Hoppes #9 plus ???

[billd]

I'm down to my last bottle of Lehigh, so today I picked up a bottle of Hoppes #9 plus.  Several people here reported have good results with it.   I didn't read the bottle till I got home, but right on the bottle it states "contains kerosene"!!??  A petroleum product that doesn't cause fouling??  How?  Any thoughts on this?

Bill

[billd]

I'm bad.  I moved it.

Bill

[Daryl]

I know it's got kerosene in it and the colour has darkened from that produced back in the '70's, when it was milky. It works though, regardless of the kerosene.  I think it might be something like beeswax and vaseline being a great BP ctg. bullet lube, although vaseline is a petrolium product.  if you want to see something fail to work, try one of the alox/beeswax lubes.
: Hoppe's #9 plus is the next best thing I've used to LHV as a hunting lube.

[Harnic]

I love the stuff & the quart I bought this summer is very milky Daryl, just like the first bottle I tried in 1977.  I won't be switching lubes any time soon.  Hoppes #9 Plus is GREAT!!! 

[longcruise]

It's working good for me too and I consider it an acceptable hunting lube.  Beats grease, IMO.  I've never used a grease lube that did not call for wiping between shots, including wonder lube/1000+.  The wonder lube seems to allow loading without wiping when the humidaddy is high but not when the air is dry.   At least that's my experience.

OTOH, while cleaning up after an extended range session recently I compared the #9 to plain old water as a solvent and found the #9 has very little use in removing crusty fouling.  Tested on the stock and barrel out front of the nipple where crud builds up with much shooting (at least on my rifle) and the #9 barely touched it wheras the plain old water took it off with ease.

[billd]

Mine is a milky yellowish tan color.  I guess it's the new stuff. I'll try it this weekend.

Bill

[WRDSMTH]

I used a fair amount of Hoppe's #9 Plus and found it works well. The only problem I have is that it seems to vary from batch to batch. In one bottle the lube will be thin and in the next thick. A friend of mine uses it for a hunting lube...don't know how he keeps it from drying out. Wet patches left in a cap tin over a period of time will cause the tin to RUST. This is a bit of a concern.

[billd]

Well,  I tried it last weekend and it did shoot right where my LV did. After about 20 shots it was getting harder to load, but still loaded easily. At this point my groups opened up slightly, but dropped considerably.  A quick wipe and everything went back to normal.

When I got home cleaning was another story. I used plain water, my patches were yellow, then I used Dawn dish detergent, patches still yellow. Then I went to achohol, patches REALLY yellow.  I went and got a can of brake cleaner and sprayed it down the barrel.  After about three patches the yellow was finally gone.  I don't know what happened, but I'm not happy.

I got a bottle of Shenandoah Valley to try next weekend.   

Bill

[billd]

Hey Roundball,   I have the white plastic bottle.  Just bought it two weeks ago.  I didn't know anything about 2 different styles, old and new. 

Bill

[William Worth]

I to have been experimenting with the "New Style" Hoppes #9 Plus and have mostly been not wiping between shots.  But at cleanup, I THOUGHT my barrel was clean.  Then, following rinse, I wetted a patch with a little distilled water and ran it down the bore and it came up with residual black harbored in the corners of the lands.  This goes on for some time but does eventually get clean.

To say that petroleum products are bad for fouling is painting with a broad brush.  Dutch Bill has mentioned this and I need to dig it out again, but certain components of petroleum are bad for fouling and others are not.

[Pete G.]

Wow, I didn't know there was a new style. Mine was in a brown glass bottle. When I finally ordered a new bottle it came in a brown plastic bottle of the same size and shape. I guess it it sort of like clothes. Hold on to them long enough they will almost be in style again. I have noticed that this stuff tends to gain viscosity if you leave it open in high humidity conditions (90 plus). I like it for patch lube, but for cleaning I still prefer windshield washer fluid with a follow up of Break Free CLP.

