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I am always looking for a faster and better way to clean the
ever growing horde of mil-surp rifles that populate my
collection. I really love the smell of Hoppes No. 9 and the
lower cost of Ed's Red - but both of these cleaning solvents
take a lot of elbow grease and time to clean a rifle.
This is not a problem if you are cleaning a single rifle, but
if I take a trunk full of rifles to the range then you can
multiply the cleaning task exponentially.
Not to mention the smell and the fumes!
After cleaning "the entourage", I end up coming out of the
garage smelling like I work in a Hoppes No. 9 manufacturing
facility, my head is swimming around like I have a super bowl beer buzz, and
somehow I have distorted recollections of seeing a half-time
female pop-star half unclothed while performing on top of my clothes
dryer (something I probably should not tell my wife or anyone
else for that matter).
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Cleaning Solvent
Smell-O-Meter |
| One
Rifle Cleaning Session |
Smells Really Good |
| Many
Rifle Cleaning Session |
You
Can No Longer Smell |
I have a problem - let's just say that my shooting "eyes" are now much bigger than my
desire to clean afterwards. If you don't understand this analogy
- my dad used to say to me when I did not finish my dinner - "I
guess your eyes are bigger than your stomach, eh?" (meaning I
took more that I could possibly eat).
A friend of mine recently sent me an email about an online
"infomercial Style" video that
showed a new cleaning product sold by a company
named Novum Solutions, haling from Houston, Texas. I went to their website and
watched the video showing how the cleaner worked removing rust,
lead, and copper. I became
very intrigued because the demonstrator promised
it would clean and remove buildup/fouling better and
easier than your average bore cleaning solvent.
I emailed them about my interest and then following a short
while received some samples in the mail. |
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Novum
Contact Information
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1585 West Sam Houston Parkway North
Suite 200
Houston, TX 77049
Phone 832-204-0866
Email:
sales@novumsolutions.com
Web Site:
http://www.bluewonder.us/BlueWonderGunCleaner.html
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Manufacturer Product
Description and
Price |
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Blue Wonder™ Gun Cleaner is simply the BEST gun cleaner on
the market - Hands Down! Many gun cleaners on the market today
are petroleum based products which can be toxic, harmful to the
skin, dangerous to breathe, flammable and environmentally
“unfriendly” products. They work as solvents in attempting to
remove copper and lead deposits as well as powder residue. Blue
Wonder™ Gun Cleaner on the other hand is not petroleum based, is
not toxic or harmful and is environmentally “friendly”, being
completely biodegradable.
When a round is fired through the bore of a gun, a tremendous
amount of heat is formed from both the combustion process and
the friction between the bullet and the bore wall. This heat
forms oxide molecules (lead oxide and/or copper oxide) which
bond the copper and lead deposits to the bore. Blue Wonder™ Gun
Cleaner attacks this oxide molecule, breaking the bond, allowing
the copper and lead deposits to be quickly, easily and
completely removed.
Blue Wonder™ Gun Cleaner will also remove rust from the exterior
finish of a gun - and it will not harm or affect the existing
bluing! Rust is iron “oxide” and it is affected in the same way
as the copper and lead oxides. Simply use the cleaner with
“0000” steel wool or a soft brass brush and the rust will be
removed and the bluing unharmed.
To remove existing gun blue, it can be used with an abrasive
product such as ScotchBrite™ pads or emery cloth. The cleaner
will help in the blue removal because of its wetting,
penetrating and lubricating qualities.
Further, Blue Wonder™ Gun Cleaner will quickly emulsify any
petroleum based product. It will remove Moly from gun bores
along with any other grease or oil.
Important: After using Blue Wonder™ Gun Cleaner, it is
imperative to follow with a light coat of quality gun oil as the
surface treated will be chemically clean and subject to rust.
1 oz tube -
Blue Wonder™ Gun Cleaner
Suggested Retail $4.99 |
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I decided to see if the cleaner really held up to the hype. I thought to make this a fair and interesting test I would take two
almost identical rifles to the range and shoot the same quantity
and type of ammo through both. The first rifle is an
Enfield No 4 Mk 1 and the other is a
Enfield No 4 Mk 2. Both rifles
have shiny "like new" bores. Before going to the range I cleaned both rifles
thoroughly using my normal regimen as described below using
Hoppes No. 9. I figured this would give me
a base line comparison to start from for the cleaning test.
