Listerine. I've used it for decades and have found nothing better.

 

You have been a member here for almost nine years and you have only nine posts. I have no idea whether you are serious in your recommendation or you are joking but if you never found a better carbon cleaner than Listerine you didn't put much effort into searching.

The Wikipedia entry on Listerine:

The active ingredients listed on Listerine bottles are essential oils which are menthol (mint) 0.042%, thymol (thyme) 0.064%, methyl salicylate (wintergreen) 0.06%, and eucalyptol (eucalyptus) 0.092%.[14] In combination all have an antiseptic effect and there is some thought that methyl salicylate may have an anti inflammatory effect as well.[15] Ethanol, which is toxic to bacteria at concentrations of 40%, is present in concentrations of 21.6% in the flavored product and 26.9% in the original gold Listerine Antiseptic.

It's been a long time since my organic chemistry classes but a diluted solution of alcohol doesn't strike me as a very good carbon cleaner, let alone the finest product for that task. I can't image that your use of Listerine would cause any harm (provided the lingering water content didn't cause corrosion) but unless you enjoy the gun cleaning process itself I can see no good reason to prolong the experience by using an inefficient product.

I apologize if I sound too critical but I detest the mindless propagation of online nonsense. It never ceases to amaze me how foolish, throw away comments take on life and go "viral." Far too many individuals accept as the gospel truth anything they see in writing.

 

I only speak when I feel I can add to the collective. But I AM serious about the listerine. Learned that in Marine Corps boot camp and have used it ever since. Merry Christmas.

 

Instead of sitting back and criticizing something you don't understand, test it. Then you have proof it doesn't work... Or proof it does.
When I heard the British Army would pour boiling water through an Enfield I thought, "That's crazy! Water on steel!?" It works.
Aim High! It allows for bullet drop.

 

"You have been a member here for almost nine years and you have only nine posts."

Hey Jimmy if I may suggest a way to increase your post count to improve your integrity, comment on every post even if you have nothing to contribute as it works for me. In no time at all you will be in the thousands. And don't forget to sign with the name of the device you are communicating with because that is important also.

Listerine combats bad breath so I assume you use it on your black powder guns.

Lighten up, this is all meant in fun.

Sent from my coal-fired no-contract Bell dial-telephone manufactured by Western Electric in the U.S.A..​ ​

 

I swear by this stuff. For stubborn bores, leave it in overnight. I've left it in 5 days on my worst 9130 and you wouldn't believe the crap it pulled out. Smells nice too!

 

Just finished my week long journey in attempt to do the best I could to 99 years old dark pitted full of old carbon, rust, copper.. what have you barrel of my newly acquired M1917 (P17)Enfield by Remington, otherwise nice looking rifle. Tried soaking it in Hoppe's 9, CLP, polishing with J-B bore cleaner, but patches would never come out totally clean. I am not allowed to clean rifles, as they hot after shooting at my local range. Long story short:

1) I attached a short hose to a facet in after removing barrel from stock, let boiling hot water run through it until barrel becomes almost untouchable-hot.

2) Brushed it with tooth paste for a long time - couple of hundred strokes or so, while hot (reheat with water periodically if necessary), replacing brushes, repeating process, wash it of and again. Rinse it, let a bunch of patches through until they come out clean, (they will come out clean)

3)Go back to your normal cleaning with Hoppe's #9, and/or CLP, or whatever your bore cleaner of choice, than possibly some J-B (optional)

4)Repeat hot water with tooth paste, rinse, patches till come out clean again. Then oil it, store it, or enjoy shooting.


I've used this method years ago on other old milsurpl. barrels and have seen some "sewage pipes" come out shining becoming great shooters. It does not remove pits , but does clean all the carbon and else out. I am sure there are other effective methods, this one works for me and gentle on old bore. Be prepared with plenty of brushes (no steel)< some times you'd have to wrap a patch around a brush when after it wears out some.

 

Will have to try it. I've used a bunch of commerical products, none of which were super. I've been told that much depends on how long and how many rounds have ironed that carbon into a solid mass. Gunsmith friend sectioned a barrel's throat and leade and said he found NOTHING worked on it- not even a carbide scribe!

So - might as well try Listerine too, LOL. Otis 012-C Carbon Remover is what I've been using in the .22-250 and it seems to work - at least from what I'm seeing on the patches, but, time will tell.

