The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

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I like Windex if I cant boil water, I usually don't shoot corrosive ammo if I can help it, but if I do Boil water if you can
and if not use Windex and oil.

thanks for all the replies guy...yea everytime my friend is finished shooting is guns he always pours boiling water down the barrel for 5 minutes to get out any dirt and what not...then oils it back up.

You guys were right...it was the finish that was making the chemical reaction and creating a "steam of gas"...luckily...not a lot was taken off..and I'm going to repair it then lightly oil the barrel and chamber.

I will post pictures today of my mosin

Don't put unknown shit into or on your weapon, the world it full of chemicals that are specially formulated to safely clean your weapon without harming it. Walmart and any gunstore have them. Five minutes of water is not necessary, one quart of boiling water, just one, poured down the pipe and out the muzzle will take care of the salts, then clean with hoppes 9, and oil up the bore once you are done.

Buckhead wrote: and

I like Windex if I cant boil water, I usually don't shoot corrosive ammo if I can help it, but if I do Boil water if you can
and if not use Windex and oil.

Won't the water cause corrosion in the barrel over time? I doubt if the russians were using boiled water.

Montana-Manny wrote: Won't the water cause corrosion in the barrel over time? I doubt if the russians were using boiled water.

Boiled water will evaporate quickly. Then the Hoppes and oil clean and protect the metal. I prefer the shit load of Hoppes and then oil only method, but that is me. Boiling water to clean is one of the old military cleaning methods. It was the way the British cleaned their Enfields, then oil. The Soviets were issued what I have heard to be water with a small amount of baking soda desolved in it, but I have never heard any definite proof to what the solution was; so boiling water would be a safer bet than going on rumors. I still prefer a shit ton of Hoppes then oil away for my rifles though.

Welcome to the forum Manny, I have been using boiling water on my milsurp bores for over 30 years now with zero rust problems. You use water in conjunction with regular cleaning with solvent and oil the bore once you are done. You do not pour the water in and then leave it in the corner for a week, that will encourage rust because while the heat transferring to the metal from the boiling water will steam off residual water in the pipe, it will also remove all oil protection from the bore allowing moisture in the air to start working. The Russians used whatever they could get, but water is the oldest firearm bore cleaning solution of all, that's how every musket was cleaned back to the first hand canon. Water for the salts, bore solvent for the fouling, oil for preservation of the metal in storage.

Where are my manners? I'm sorry Manny. I didn't notice that that was your first post. Welcome to the forum!

clayshooter2 wrote:I'd go out and buy a big bottle of Hoppes #9, and never use that boat hull cleaner ever again.

AGREED!!!!

Double Post

Buckhead wrote: and

I like Windex if I cant boil water, I usually don't shoot corrosive ammo if I can help it, but if I do Boil water if you can
and if not use Windex and oil.

First off, welcome, welcome, welcome to the newcomers.

Water is your friend for corrosive ammo primer salts. Hot water is better. It dissolves just like table salt, and flushes down the drain.

As for ammonia window cleaners, I did a bunch of reading and I finally decided they were better than nothing, but the ammonia concentration is really too anemic to do very much. They make it "safe for morons" so it's cut to the point that the ammonia is almost nonexistent. Home Depot seems to have the Windex concentrate, but I never tried that.

Commercial ammonia cleaners should be good, but they're hard to find.

I figure if it doesn't smell "*WHOA*" like ammonia, then it isn't going to dissolve much copper.

I just rely on either Hoppe's or Butch's for the solvent step and skip the windex now. The blue patch cloths prove the solvents work correctly.

The local gun shop recommends the Butch's highly, but I cannot tell that it works any better than Hoppe's. I also don't think it's inferior. (But I've got a big bottle of it now, so I'm using it up.)

I just got scrubbing the crap out of my (first) 91/30's bore. I couldn't get the first brush though without some effort felt like it hadn't been cleaned in 50 years and maybe it hadn't. I ran a kettle of boiling water through the barrel and out the end and it helped. brushed it again and ran some patches and oil. Looks good and I can see all the rifling grooves. boiled water seems weird but it works just never forget the oil after