[BrownBear]

I haven't given it much of a test as a patch lube yet, mostly because it's just one more thing to knock over at the range.  If it works for me, it will be for prelubing rolls of patching or cut patches- either of which will be stowed in some small container.

For cleaning after the fact, I've tried it along some other "no water" BP cleaners (Butch's, LV, alcohol, windshield washer fluid, etc) for situations where I can't do my prefered bucket of water routine.  It takes a lot more patches dampened with Hoppes to get a clean patch than any of the others, including a patch dampened with plain old water.  Does a good job, but just needs more time and effort to do it.

[Roger Fisher]

Stretching the subject of #9 a tad:::  Good ol spit w no wiping 'tween' shots and bout 20% Simple Green in cold water as a clean up - dry - then a good oil in the bore (Also works as a fine hand cleaner) Save your money boys and girls tough times a comin!

Too cold for spit patch??  Then bear grease with the loadin block!

[William Worth]

I do a "Simple Green"/ambient temp water cleanup.  What seems to really start bringing out the color from the corners of the lands is after I've dried and started to wipe in "Eez-Ox" and "RIG" with time intervals between, as in, overnight.

[Harnic]

The quart of Hoppes #9+ I bought last spring will last as patch lube for the next 10 years!  That's cheap shooting!  I never use it for cleaning, it shoots so clean I use a bronze brush like rb suggests & a couple drops of detergent in a pail of water at the end of the day, followed by a liberal coat of WD-40.  That has worked fine for 31 years.

[Daryl]

Time to change, Harry - don't you know that DWD40 will varnish your guns?  Hey - I wonder how it'd work on that old dresser? Needs some morer finish, it does.

[Harnic]

I never put WD on the wood Daryl & wipe the metal nearly dry before re-assembling.  I've used WD-40 exclusively on all my guns for most of the past 30 years with no visible stock damage.  Maybe it has no effect on Tung oil which has been my favourite finish for at least 20 years.  Could be that the BriWax wipes all the WD-40 off & replaces it with all the various waxes it contains.  On my cast bullet guns I use WD-40 exclusively as bore solvent too.  It seems to remove lead & powder fouling as well as anything else I've tried & it's a LOT cheaper than most by the gallon!

[Daryl]

I was kidding - and alluding to the 'press' we've seen about al the varnish WD40 is supposed to develop on steel parts.  I've not seen it myself. I've never hurt a sealed stock finish with WD40- true oil or other finishes.

[Harnic]

There are all sorts of negative urban legends about WD-40 Daryl & I've never found any with any truth to them either.  It's a !@*%&@ fine product with many good uses!  Are you snowed in yet up there?  We had our first snowfall earlier in the week, but it melted by the next day & it's just rained since.  Doesn't usually stick around for long until closer to the winter solstice.

[Daryl]

Snow's almost gone - probably same storm. We got only about 3" or so.   BTW - I picked up a gallon of WD40 & squirt bottle today, instead of the more normal 2cans.

[Daryl]

BTW-0 there is nothing better than WD40 (that I've found) for getting the stickiness off your hands after applying linseed-oil stock finishes. After teh DWD40, I merely wash with normal soap or not as the case may be.

[longcruise]

I like a little shot of it in my cappucino too.

[Mike R]

since we're off topic, WD-40 also works as a fish lure sprayed onto jigs, plastic worms, etc.  Old Joke: redneck tool kit=WD-40 and duct tape, if it ain't moving and it should, spray WD40;  If it is moving and it shouldn't, duct tape it!

[omark]

  since this thread has gone off on its own, anyway. my dad said rubbing it on aching joints seemed to help arthiritis.
  as far as it building up on surfaces, my basement flooded once, and i just sprayed all my guns with wd 40. it dried them out and prevented rust, but some time later, when i got to cleaning them properly, they all had a kind of dust catching gum on them.
   was also told it would enter loaded cartridges and contaminate the powder, primer. never tried it myself.