Years ago- 1996 Precision Shooter magazine article on carbon deposits said only elbow grease and an abrasive like JB or that Rem-stuff would work on compacted carbon, but then, there is a definite possibility of injuring the rifle's chamber too - so??????? at least that is what I got from the article - nothing but more questions.

 

I've found Xylene works really good for removing carbon from engine parts.

Never tried it on guns, though.

 

There used to be a great carbon removing product called "Top Engine Cleaner" sold by Chevy dealers, it was made from/or with BUTYL CELLOSOLVE which does not harm the primary user, but can cause a birth defect in the children of same in that they are born with little or no skin.
Learned about it from a Tech seminar on engine performance back in the day.
The same chemical was used to swab WWII battleship big gun bores.
Fact is that many, if not most of the very effective carbon remover chemicals, are also very bad news for humans.
Me I tried all of the leading brands of bore chems and nothing equals Tetra bore cleaner gel.
It kills copper and carbon but can be left to soak for days at a time with no damage to the bore.
FWIW, I also insist on Iosso plastic bristle bore brushes.
They are by far the best out there..and the 30 cal fits tight in 8mm mausers for any k98k shooters out there.

 

A guy at the gun show told me about a product called "carbon gone" I think it was called.Tried some on an svt 40 barrel and it did look a lot better and was shiny. We all know what SVT barrels look like!

 

OH yes..!! My first SVT has a very dark, black barrel, and I'm going to try some ideas from this thread on that Barrel. Strangely, my 2nd SVT, a 1943 model, has an AS-NEW Mirror Perfect Bore. I am starting to think I may be the only person in this country with a bore like this. Anyone else out there have a perfect SVT Bore? It's hard to get a good shot since the rifling stops about 2.5 inches from the muzzle. I apologize if I've gone off track here.

 

A friend has been impressed with "M-Pro 7 Gun Cleaner" for removing carbon but I have never used it. Maybe someone else seeing this thread can share their personal opinion.

 

A friend has been impressed with "[FONT=&quot]All I use is m-pro7 for years.brass brush with it ont one pass sit for 5 mins then a clean patch run thru.Bore will look like it came from factory.

 

I use "GO" transmission cleaner and it works wonders!! So does military "Cleaner, Rifle Bore" by Banner Mfg. CO. INC., RIXS-205 REV. 1, #43-18171.

 

Believe it or not I have had good luck using Remington 40X bore cleaner on dirty neglected bores. It has abrasives in it and you have to shake it up good before you use it.

I soak a patch with it and wrap it around a brush and make about 10 passes through the bore then let it set for a few minutes, then depending on how bad it is repeat, then start with the clean patches. Unbelievable what you can get out of even a clean bright bore.

 

I don't think I have ever had a bore patch come out "clean", and I have tried. I shoot for "clean enough"!

 

I have a gallon of Piston Kleen, I think it cost $25. It really is amazing stuff. I tried everything I could find to clean the carbon off of a set of pistons and nothing would touch them. An overnight soak in Piston Kleen and the carbon was a soft sludge that rinsed off in the sink. No nasty fumes, water soluble. It was a few years ago that I bought the stuff, I think my review might be on their web sight. I would definitely recommend it.

 

Wow.
Did a StartPage search. Found this: https://www.amazon.com/Piston-Kleen-Carbon-Remover-Gallon/dp/B00IJZB6QK .
Amazon.com has it for $21.95 Dee-Livered! Hey! Buy it. Share it. Ahem, Christmas is coming. The perfect gift for the gunnut or gearhead on your Christmas list.
To all of my friends who say I'm cheap (I am!). Hush up!!
Aim small, miss small.

 

Wow.
Did a StartPage search. Found this: https://www.amazon.com/Piston-Kleen-Carbon-Remover-Gallon/dp/B00IJZB6QK .
Amazon.com has it for $21.95 Dee-Livered! Hey! Buy it. Share it.

Buy it by the gallon, re-bottle in 4 oz. container, label it "TCC" (Tactical Carbon Cleaner), sell for $6.95 and multiply your investment ten fold. That is how much of the snake oil for guns is marketed.

 

Carbon is most difficult to remove. You may wish to try some of these suggestions in the link below.
http://www.frfrogspad.com/homemade.htm#Carbon

 

Patch Out Liquid...Midway , Grafs sells it.

Wet bore, come back 24 hr later , patch it clean

Really old bores, re apply and repeat a few times.

