Bore Cleaner

So my question, it appears there is a bit of hype about Thorro Clean, has anyone compared it to First Choice, a Canadian product?
I have used First Choice for years, since its inception and I know what it does.
 
Ok, today i tried CLR on a SS barrel - took off brake, took gun out of stock to be safe, ran a wet patch of kroil thru, then dry, then put a silicone plug in the chamber, and filled the barrel with CLR.
Let it sit for 45min, muzzle up - straight up.....then carefully drained, put muzzle down, patched it with dry patches, then rinsed it out real good with windex, then kroil, then 2 dry patches & repeated kroil wet/2 dry till no dark carbon on patches.

HOLY CRAP did it work - carbon simply disappeared. Carbon ring dissolved to nothing.

This is carbon that Wipe-out, Carb-out, Butches, Boretech eliminator, and Hoppes WITH nylon brush would not remove. Some of these worked great with copper and crud, but didn't remove the baked on stuff.

I finished with some borebright on a snug patch, then cleaned it all out, and man, is it nice and shiny. Looks new.

Can't wait to shoot it now!
 
chrismc said:
ok, today i tried clr on a ss barrel - took off brake, took gun out of stock to be safe, ran a wet patch of kroil thru, then dry, then put a silicone plug in the chamber, and filled the barrel with clr.
Let it sit for 45min, muzzle up - straight up.....then carefully drained, put muzzle down, patched it with dry patches, then rinsed it out real good with windex, then kroil, then 2 dry patches & repeated kroil wet/2 dry till no dark carbon on patches.

Holy crap did it work - carbon simply disappeared. Carbon ring dissolved to nothing.

This is carbon that wipe-out, carb-out, butches, boretech eliminator, and hoppes with nylon brush would not remove. Some of these worked great with copper and crud, but didn't remove the baked on stuff.

I finished with some borebright on a snug patch, then cleaned it all out, and man, is it nice and shiny. Looks new.

Can't wait to shoot it now!
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excellent ! Thxs ;) for that ! Rj
 
I use Hoppe’s bore cleaner and copper cleaner. Seems to work. I have a jug of CLR in the gun room, was thinking about sending a few patches through, going to give it go. Eric Cortina used to endorse it as a great way to clean a barrel.
 
cycbb486 said:
So my question, it appears there is a bit of hype about Thorro Clean, has anyone compared it to First Choice, a Canadian product?
I have used First Choice for years, since its inception and I know what it does.
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When used correctly , First choice is faster and does a better job than the Thorro clean , it’s the best product for removing carbon and copper we have found yet
 
Remington Jim, to not reveal his true identity he in my mind is one of the top BR shooters in Canada. He puts a lot of time and effort into the sport. He travels US and the world to play the game and in my mind along with a few other BR shooters the biggest givers to the sport of Short range BR. I will guarantee you he has tried Thorro or if not knows some HofF shooters who have compare both.
 
CLR does a great job on Carbon, but only use it to soak on stainless steel. I soaked muzzle brakes to remove built up carbon, no worries on SS but took the Nitrate finish off the other brake.

Bore tech Elimanator does a good job removing both carbon and copper. This is my go to cleaner between deep cleaning.

Which brings me to the Thorroclean from Insite Arms. Fantastic, the amount of crud it releases from the barrel is amazing (no soaking or wait times needed, brush then patch) and no harsh smells. The Thorroflush is odd in that it does not soak into the patches very well (only downside)
 
chrismc said:
Ok, today i tried CLR on a SS barrel - took off brake, took gun out of stock to be safe, ran a wet patch of kroil thru, then dry, then put a silicone plug in the chamber, and filled the barrel with CLR.
Let it sit for 45min, muzzle up - straight up.....then carefully drained, put muzzle down, patched it with dry patches, then rinsed it out real good with windex, then kroil, then 2 dry patches & repeated kroil wet/2 dry till no dark carbon on patches.

HOLY CRAP did it work - carbon simply disappeared. Carbon ring dissolved to nothing.

