# That old-time firearm solvent scent...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 2, 2017, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690 "2017-05-02T01:47:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2017, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690/21 "2017-05-02T18:54:59Z")
Hoppe’s on a boresnake normally, like the fake banana smell. I have another Hoppe’s product (Copper solvent?) but have only used it once. Same with Breakfree CLP - it’s been so long that I can’t remember the smell. I know it’s good, but I irrationally emphasize the LP part in the mind and don’t think about it for C. I’ve used the foam stuff once, kind of messy.
Windex down the barrel first and ASAP with corrosive primers.
Tetra oil on moving parts, Rem Oil mainly if it rains then I can cover the whole thing, but I use it for the 870 mainly as that seems “right.”
> [@Common\_Tater](#):
>
> B
> An article once suggested for young suitors trying to woo the woman of their dreams and get in good with her dad, use Hoppes #9 as cologne. This assumes of course, dear old dad was a firearms owner, princess had no lurking daddy issues and the rest of it. But a clever kind of psycho-olfactory warfare.
That will backfire when the boy leaves her for her dad.
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#):
>
> Hoppe’s for me, too, for as long as I can remember. Nowadays it’s a few drops of Hoppe’s #9 on the top of the Boresnake, a few drops of machine oil on the bottom and pull it through shotgun barrel #1, repeat process for barrel #2. Takes all of 10 minutes, including disassembly and reassembly.
People clean shotguns!? :dubious: 😃
---
### Author:  [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2017, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690/22 "2017-05-02T21:35:48Z")
You will never convince me that a boresnake can clean a barrel as thoroughly as a proper cleaning rod/brush/patches. I’m firmly in the camp of “If it’s easy it probably doesn’t work”.
> [@thelurkinghorror](#):
>
> People clean shotguns!? :dubious: 😃
Man, go look at some used shotguns, it’s pretty clear that a lot of people _don’t_! :smack:
> [@Bumbazine](#):
>
> I have both Hoppes and CLP in my ‘kit’ but I hate the smell, so lately I’ve been trying out Frog Lube. :eek: Seems to work.
Yes, forgot about that one! Borrowed some at a friend’s house last year and it works great.
---
### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2017, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690/23 "2017-05-02T21:50:03Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#):
>
> People clean shotguns!? :dubious: 😃
Of course. Out on the front porch, when your daughter’s boyfriend comes to pick her up.
---
### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2017, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690/24 "2017-05-03T02:34:03Z")
> [@Tranquilis](#):
>
> I don’t use the product, myself - I gathered what I know of it from the product label whilst grabbing a boresnake\*. I figured anything with a “penetrates” on the label is to some degree a solvent. That was lazy, of course. 😛
>
> \*8mm
I’ve known people to use it and WD-40 (and related products) as cleaners. Never my thing but not totally unknown.
---
### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2017, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690/25 "2017-05-03T03:21:49Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> Of course. Out on the front porch, when your daughter’s boyfriend comes to pick her up.
She’s a toddler, so it’s a given. But I’d hope when she’s of age she’d clean her own shotgun.
> [@kopek](#):
>
> I’ve known people to use it and WD-40 (and related products) as cleaners. Never my thing but not totally unknown.
WD-40 is bad for guns because it attracts the gunk you don’t want in your action.
---
### Author:  [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2017, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690/26 "2017-05-03T03:56:44Z")
Frog Lube is a new one to me. Someone had to be giggling when they named it.
---
### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2017, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690/27 "2017-05-03T04:22:30Z")
> [@Tranquilis](#):
>
> Frog Lube is a new one to me. Someone had to be giggling when they named it.
Or [gigging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigging), I’d think.
---
### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2017, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690/28 "2017-05-03T10:57:50Z")
> [@August\_West](#):
>
> Speaking of Remington, I love those RemOil RemWipes.
In addition to cleaning the outer surfaces of guns, I use RemWipes to clean my hand tools (wrenches, ratchets, etc.). I have found nothing better (or more convenient) than RemWipes for cleaning tools.
---
### Author:  [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2017, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690/29 "2017-05-03T11:46:44Z")
When I got my first gun about seven years ago, I went to Wal-Mart and bought a basic cleaning kit, which was a Hoppes product and included #9. I continue to use #9, with brushes and patches, for all of my pistols. I like the aroma.
---
### Author:  [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2017, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690/30 "2017-05-03T13:35:44Z")
> [@kopek](#):
>
> I’ve known people to use it and WD-40 (and related products) as cleaners. Never my thing but not totally unknown.
WD 40 should be a fine cleaner as it is a solvent, [containing 50% mineral spirits](https://wd40.com/cool-stuff/myths-legends-fun-facts).
Also, this myth that WD 40 somehow attracts more debris than any other lubricant needs to die.
---
### Author:  [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2017, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690/31 "2017-05-03T13:40:01Z")
BTW, how do y’all pronounce “Hoppe’s?”
One minor YouTuber (can’t remember who, now) always pronounced it as “Hoppies” and claimed the rest of us were all wrong.
---
### Author:  [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2017, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690/32 "2017-05-03T13:43:38Z")
> [@Whiskey\_Dickens](#):
>
> BTW, how do y’all pronounce “Hoppe’s?”
>
> One minor YouTuber (can’t remember who, now) always pronounced it as “Hoppies” and claimed the rest of us were all wrong.
I also pronounce it “Hoppies”, but am not confident enough in that decision to condemn any other pronunciation.
---
### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2017, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690/33 "2017-05-03T14:14:03Z")
> [@August\_West](#):
>
> I checked Hoppe’s #9 (I wonder what happened to #s 1-8?) and Remington.
Probably the same thing that happened to Absorbine _Sr_.
In [_The Third Bullet_](http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Third-Bullet/Stephen-Hunter/9781451640229), one of Stephen Hunter’s gun novels, the plot is about the Kennedy assassination. In it he cooks up a totally fictional conspiracy that makes more sense than most of the ‘real’ ones out there. An Important Clue is a folded up suit coat found in an elevator house of a building around the corner from the Book Depository. The librul reporter who finds it is mystified by the solvent smell it still has but ol’ Bob Lee recognizes it immediately: Hoppes #9
Oh, and I always pronounced it ‘Hops.’
---
### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2017, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690/34 "2017-05-03T14:40:07Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#):
>
> WD-40 is bad for guns because it attracts the gunk you don’t want in your action.
> [@Whiskey\_Dickens](#):
>
> WD 40 should be a fine cleaner as it is a solvent, [containing 50% mineral spirits](https://wd40.com/cool-stuff/myths-legends-fun-facts).
>
> Also, this myth that WD 40 somehow attracts more debris than any other lubricant needs to die.
I’ve heard various theories of why WD-40 is a bad cleaner from the dust/debris one to the “it will make everything shake/come loose” one; I am not sure I believe any of them. It more becomes a case of how much do you use and where. Over oil and anything will pull in the dust-bunnies and soak the wood with crud and run-off. Use it right - a very light coat - and it should be fine.
The people I know using it as a cleaner are doing the same thing I do with #9 – removing it by finishing with several dry cloths and then doing a more conventional trace oiling in the appropriate places. It makes sense that it would be a good cleaner; I just never got the habit.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-old-time-firearm-solvent-scent/785690.md?page=1)