Using Hoppes 9 for corrosive ammo in Mosin

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Gordon_Freeman

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I read that all you need for corrosive ammo cleaning is Hoppes 9 solvent. I read this on 7.62x54r.net in their faq section. I really don't feel comfortable using water on my Mosin. Has anyone here tried using only Hoppes 9 solvent for cleaning rifles after corrosive ammo?

I tried corrosive ammo for the first time 3 weeks ago in a Mosin and cleaned with only hoppes 9 solvent and CLP. I haven't noticed any rust yet.
 
I really don't feel comfortable using water on my Mosin.
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What?
You think a 100 year old army rifle never got wet before???
Good grief!

Hoppe's #9 is not a salts from corrosive primer solvent.

Hot Soap & water is.

Use hot water and the gun will get hot enough to dry itself.
Then finish cleaning & protecting it with the Hoppe's.

rc
 
Sweet's 7.62 is an ammonia-based solvent that I've used exclusively for cleaning Mosin's after shooting corrosive surplus ammo. It does a good job. In the absence of Sweet's or another comparable solvent, dad actually taught me to use Windex, which seems to also work well.

If I'm not shooting corrosive ammo in them, I'll just use Hoppes or Shooter's Choice.

As for the fear of using water in your rifle, don't worry about it. Folks have been using water/soap to clean guns for centuries. Spend a little bit of time researching how black powder shooters clean their guns and you'll quickly realize it's completely normal. Rcmodel makes a good point about hot water. Hot water ends up evaporating rapidly, so you don't have to do a lot of work drying it out. Simply dry patch it to get moisture out afterwards, then continue cleaning/oiling as usual.
 
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I have been using it for years, and yes I know many say it will not work, but I have found it does...if you do one simple thing.

Get messy....don't be stingy with it....SOAK your patches with it and clean as normal....never have had a problem....and I think the reason why is the volume.

I have also used some cleaners for black powder with success (can't remember the name)

You will not hurt the rifle using water, windex...whatever. Some have a 50 step process to clean after the dirty ammo....I have found it not nessary.

Use your #9 but use it till everything is nice and shiny....then come back hit it with a light a little later...if you see any flashing of rust (it shows up pretty quick) do it all again.
 
If I don't have time to clean my PSL right away, I'll use liberal amounts of glass cleaner with ammonia for a quick 10 minute "cleaning". Typically I just clean it real good with Butch's Bore Shine. Never an issue either way.

Having said that, my buddy cleans his Mosin exclusively with Hoppe's #9 and he has zero rust problems either.
 
Thanks for the info guys. I have been searching around for more info on this subject. It seems that most people say Hoppes is not enough.
I did use many hoppes soaked patches through the bore. I think I will use some boiling water through a funnel next time. Or maybe hot water on patches would be enough.

The bore on this Mosin was already looking rough when I got it. Maybe it is rusting and I can't see it. There is no rust on the bayonet or front sight or other external surfaces.
 
I will not use surplus in any of my automatics....partly because the PSL likes things under 150grain and I don't want to bother to figure out what all those markings are on the spam cans. And partly because I just don't want to have to worry if I miss this or that spot. Cleaning a bolt rifle is pretty darn simple...The psl and SVT40 is not that hard...but why bother. I just started saving brass and loading them myself....it is amazing how much better I shoot when I started shooting the Partazan and my own stuff over the supplus stuff.

Surplus only sees bolt rifle use...but I just love to shoot the PSL and SVT. So I had to come up with something cheaper to do....that is why I started reloading.
 
While I don't discredit the success some folks have had with soaked Hoppe's patches, I'm of the mind that it's better to just use the correct item for the application. I've done Hoppe's only before and had no issues. I've done Hoppe's only another time and had rust visible at the muzzle the next morning.

Maybe I didn't use enough? Who knows. Fact is that Hoppe's is not chemically the correct stuff to use on corrosive salts.

Windex with Ammonia. $2.47 for 32oz at Walmart :)
 
I have six MN and clean with a generous amount of Hoppes 9 on a bore snake right above the imbedded brush three times and follow up with two swipes of Ed's Red on the other end. Have never used water to neutralize the salts but this seems to work cause I have seen no corrosion.
 
fpgt72 said:
I will not use surplus in any of my automatics....partly because the PSL likes things under 150grain and I don't want to bother to figure out what all those markings are on the spam cans. And partly because I just don't want to have to worry if I miss this or that spot. Cleaning a bolt rifle is pretty darn simple...The psl and SVT40 is not that hard...but why bother. I just started saving brass and loading them myself....it is amazing how much better I shoot when I started shooting the Partazan and my own stuff over the supplus stuff.

