do clean them every 10-12 years or so with a brush a little oil, and a drill motor.
I wash the trigger group out, and apply a mist of oil.
the rest is pretty much wiping off and re-applying grease, or some STOS on the hinging and screw in and out pieces.
usually some CLP or G-96 oil on the sliding pieces.
I settled on CLP and G-96 since I ended up with a couple of cases of them years back.

 

Bore Teck--Carbon Remover and Shotgun Cleaner!!

 

Just got my first shotgun and am trying to figure out what cleaning supplies to get for it before I go out and shoot it

The basics are the same for essentially all autoloading shotguns.

A cleaning rod, bronze bore brush, cotton patches, and a bottle of Hoppe's is all you need for starters.

Add Breakfree CLP or Ballistol as you wish for lubrication and protection.

 

I use Shooter's Choice Shotgun and Choke Tube Cleaner. I spray it in the barrel from both ends of the barrel and let it sit while I clean the action parts and the outside of the magazine tube with Hoppe's on a rag or patch. Wipe off the Hoppe's with a clean dry patch and very lightly apply a light oil like RemOil on all sliding parts. Then I take my Dewey Rod (using a bore guide) with a brass brush and wrap a wet patch around the brush and run it down the barrel. Usually the plastic fouling comes off as a thick black sludge. Usually 3-4 wet patches per barrel will get the plastic and carbon out and the patches will go from dark black to a light grey. Then just run a couple dry patches and you're done. Other solvents will work but I like the Shooter's Choice as it makes real quick work on the plastic fouling. I'll then reassemble the shotgun and wipe it all down with a clean rag with a little Ballistol to protect from rust.

 

Decide what Tripps your trigger, buy it, use it, be happy.

The point of this thread is that I need help making that decision from experienced users who know what works best and why.

Just telling me to make the decision for myself misses the point of this thread, and doesn't help me, as a new shotgun owner, wade through all the innumerable options to figure out what I should get.

Here is your 'point'.
How many cleaners and lubes are out there?
Any one of them that has been out longer than 15 minutes has at least one Fanboy.

Some people constantly chase the latest wonderfulness, because if it is new, and if the salesman said it is bestest, then it is, and they need it.
Some people buy the most expensive products, because "you get what you pay for".
Some people buy the cheapest stuff, because they are cheap.
Some people have to homemake some special elixir they read about, because someone said it was best, and cheap.
Some people use what their parent and/or grandparent used.
Some people actually read the gunmaker's manual and use what the gunmaker says, because "they should know best".
Some people settle on something and use it for decades because it works.
Did I forget anyone? I am Equal Opportunity here.

Me?
Dad used Hoppes and WD-40.
I have no issues with Hoppes #9, WD-40, if left a few months, glues a gun shut.
At the moment, I use formerly GI RBC (rifle bore cleaner) because I have lots of it, and Break Free CLP, and Locktite C5A Anti-seize for choke tubes.

I do not use Boresnakes, or power drills except for very specific reasons (cleaning isn't one of those). I don't use brake cleaner, carb cleaner, or bore guides on shotguns.

I am testing Slide Glide on one of my EDC .45's, it would work fine on my Auto5, but so does motor oil or axle grease.
I used chainsaw 30wt bar oil once, ugly cold November, I was about to pull the dipstick on Dad's 6.9l diesel for a smear, the bar-molasses was cleaner.

 

Wow....

 

Wow....

Yea.

He wins the prize for "Longest Post I've Ever been Provoked To Make From My Cell Phone", and not a word was voice-to-text, all typed.

Ezekiel has no idea how "innumerable" the 'options' truly are, as they include the Balistol users (they probably put that stuff on everything, like Frank's Red Hot sauce).
According to the maker there's NOTHING it can't do.
https://ballistol.com/uses/

Then there's the Ed's Red boys....... and Ed's Red Plus.
Then, for Ed's Red users, there's Ed's Red Oil.

It's the internet, the original recipe for Hoppes #9.