Works like a champ. Takes out ALL Copper by the way.

 

Just before I transferred to another ARNG unit in another state we were told to permanently dispose of non-GSA, non-NSN items in the Armory. Since I was the Armorer/Small Arms Repairman/Unit Marksmanship Coordinator & Asst. Supply Sergeant it was my job to comply so that things were all hunk-dory before the IG came a-calling. Luckily this included a goodly quantity of RBC(Rifle Bore Cleaner). I made sure it found a new home.
Not long after I acquired an M1917 Eddystone with a sewer pipe bore. Disassembled it, corked one end and filled the bore, including the chamber, with RBC and let it sit for 3 days before draining it. Ran a worn-out brass brush through using a variable speed drill which got a large amount of the gunk out. Changed to a new brush, ran wet & dry patches through until the bore was shiny and I could see all the dings. Result was groups going from approx. 8" @ 100 yds to approx. 1 3/4" to 2" with factory ammo.
Not going to say this is the best or only way to go about it, just that this worked for me on this rifle. It also worked on all the beat-up over-age 1911A1's in the Armory which no one seemed to have ever cleaned.
Lot of cleaning products out there - some good, some fit for hazardous material recycling. Try a few till you find what works for YOU.

 

During my quest to find the best (for my purposes anyway) bore cleaner I did compare M-Pro 7 to the others tested and it was one of the worst I tried.
My test was pretty simple.
After buying every cleaning product I could find from every maker other than Sweets, I took 20 already cleaned bore k98ks to the range at one time, buddy and I rapid fired 20 rounds each (back when 900 rounds of 70's Yugo 8mm cost $90) then took two different cleaners and two dirty rifles and brushed each rifle until the patches came clean then switched cleaners to see if one would "find" copper or carbon the other had missed, the loser was discarded. .
In the end it came down to Outers foaming and Tetra.
After both products produced white patches, the Tetra got blue out of the bore cleaned with Outers and the Outers got nothing at all out of the Tetra cleaned bore.
I used to have large box full of barely used bore cleaners...finally tossed most of them out...but still buy Tetra.

 

I am having difficulty believing that there can be a substantial carbon build up in a rifle bore where a bullet passes through very tightly at a high rate of speed. Just exactly where would "carbon" build up????

Carbon build up takes place in a muzzle flash device or a muzzle mounted booster.....think 1921/28 Thompson for flasher build up & Maxim MG for booster build up. I have found no liquid or other chemical compound that will soften or remove this build up. Bench mounted wire brush, scrapers blades of some sort are an absolute necessity. Have been there many times over the past 30 year.

PJH

 

Shoot one round of milsurp 54r in a perfectly clean bore and re-clean..look at the patches, you will see carbon.
Maybe I've been hanging around too many 70 year old bolt guns that fired corrosive primered rounds...I assure you carbon can and does build up and can take many hours of cleaning to get it all out.

 

Thanks for the link. Carbon killer which I tried and it did work is on the same page! I will try the piston kleen.

 

Living in the middle of nowhere Montana I have learned to follow the KISS theory; keep it simple stupid. I use the spray brake cleaner and spray carb cleaner from the auto parts store. Use one and alternate with the other. This takes out everything and is absolutely non harmful to the metal. It is also the cat's meow for cosmoline.

 

Worst carbon build up for me has been - standard AKS-74 Flash Hider when shooting surplus ammo.

Carbon baked on the outside of the barrel and inside the flash hider. Still trying to find a way to remove the baked on carbon. Standard bore cleaner doesn't even touch it. This is after several cleaning attempts with multiple brands of Carbon remover.

 

Having cleaned a LOT of carbon off engine parts in the past 40 years, that makes me want to reach for a high speed wire brush wheel!
Although soaking in solvent a few days would start to soften the outer layers which could be scraped off then re-soaked again, sort of a wash and repeat deal until you finally see metal..

 

I've tried all sorts of cleaners and have a cabinet full of partial containers of lots of them to prove it.
Most work to varying degrees, sort of.

Lead remover cloths, cut in to patches and run dry through a mostly ? dry bore, will remove more baked in, black, nasty crud than any of the liquids have managed to on their own.
At least, in my limited experience, so far.

I still have a couple candidates buried in the safe waiting for their turn with the lead remover patches.
But, I am encouraged.
And, hopeful.