Y'all might get a kick out of this cleaning experience.
I came back from a range session, where I was shooting a lot of surplus 9 mm ammo out of my Glock 17. As expected, the ammo wasn't exactly the best of fodder to feed my baby, but hey, it's been through Hell and back.
After the session, where I had fired off 250 rounds, a field stripping of the pistol showed extensive carbon fouling. Not only was it dirty, but it also smelled as if someone had left fecal matter in my Glock!
Anyways, I gave it the usual scrub with Hoppes #9, followed by CLP, and most of the carbon fouling came out fairly quickly, but there was still a layer of black gunk that simply would not come out with the organic solvents. I even tried more aggressive solvents, as well as my own home brewed "Ed's Red."
In the end, I almost gave up, and decided to simply wipe down the gun with Simple Green, before transferring it to the 91% isopropanol bath (my final cleaning step). Surprisingly, Simple Green, a non-toxic cleaner that smells somewhat like root beer, was able to get this layer of black gunk off, revealing the beautiful metal surface beneath.
I'll just be grateful that I was able to get that crud out. I am, however, somewhat tempted to try this again, and this time, collect the gunk so I can see what the heck it exactly is... Maybe some 600 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance can elucidate the composition.
So, to summarize, I give Simple Green a thumbs up, and suggest that anyone who is shooting ammunition of dubious quality, should at least have a bottle of it just in case if the usual doesn't cut it.
On another note, my somewhat oddball friend has confirmed that Simple Green is non-toxic, just as the label says. He claims that just because it smells like root beer, does not mean that it tastes like root beer...
I came back from a range session, where I was shooting a lot of surplus 9 mm ammo out of my Glock 17. As expected, the ammo wasn't exactly the best of fodder to feed my baby, but hey, it's been through Hell and back.
After the session, where I had fired off 250 rounds, a field stripping of the pistol showed extensive carbon fouling. Not only was it dirty, but it also smelled as if someone had left fecal matter in my Glock!
Anyways, I gave it the usual scrub with Hoppes #9, followed by CLP, and most of the carbon fouling came out fairly quickly, but there was still a layer of black gunk that simply would not come out with the organic solvents. I even tried more aggressive solvents, as well as my own home brewed "Ed's Red."
In the end, I almost gave up, and decided to simply wipe down the gun with Simple Green, before transferring it to the 91% isopropanol bath (my final cleaning step). Surprisingly, Simple Green, a non-toxic cleaner that smells somewhat like root beer, was able to get this layer of black gunk off, revealing the beautiful metal surface beneath.
I'll just be grateful that I was able to get that crud out. I am, however, somewhat tempted to try this again, and this time, collect the gunk so I can see what the heck it exactly is... Maybe some 600 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance can elucidate the composition.
So, to summarize, I give Simple Green a thumbs up, and suggest that anyone who is shooting ammunition of dubious quality, should at least have a bottle of it just in case if the usual doesn't cut it.
On another note, my somewhat oddball friend has confirmed that Simple Green is non-toxic, just as the label says. He claims that just because it smells like root beer, does not mean that it tastes like root beer...