After the shooting session I would bring both rifles home and
test clean them both. One rifle would be cleaned using Hoppes
No. 9 and the other would be cleaned only using the Blue Wonder
product. I would then contrast and compare the two cleaning
sessions. |
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I took eighty rounds of the same ammo with
the intention of shooting forty cartridges through each rifle. I
figured this was a reasonable amount of ammo that would foul the
barrels just enough for my test and my shoulder would still be
intact enough for me to actually move.
I
chose to not reload and decided to use Remington's UMC .303 British, 174 grain FMJ cartridges.
I chose commercial ammo for
two reasons - 1) I was too lazy to reload and 2) I needed some more
.303 brass anyways (for the reloading that I am too lazy to
do). |
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My Normal Cleaning
Regimen |
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After my shooting excursion, I took the No. 4 Mk 2 and decided
to clean it using Hoppes No. 9. I keep large bottles of
Hoppes and Ed's Red because I like to soak parts while I clean
the bores of the respective rifle. For the bore cleaning I pour
enough solvent for my cleaning job into a handy plastic
container. |
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Note in figure 6 that I have a white towel directly below
the receiver and over the rifle sling. I do this because liquid
solvent gets everywhere.
I start out by running five solvent saturated patches down
the bore with a "one piece" rod and a .30 caliber jag.
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Then I follow with the regimen of running a brass .30 caliber bore brush
through the bore at least twenty times. |
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Next I run another five solvent soaked patches down the bore
followed by as many dry patches that it takes to have a clean
white patch come out the other end of the bore. This whole
process usually takes around twenty-five to thirty patches to
complete. When I am finished I run a single oil soaked patch
down the bore, followed by another dry patch. If the oil patch comes out
clean then I am finished. If it comes out dirty, I start the
whole process over again until it does come out clean in the
end. After only shooting forty cartridges I only had to complete
one pass to get a sparkling clean bore. It did take about twenty
minutes to complete - but who is counting? |
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The Blue Wonder
Cleaning Regimen |
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The Blue Wonder Gun Cleaner cleaning process is notably
different from my normal regimen. You start out by using a brass
cleaning brush and coating it with the gel that comes out of the
tube. You then run the brush through the bore five to six times
and then repeat the process. Then you let it stand for ten to
fifteen minutes. |
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One thing I noticed directly was the dark, yucky gunk that came
out of the other end of the bore and was on the brush (as
shown in figure 10). |
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After the fifteen minute break you run the brush through another
five to six times. Then you run dry patches through with a jag
until the patch comes out white and clean. |
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Remember the
dark, yucky gunk? Well it came out on the patches as well. It
seemed as though the cleaner was actually doing something.
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It took me around twenty-five patches before I saw the first patch come
out clean and white. Then the instructions say to oil like I did
in my normal regimen. When I pulled the oil soaked patch out the
other end of the bore I saw it was pretty dirty. I had my
daughter read the instructions to see if I had missed anything -
like maybe the word "repeat". Nope - I had followed the
instructions to the letter. I decided to take my own initiative
and repeat the entire process again.
Once I completed the second run-through the bore was indeed
clean and met my standards.
The entire process took around thirty-five minutes including
the two fifteen minute breaks and around forty patches. |
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Some observations and conclusions: I used several more
patches using the Blue Wonder Gun Cleaner as shown in figure
13 (Blue Wonder Patches) as compared to what I used
with Hoppes No. 9 as shown in figure 14 (Hoppes No. 9
Patches). This was primarily because I repeated the process. Because Blue Wonder Gun Cleaner is in gel form I
found that I really did
like how I didn't get it all over everything and myself like I normally do with a
traditional liquid based solvent.
I used a much smaller quantity of the gel than a normal
cleaning solvent. I would say something like 70% to 90% less in
volume.
The Blue Wonder cleaner did remove copper build-up. I decided
to do a follow-up test on both bores by running a patch through
saturated with a commercial copper remover and found the bore
that had been cleaned
with Hoppes No. 9 came out with blue stained patches (denoting a chemical
reaction with copper fouling) and the bore cleaned with the
Blue Wonder Gun Cleaner patches came out clean without any blue
discoloration (denoting
no chemical reaction with copper). Although Hoppes No.9
seemed as though it took less time and effort to clean, to
effectively clean and have a copper residue free bore I would
have to use an additional product specifically formulated to
accomplish the task of removing copper fouling. Using the Blue
Wonder product this is not the case.
Using the Blue Wonder product is a cleaner process overall and the smell was almost
unnoticeable. There were no fumes (and no half clothed Janet
either...)
Would I continue to use the Blue Wonder Gun Cleaner?
Yes, most definitely.
jlm;) |
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