Surplus only sees bolt rifle use...but I just love to shoot the PSL and SVT. So I had to come up with something cheaper to do....that is why I started reloading.
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That's interesting, I'm more or less doing the opposite. I have never run across a spam can from any country that wasn't ~148gr LPS ball. I'm sure it's out there but *I* haven't come across it in any of my online shopping trips. 7.62x54r.net is a great resource for looking that stuff up.

In any event, with my PSL, I figured it's made to eat that stuff so that's what I feed it. My concern is a lot less about the tightest group possible with this rifle and more about acceptable groups (2" - 3") at 100 meters under sustained use and the PSL shines here for me. If I was going for good, tight, groups and giving decent barrel cool down time I would be right there with ya reloading with some 168 gr .308 Hornady AMax or what have you but that's just not why I enjoy this rifle :)
 
I've always had more success with my own reloads. Some of the Mosins I have shot have done VERY well with X or Y surplus ammo, though. For casual shooting, the surplus stuff is nice to have around. I also don't mind having some of it sitting around just in case.
 
The ammonia in the windex does not make any difference. It's the water in the windex that neutralizes the corrosive salts.

I shoot tons of black powder and always clean with just plain old water. Not even soap. Dry out with patches then oil with Ballistol. I can pretty much clean any of my muskets or bp rifles in about 15 minutes. Done.

What I do for my AK-74 and AK-47 shooting corrosive surplus, is liberally squirt em down, gas tubes and all, with a 9-1 water to Ballistol mix. Soak that through em, patch em, and dry em off to neutralize the salts. I will blow them out with an air compressor if I have access to one (depends where I'm shooting and cleaning). After that I use CorrosionX for guns. It's a really nice oil and rust inhibitor. My rifles look shiny and brand new doing it this way with lots of surplus ammo through them.

Not a problem at all. Honestly, the CorrosionX is good stuff in my opinion! Very happy with it. I've cleaned many a bolt action with just water and Ballistol as well.
 
OK
so for those who slept through 8th grade science

SALTS DISSOLVE IN POLAR SOLVENTS
that would be WATER

That means you wash the corrosive salts out of the barrel barrel, then clean it with oil/petroleum (non-polar) powder solvents and oil...
 
Get messy....don't be stingy with it....SOAK your patches with it and clean as normal....never have had a problem....and I think the reason why is the volume.
Click to expand...

Yup, but water followed by a normal cleaning is a lot cheaper!
 
I use hoppes 9 in my mosins for cleaning corrosive i soak the bore and forget about it until morning then brush it and clean it till the patches are white, and that does the trick no rust film or pitting
 
I've had my Mosin over 20 years. It has seen a lot of ten cent a round corrosive ammo. When I got the gun, I never knew about cleaning with water. I cleaned the gun with whatever brand solvent I had on hand and then oiled it liberally. The gun suffered nothing from not using water. The bore is still nice and shiny.
 
The most important thing is to get to it QUICKLY. Do your cleaning the same day as the range. Big rust problems tend to emerge if you leave the rifle sitting in its case for days or weeks after the trip.

A lot of cleaners will work. I stick with M-pro spray for basic cleaning and the bore gel for more troublesome jobs. Never had a problem with corrosive primer rust after many many spam cans of 54R.
 
What RC model said. I clean my Mosin like it was one of my Black powders.
 
Hoppe's FAQ specifically says that Number 9 is good for cleaning corrosive primer residue.

I still use hot water, then follow up with Hoppe's to get any metal or carbon fouling.
 
I usa a spray bottle and squirt lots of water or Windex (whichever I have hand) down the barrel and then swab it out with patches. Repeat 4 or 5 times and then give it a final swabbing with WD40. The clean it with Hoppes #9 when I get home and oil it up with BF CLP. Never had any problems.
 
I've cleaned the muck from my Mosin Nagant a few times now with Windex to soak the patches. It typically takes two or three Windex patches to come out clean. A dry patch followed by a solvent patch followed by an oily patch followed by a dry patch should be fine.

In my case I follow the dry patch after the Windex with a patch soaked in Ed's Red. That one is more to just remove the water from the Windex as it invariably comes out clean. I then follow it with a quick dry patch to remove the excess Ed's and leave just a light oily film.

The whole process from beginning to end takes less than 5 minutes with the M-N.

... which reminds me. I was out shooting it today. Time to swab the darn thing out.
 
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