Barrel Cleaning

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Here is a great article from Schuemann barrels on why NOT to clean your 416 stainless barrel....Ever.

http://www.schuemann.com/Portals/0/Documentation/Webfile_Barrel_Cleaning.pdf

Sorry about the PDF.

[ctious]

Interesting.

[REDLINE]

It's about choosing a gun cleaner that doesn't eat stainless steel for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I use Hoppe's Elite Cleaner which uses the active ingredient Diethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether.  Diethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether (DGBE) readily biodegrades, does not bioaccumulate and has low acute toxicity to aquatic organisms.  If you don't get in in your eyes it's practically harmless to people.  It evaporates slowly and is completely water soluble.  DGBE moves to water when it is released because of its high solubility, low volatility and high soil mobility. It degrades rapidly in water. Because of these properties, DGBE poses a low risk to the environment.

Hoppe's Elite Gun Cleaner is claimed by the manufacturer to condition steel and make gun cleaning up to 80% easier as used over time.  In my experience this is unquestionably true.  It is also claimed to be safe on steel when completely submerging steel gun parts in it over extended periods of time, and may even be used dilluted down in sonic cleaners.  It also aids in removing rust.

After I clean my guns with Hoppe's Elite Gun Cleaner I practically reclean them with Hoppe's Elite Gun Oil.  Never had any issue I could discern whatsoever using the product(s) and will continue to clean my barrels and all other gun parts (plastic or metal) with Hoppe's Elite Gun Cleaner well into the forseeable future.  I had tried many different products over time before sticking with Hoppe's Elite Gun Cleaner and never found a single other product to work as well, except for M-Pro 7 which is the same thing as Hoppe's Elite Gun Cleaner.

To each their own, but I have zero worry in the Gun Cleaning product I use, and have no reason to suspect it harms my gun barrels, stainless steel or not, in any way whatsoever.