Then the other Homebrews (and I don't mean beer), general purpose cleaners, lead removers, copper removers, citrus-cleaners, aw hell,,, here:

http://frfrogspad.com/homemade.htm

Guns came first, and you used whatever was handy and useful to clean them.
You oiled them with fats (lard & suet) long before "oil" was ever discovered, then you used "oil" long before anyone ever made "gun oil".

Today there is a new salesman every few days with a new Gun Product that is better than anything else out there that You Need, it is wonderful, miraculous, amazing, and the latest buzzthing, "green" or "eco-friendly" or some other variation on that theme.

Whatever Eekiel picks, will work fine, as long as it is even remotely appropriate to the job.
You don't clean black powder with nitro powder solvent, you don't clean nitro powder with soapy water.
WD40, if literally used CONSTANTLY, is something you can Get Away With, but as it dries it gets gummy, and dries into a hard varnish, I allow it nowhere near guns anymore. I had to hammer too many of them apart after years of storage. It is also a lousy 'lubricant'. WD40 "lube" is how I wound up contemplating soot-filled Rotella 15W40 or Frozen Molasses Chainsaw Bar Oil pheasant hunting one weekend.
As a Penetrating Oil I even prefer PB Blaster. to WD40.

 

Essentially identical thread topics:

What oil should I use in my boat engine?
What oil should I use in my car engine? (live right now on another handloading forum)
What oil FILTER should I use.
I will guarantee you if I belonged to any yard, gardening, or mower-type forums,,, there'd be the same question regards to lawn mowers, gardening tools (tillers), tractors, etc.

Every question, 100 people answer, 50 different opinions answering the question.

I know people who put 14 quarts of Royal Purple in their boat engine (high capacity oil pan) @ $9 or $10 a quart, run it for a few hours at the river on the weekend, take it home, change the oil.
"Oil is cheaper than engine parts".
"More money than brains".

 

Stuffer wrote:

"More money than brains".

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Hey, that's a good one. I may have to steal that line.

 

Feel free,,, I know I stole it somewhere (long forgotten) LOL.

 

I am anal about cleaning my guns , not so much with what oil , etc. That I use, 45+ years , no rust , no failures.

 

Frankly, you can get by swimmingly with a bottle of Ballistol or Qmaxx, a bore rod/brush, pipe cleaners for the gas ports, a little 0000 steel wool, and a roll of shop towels. Anything else is just being "fancy." I do like Flitz to remove any "stubborn carbon."

 

OP the best cleaning supplies are the ones you use regularly and often. A $20 kit from Walmart used after every outing will beat the fancy smancy stuff that sits unused while the gun is put away with finger prints and dirty or left in a soft case to rust if damp. It ain't rocket science. Everything marketed for the purpose works fine if used.

 

Ezekiel, as you've discovered, you've wandered into an area in which there's about as much consensus as politics and religion. The guys who said don't over-worry it were smack on. Here's a few of my own none-to-deep thoughts:

The rod: Your initial inkling was correct. You're going to want something with more durability than the hollow 3-piece deals that come with an inexpensive kit. Dewey's is certainly a nice choice. Bore guide's not a bad idea, either. Also a plus-one to your idea of pulling the barrel off and cleaning from the chamber end.

Bore Snake: Get at least one. An excellent time saver. Very nice even if you just use it before the ride home.

Jags: You can push patches with nearly anything, but take a look at Bore Tech's plastic jags with the flanges that compress, then expand. They really do give your patch (solvent, oil or dry) excellent contact down the length of the barrel.
https://www.boretech.com/products/shotgun-jag

Bore cleaner: The one place I do use WD-40, but with the barrel(s) off the gun. Cheap and effective and I don't have to make my own.

Solvents: Most work. I like either Hoppe's Elite Gun Cleaner Spray or MPro-7 Gun Cleaner 'cause they work, have very little or no smell and are non-toxic. Yep, touch on the expensive side, but I understand I'm paying for preference and convenience. I clean my guns in my home office/gun room (aka, the second bedroom of my two bedroom apartment), and I -- and the occasional significant other -- gotta put up with whatever I'm using.

