doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Favorite solvent for deep cleaning a rifle bore?

I inherited a Stevens 87B (.22 caliber) rifle from my dad. It’s been a truck gun, probably manufactured in 1950’s, and I doubt the bore has ever been really cleaned. I’ve always used Hoppes No. 9 for such a task, but I’m curious what others use. I know there are many other bore cleaners/solvents available today. I welcome suggestions. Thanks in advance!

I have some rim fire specific bore solvent ( Bore Tech rim fire blend) but I haven’t proven it to be any more effective than my other solvents. I personally use only nylon brushes in conjunction with Iosso bore paste on my rifle bores, but you may have satisfactory results using other methods.
If you are up to it, a complete disassembly and clean may be appropriate for your “Gill Gun”.

I have had good results with Wipeout Foam gun cleaner...

I have not cleaned the bore of my 22RF guns. They always seem to shoot very well.

If it were mine I would give it a deep cleaning with Ed's Red and a bore brush followed with tight flannel patches until they come out clean. (Homemade solvent, recipe can be found by Googling.) Then, once it's spic-and-span shoot the heck out of it, and only clean it if/when accuracy or functioning falls off.

I clean every outing. Whether hunting or competition.
Monthly 100 yard shoots are generally decided by x counts.
No room for accuracy degradation or function.

As do I, with my guilt-edged target rifles. My more pedestrian .22 plinker/hunters pretty much only when they tell me they need it. The couple of autoloaders I own (including a gill gun) start to fail from the actions getting cheesed up before accuracy drops off demanding a bore cleaning. At that point the stocks come off, the innards get sluiced with a spray cleaner and mopped out then re-oiled and they're good for another thousand rounds or so.

Under the heading of: "First do no harm", I reserve bore cleaning after examination, and also use softer bristle brushes. Hoppes, Butches, Young's 303, and Rangoon Oil, or Tetra -all have a part to play.
Moose milk-oil and a bit of water- for original Sharps and Winchester 1885s. And follow the Sharp's original factory practice of a quality oil lightly applied to the bore...after thorough cleaning.
Black powder requires a different protocol.

(Avoid the early 1900s primers as well as GI wartime versions, specifically those in 30 GOVT 06.) Mercuric or other chlorate priming compounds were and are responsible for
very pitted or otherwise bad bores. US bore cleaners always had a bit of water added, to help dissolve corrosive priming residue.