Tag Archives: guns and gear az

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Hoppe’s No. 9 Gun Bore Cleaning Solvent.  This is another item for our project of building a basic gunsmith and maintenance kit for 2017.

Over the first few months of 2017 we will feature sufficient gunsmith and maintenance items to build out a full basic kit to handle most of your gun care needs.

Anyway I have said it before and I will likely say it again a lot during this project, I am very old school in my choices for gun maintenance.

I know there are a lot of new products but I also know what has always worked will still work.

I remember my grandfather showing me how to clean the bore of his old Model 70!

First ya take out the bolt, you never clean it from the front side, always the back, got it?  Good now pay attention, this is important.

Now next ya put a cotton patch on the rod, dip in in the Hoppe’s and don’t get it all over the place or your grammy will get you.

Run it though the barrel nice and slow, one pass in and out, then get a new patch, do it again, then one more time.

Then ya run two clean and dry patches through it, may be three but that is enough.  Then take one more and put just a tiny bit of Hoppe’s Oil on it, run it back and forth twice and your done.

That’ll keep rust out of your bore and no one wants a rusty bore, it hurts when you pee if your bore is rusted.  Ya think that’s funny, do ya, well good it means you’re payin attention.

It ain’t like when I was in the Navy, we are shooting deer here, not Japs, deer don’t care if your gun perfect, just that it works.  You don’t have to get all out of sorts with this stuff, understand.

Now if you do a lot of shooting we might need a brush or some of that copper solvent, but most of the time, when you just were sighing her in, or got your deer, this is all you need.

When you want to practice stick to your 22, 30-06 rounds are expensive, so are good guns, so take care of it like this and it will be around when you are as old as I am.

Now take that oil rag and give it a good wipe down and put it in the cabinet till next time.

And so it has been for well past 30 years, I still have my first deer rifle and my first 22 and Hoppe’s products have been maintaining them all the while.  I don’t know how long my Grandfather had been using products from Hoppe’s but I know the company has been around for over 100 years and he never mentioned anything else.

As you can see from my Grandfather’s teaching above this solvent is for everyday cleaning of a weapon after it has been fired.  It dissolves powder and lead and copper residue and will take off surface rust as well.

If you have a badly fouled barrel with a lot of copper build up you may have to use something like Copper Solvent or do some cleaning with a bore brush but most of the time for general use a few swabbings of this stuff is all you need.  If you do go to a brush this stuff can be used on your brush as well and it is very effective that way.

So consider adding Hoppe’s No. 9 Gun Bore Cleaning Solvent to your gunsmith and maintenance kit today, it has been taking care of my guns for more than 30 years, closer to 40 than I want to admit, and I have no plans to change brands any time soon.

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop on Amazon you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

P.S. – Note I said it dissolves rust.  So when you find that old shotgun in the pawn shop with some surface rust to restore, just put a bit of this on some double 0 steel wool and rub it lightly with this and it will come right off.  And remember anything you clean with this needs some oil before you put it away, this is a cleaner not a lubricant or protectant.  

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber (synthetic safe formula).  I remember when I was a kid and used to clean my uncle’s gun because “I got to”, yea I really thought that way.  Mostly that cleaning was a brush and a mop thought the bore and a clean out of the chamber and wipe down with a oil rag.  But sometimes he would help, we would break the gun down and really give it a full cleaning.

The first time we did this I discovered Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber I thought at that time and still do think today, the stuff is like magic.  Every bit of residue, oil, etc, gone in a second, the metal is ice cold and dry at the same time.  This stuff belongs in every gun cleaning and maintenance kit.

Let’s talk about the synthetic safe thing though.  Flash 8 years later and young Jack Spirko is a private in basic training.  He is cleaning his 20 year old Vietnam Era M16A1 and it feels like spit shinning a turd.  No matter what he does, the Sergeant Major’s tiny thin ass pinky can always seem to find some dirt in his weapon’s chamber, he thinks “if only I had some Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber.”

Young Spirko gets though basic and goes to AIT (advanced individual training) more of the same, Drill Sergeants yelling, lots of training, daily PT and more inspections.  One thing changes though he gets a bit more freedom, like the ability to go to the PX.  Young Spirko goes to the sporting goods section of the PX, hoping against hope and there he finds his long sought Birchwood Casey.  He buys 4 cans and shares with all the guys in his squad bay.  These 8 guys are going to rock the next inspection!

The spray does its magic but this is in the days before the average person had synthetic stocks, young Spirko has never even touched a weapon with synthetic stocks until enlisting.  Something horrible happens!  Every where the stuff touches the stocks, they turn bleached out whitish gray!  Oh shit!