Oils: Hoppe's regular (the traditional) is not bad at all, IMO. Get at least one of the little needle-oiler bottles from them. Precise application, little waste, cuts down on chances of over-oiling, and you can refill 'em from your orange bottle. In fact, needle oilers and their cousin, the grease syringe, are both good ideas. While I've read good things about Hoppe's synthetic oil, I haven't tried it. If you want a synthetic (for cold weather use, for instance) I like Shooter's Choice FP-10 Lubricant Elite or G-96 Synthetic Gun Oil. The former is less expensive, but it does have a bit of a smell. Of course, as I use it as a straight-up lube, I'm not using very much in any given single application.

CLPs: BreakFree is relatively inexpensive, works pretty well and can be had anywhere. Not bad stuff at all. Personally, I prefer G96 Complete Gun Treatment, but I again know I'm paying for preference. It's served me very well for quite a few years, and I like the non-offensive smell.

Ballistol: I've been a convert, then strayed. I'm back to G96 as my mainstay CLP. The one thing I still do like and use from Ballistol: The little 1.5 ounce aerosol cans. They're kind of the bee's knees for take-with cleaning kits and range bags.

Grease: Volumes have been written and insults exchanged, all among men with far greater minds than mine. Latest and greatest seems to be Mil-Comm Tw25b. Have to admit, I've tried it and I do like it, but it's pricey. Tetra seems almost as nice and is about half the price. When I want something tackier (for choke tubes, for instance), I use Shooter's Choice Synthetic All Weather High Tech Grease out of the syringe. Quite decent stuff at not too bad of price.

Brushes: Yep, you're going to want some of the double-ended nylon gun brushes. If you want save some bucks, there's a link below to a 20 pack. I'm using 'em now. They work.
Brass (really bronze phosphor): Yeah, you're going to want them, too. Link to a decent 10-pack below.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XQ ... UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BR ... UTF8&psc=1

Another brush tip: Get a decent shaving brush at the drug store or Wally or whatever. Great for touchin' up exterior metal, great for applying a light coat on interior metal, a knife blade, whatever. I keep one next to a G96 rag on my bench (OK, actually's it's just a white synthetic table from the office supply store). I usually spritz the rag, then run the brush over that.Keeps me from over-applying to the brush itself and thereby laying too heavy a coat on whatever I'm working on.

Q-tips and pipe cleaners: Yeah, you're going to want 'em. Re pipe cleaners, don't get the craft store or craft aisle variety. They're not very absorbent and they shed. Get the everyday or soft version (not the ones with abrasive wire bristles built in) from a brand like Dills. If you get 'em off Amazon and not from the local tobacconist, get a multiple-packet deal. Paying the shipping on a 36 pack of pipe cleaners is kind of squirrelly.

Rags/patches: Buy 'em or make your own. A tip (I believe Seamus here on this board shared it with me): Scotts Rags in a Box work really well. The heavier grade of blue paper shop towels on a roll ain't bad, either, but the Rags in a Box are even better.

Other doodads: Magnetic parts tray -- oh, yes. Magnetic pick-up, same, especially if you've got middle-aged eyes. A magnet has located many a tiny screw and such from the carpet when my peepers were not getting the job done.

Final thoughts: (A) These are pretty much my preferences or opinions. In other words, Your Mileage May Vary. (B) I'm as full of it as the next guy. (C) Someone will be along momentarily to explain Point B in greater detail.

Enjoy your new gun and don't sweat the small stuff. {hs#

 

I'm guessing it's safe to take your pick of any gun-specific products and have little risk. The products you should really have are a bore solvent, a light lubricant and a heavy lubricant. After that, an aerosol solvent is handy, as are special solvents for specific uses (plastic, baked-on carbon, etc.).
My current favorites:

Hoppe's for cleaning bores.
Hornady One-Shot for trigger groups. It is an aerosol solvent that leaves a very light silicone lubricant.
Rem-Oil for a light lubricant.
Waterproof marine grease for heavy lubricant.
Ballistol for an all-in-one product
Breakfree CLP for loosening gas system carbon deposits.

 

Hoppes #9 old formula and 3 in 1 oil are all you need. Been working for many,many generations.