doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Hoppe's #9?

For information sake....please provide a list of solvents that will destroy the integrity of silver soldered ribs. I'd like to know. I'm being serious, not trying to be smart ass in any way shape or form. It may save popped ribs in the future.

I have never personally seen or known of any type of solvent destroy solder. I am only familiar with solder being destroyed by excessive heat, rust, acidic flux and poor soldering. Is this another old wives tale? One of those myths that keeps on keepin on?

You left off the one that's probably resulted in more loose ribs than all those others combined & that's some nut throwing a set of soft soldered barrels in a Hot Bluing Tank. As these do not normally exceed 300� F its not the hat, its the reaction of the lead with the Lye. It will also devour Aluminum.

I was wondering the same thing myself, except I don't think many shotgun ribs are silver soldered. When silver bearing solder is used, I believe that is usually reserved for brazing the breech and barrel lump section. I've seen quite a few products advertised as bore cleaners that will remove lead and copper bullet jacket fouling, and have used some such as Shooters Choice and Mercury Quicksilver (solvent for outboard engines). But I have mainly used them for copper jacket fouling in high velocity rifles.

I found this video where a guy tests a number of popular bore cleaners for their ability to remove and dissolve lead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_ud2M1gGlU

Long story short, Outers Foaming Bore Cleaner worked best followed by good old/new Hoppes No.9, which has been reformulated since most of us started shooting. Nitrobenzene in the old Hoppes is a suspected carcinogen. I hope nobody was using it for after shave even if the aroma was heavenly.

My real question is, who sloshes enough bore cleaner on the outside of shotgun barrels to ever compromise the rib solder joints? We are talking about cleaning the bores here, not total immersion in either bore solvent, or caustic hot bluing salts as Miller mentions, which will corrode and loosen shotgun ribs. If you keep your bore solvent inside the bore where it belongs, you shouldn't ever have to worry about loosening ribs. I just read another article by a gun scribe last week that claimed that immersion hot bluing salts will melt rib solder joints. The lowest melting point for tin-lead solder is 361 degrees F and hot bluing tanks typically run about 70 degrees lower. Most silver bearing solders have a much higher melting point.

Most definitely.

A lot of ribs first loosen right up next to the muzzle end...I attribute this to solvent.

Part of the answer lies in the name "solvent" with out looking it up I'm betting it means to penetrate and dissolve.

Prove it. You're speculating and regurgitating stuff that seemingly has never been proven. Show me a test where solvents used in gun cleaning have been proven to dissolve or destroy solder or brazing used in laying ribs, lumps, etc. . If solvents did actually do this...you'd see sight ramps on rifles falling off too. The ribs I've seen popped at the muzzle are usually caused by corrosion or the use of cheap and corrosive acid flux (many American made guns used this method due to cost effectiveness), another reason is that on many mass produced guns, the ribs were laid fast and the solder joint wasn't always consistent the whole way down, thin spots and even holes or spaces are not unheard of.

Homelessjoe's observation and surmise is the same as mine

Oh boy! What really removes Lead fouling from gun barrels easily? Yes there is a substance that does it without scrubbing or any sort of effort but there is always a but isn�t there. Before the health safety and joy police managed to snatch more power from us unsuspecting folks and beat us over the head at every opportunity they can, the traditional way in the gun trade here was liquid MERCURY! Gasp stagger back in horror!! Thoughts of mad hatters and rather sick people in the Mercury Gilding trade. That said just cork the muzzle pour in about a quarter of a pound of the fascinating silver toxic stuff in the shotgun bore then cork the chamber then roll it from breech to muzzle takes about one minute, all the lead is gone.
As they say over this side of the pond �Ya pays your money and takes your chance� I am still here and have done this for more years than I care to remember.

can you reuse the mercury?....and if so how many cleanings b4 it becomes so contaminated with lead that it doesn't work anymore?....

Nobody I know cleans their doubles from the muzzles. Most folks will wet a brush or patch and run it in from the breech with the muzzles pointing downward. Any small amount of excess bore solvent will run around the breech area, or drip out of the muzzles. I put newspaper on the floor to catch any drips because drips go down due to gravity. Unless you are doing this muzzles up, virtually no bore solvent will be getting onto the ribs around the muzzles.

Solder joints usually fail because they were not all that sound to begin with due to poor prep, materials, fluxing, or temperature. Ever see a high speed video of a gun firing and see the violent flexing and movement at the muzzles? Little wonder many rib separations start there. But they also commonly happen where the lower rib meets the forearm loop, far from any inadvertent sloshing of solvent during cleaning. The name "solvent" has nothing to do with it. Water is known as the "universal solvent", but my fishing sinkers aren't dissolving in it, and my soldered copper water lines aren't falling apart. And hunting in the rain hasn't popped my shotgun ribs.