Fortuitously Spirko’s squad leader (a prior service Marine) had seen this before, a bit of black shoe polish mixed with tiny amount of CLP (civilians call it gun oil) and a wipe down of the stocks and they are back to looking like shitty 1970s era hardware.  The day was saved and while the squad didn’t get though the next inspection totally gig free, weapons wise they did very well.

Well, I continued to spread the word about Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber when I went to my permanent duty station.  With a warning about getting it on the stocks and the remedy if you did.  It made a lot of soldiers really happy.

In 1993 I finished my time in service and came to Texas.  I continued to use Birchwood Casey and about 2012 if I remember right I was at a place called Academy Sports and Outdoors.  Picking up some stuff for a range trip and found the synthetic safe version.  I tried it and it worked just as good as the original, and a spot or two on your stock was no longer a disaster.

Now let me tell you the one important thing about this stuff, it is basically stripper.  It takes EVERYTHING off gun metal except say bluing or parkerizing.  All dirt but also ever drop of oil, etc.  This means it is a cleaner not a maintainer, and you need to properly lube or lightly coat with oil any metal that it touches after cleaning it, as otherwise it will be unprotected.

So if you want to keep your guns at the ultimate level of clean pick up some Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber today.  I recommend at least 2 cans at all times in your kit.  Because of course two is one and one is none.

Final Warning – When I say this stuff takes all grease, grime, soot, powder residue, etc. off I mean it.  Do not spay this stuff over an unprotected area or it will be covered in gun gick!  Your wife will kill you if you do this over the dining room table!  Put down a layer of like two old towels and for best results do it outside.

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop on Amazon you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

P.S. – This items is part of a series for 2017 where we are building gun cleaning and maintenance kits.  To see all items in the kit so far you can click on the gunsmtih az tag at any time.

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Gunmaster Wood Toolbox  – with a 17 piece universal gun cleaning kit included.  This is the exact box I own for almost all of my gunsmithing needs.  The basic included kit is just that really basic, but I consider it basically a free add on to the box.

There is a lot to like about this box.  First it is big enough to hold all your cleaning supplies and some additional tools with room to spare.  I keep a can of Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber, Some powder solvent and other stuff in mine along with a a soft face hammer and punch set and the Winchester 51 Piece Gunsmith Driver Kit that I reviewed previously.  In 2017 I will be reviewing all my favorite gun smith and cleaning supplies and this box will be the place to assemble your kit.

Next I really like the gun cradles, man these things are great.  from cleaning a bore, to mounting a scope, they just make everything easier.  It is so much nicer to have a place like this to set your rifle when doing work on it, then to lay it on a table or a floor.

I found this box many years ago, exactly where I could  not remember but last night I was tinkering around with one of my rifles and thought, I wonder if Amazon has this one, I wonder if it is still made, the answer is yes and it is well priced at only 34 dollars, though it is unfortunately not on prime and shipping is about 10 bucks.

Again in 2017 I will be going though my kit on video and adding new items to TSPAZ from it over a say four month period (an item or two a week say) until all the basics are filled in.

I know a lot of this audience are hard core gun owners that have been doing this stuff their entire lives, most you likely have your own favorite stuff and techniques.  But one of the things I am proud about with TSP is how many first time gun owners, or I owed a gun or two but now I have ten and actually shoot them types it has created.

This has resulted in a lot of emails about basic tools, materials and maintenance.  So I figure this project will be like a mini course in basic gun maintenance and upkeep.   In the end my favorite thing about this box is it really does hold enough stuff to deal with 99% of what you need when it comes to your guns.  So when I go to the range and take this along, I know what ever the day brings I will still be shooting at the end of it.

So if you want to get your gun maintenance game on in 2017 pick up the Gunmaster Wood Toolbox and come along for the ride.

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop on Amazon you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

P.S. – You will note some negative reviews about  fit and finish of this box.  Let me say for 35 bucks I don’t know what people expect.  This isn’t a fine work of art, it is simply a utilitarian tool.  I also noticed one guy bitching that the tray was not as pictured, he expected a tray with dividers and such, well that is not what is pictured.  All I can say is I have had mine since before TSP started and it is still working the way it did when I bought it.

Lastly there is one thing I don’t like about it, the bottom drawer doesn’t lock.  90% of the time, I don’t really care and when I go to the range I just put a piece of tape on it, but I will look into a permanent hack with some sort of latch for those of you who want something more “professional” in this regard.