This is carbon that Wipe-out, Carb-out, Butches, Boretech eliminator, and Hoppes WITH nylon brush would not remove. Some of these worked great with copper and crud, but didn't remove the baked on stuff.

I finished with some borebright on a snug patch, then cleaned it all out, and man, is it nice and shiny. Looks new.

Can't wait to shoot it now!
Click to expand...

CLR definitely gets a lot of carbon out.

But be extremely careful. CLR will destroy most anything it touches, so be incredibly careful. I would never put CLR in a barrel without removing the barrel and completely isolating it from the rest of the rifle. Even then, I don't think I'll use CLR again. It's just too risky.

Also, CLR will also eat away stainless steel.
 
Competitive benchrest ,Canada and the US , we test everything that’s out there with the use of bore scopes ,first choice is the fastest cleaner that gets both carbon and copper out , some of the others work ok but take more work/time to be effective , and some only work on carbon or copper not both .it’s catching on with a lot of the US bench shooters as well for the same reason.
 
Woking said:
Yes I do have a borescope.

Tried CLR and will continue to use it on my barrel, worked well for me.
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Thanks for That ! So many people clean BUT with out a BORE scope you will NEVER know for SURE how clean it is ! RJ

Do you just wet patch-mop soak the barrel OR do you plug it and let it sit Full for a period of time ?

Do you nylon brush or copper brush your barrels ?

Thxs - I appreciate Good Info! RJ
 
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Here's a question for those of you who have tried +/or use CLR:

I know they say not to use CLR in a chrome moly barrel because it will strip the bluing, but is there any other reason to not use it in an older CrMo barrel?

As for not using it in a ss barrel because it will void the warranty, exactly how long is the warranty? This from someone who tried to get warranty on a ss LVBR barrel in 6ppc that had 45 rounds through it from Lilja that wouldn't come close to my Hart barrel with 1,600 rounds down the pipe [Good Luck with that!] Are you using handloads? [You've already voided the warranty by doing so]

[tongue firmly in cheek]

Thanks all.

A Belated Happy New Year & All The Best in '24!

Jim
 
Max Owner said:
Eric Cortina put out a video saying not to use CLR. And apparently it will void the barrel warranty.
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Yes he did ! BUT also SAYS it works Excellent ! Only appeasing the barrel manufactures with the video .Just don’t leave it in more then a few minutes and be Carefull to not get it on EVERY thing else . RJ
 
remington jim said:
Yes he did ! BUT also SAYS it works Excellent ! Only appeasing the barrel manufactures with the video .Just don’t leave it in more then a few minutes and be Carefull to not get it on EVERY thing else . RJ
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I suspect that the folks at CLR do not pay much 'sponsorship' money to anybody who uses the stuff on their guns.


The stuff that works may not be the stuff 'they' push the hardest!


.
 
stewbud said:
I suspect that the folks at CLR do not pay much 'sponsorship' money to anybody who uses the stuff on their guns.


The stuff that works may not be the stuff 'they' push the hardest!


.
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I highly doubt CLR has any sponsorships or desires to popularize their product for firearm cleaning.

You can easily destroy things with CLR, which is probably why EC makes that statement.

I tried it once in my TacOps rifle, using a chamber plug to seal off the chamber. Unknown to me, the chamber plug developed a very slow leak and it only took a very small amount of CLR to require my entire rifle to be sent off to TacOps/Birdsong to get recoated.

That was a mistake on my part that I never should've made. I haven't used CLR since. If I ever use CLR again, it will be on a uncoated barrel fully removed from the rifle. But even then you still need to be careful - CLR will eat away at stainless steel.
 
So Jim...in essence, your subtle hint is trying to say, I REALLY need some of this stuff ?? lol It has me pondering...wondering how much better it is than my old standby..1st Choice ?

I just put together a bunch of 223 stuff, about 325 rds of mixed tips. 69 gr up to 80 gr A-Maxes. I'm hoping to get out the next few days for a test / plink session. Obviously, I'ma gonna have some cleaning to do.
 
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