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.