Thread: ammonia

is it safe to use ammonia to clean a stainless barrel worked good in my no4 its g96 bore cleaner worked better than 4 other cleaners i used

Just make sure you really clean out the ammonia, get some meths or ethenol and really swab out the bore.

shit i just used hopes no9 and then an oily patch

Aww man I thought this was going to be a cool thread on anhydrous ammonia and it’s use as an industrial refrigerant.

Bore cleaner. Pffft

Originally Posted by kiwijames

Aww man I thought this was going to be a cool thread on anhydrous ammonia and it’s use as an industrial refrigerant............

Is it possible, that with our current Prime Monster our needs for an " industrial refrigerant," have been surpassed?

Wotcha fink?

This was the reply I received in relation to my Howa stainless steel rifle.

You can use ammonia based solvent like sweets in your stainless rifle with the same due care you would in a blued barrelled action. Hoppes works good too.

Regards
Jamie Stellini | Internal Sales | Outdoor Sporting Agencies
PO Box 8519 Tarneit VIC 3029 Australia
| jamie@osaaustralia.com.au

Ok cool you just need to make sure you get it all out im hoping a hoppes patch sid that i tried hoppes no9 bore tech hoppes copper remover outers nitro solvent and g96 which was streets ahead of the others

Ammonia as kiwi James will tell you as it looks like he works with it is a lighter than air gas that readily dissolves in water so when it dries it leaves no residue behind. Ammonia based copper solvents are probably the best as it's more reactive than the less smelly amine versions neither will affect steel or stainless. Any aluminum however is in depth trouble with both for them.

Definitely don't leave ammonia based Cu solvents in your barrel longer than say 10-15 minutes. I have seen borescope images of barrels ruined by ammonia based cleaners - lots of little craters, very moon like.

I threw my Sweets away years ago. There are far better non ammonia based Cu cleaners available these days eg Boretech Cu+ or to a lesser extent their Eliminator, also KG12. Although these I believe, (as do others) that despite makers' claims shouldn't be left in barrels for storage.

Still love the smell of Hoppes 9. A dab behind your ears is probably it's best use. Bought a bottle of their more expensive Cu cleaner years ago. Thought the regular No 9 about as effective. They will remove Cu but both very slow.

Some of the bore foams (not all brands) are effective cleaners.

Cleaning is a 2 pronged attack - carbon removal, and Cu removal. Despite makers claims there is no one stop snake oil that effectively totally removes both. They tout "disolving" carbon. Carbon cannot be disolved.

The fouling may also be laid down in multi layers, depending upon how effective your cleaning regime may have been in the past.

Attacking with something like JBs may be the only solution for bad situations.

Zimmer comment is correct but it's just chemistry at work. Ammonia reacts with copper salts to form an intense blue compound and make them soluble in water. Copper is below steel in the electrochemical series so when the two metals are in contact in an electrolyte in this case the cleaner a tiny battery is formed as the iron dissolves to protect the copper which leads to micro pitting if left to long on its own in a barrel with no copper in it there will be no corrosion as steel isn't affected by ammonia and rust won't form in an alkaline environment.
Sorry if this sounds like a chemistry lecture but I used to do this stuff for a living and there is a lot of misunderstanding about this.

I also thought it attracted moisture

Agree with @zimmer above and even when I've used KG12 and Boretech CU+ I've swabbed afterwards with Meths and on patches until no more yellow or copper comes out- then finished with Safariland brakefree oil replenish the metal and remove any residues and leave a layer in the barrel - also looked at using CRC long life in barrel ongoing (to be removed before firing) and Nathan F

Seems to have worked well for me. -