Windex with ammonia or vinegar?

[Dutchy Rodell]

Soon I will be loading and using brass shotgun shells.  In several posts I have read that some of you partly clean with Windex. Which works best, or should be avoided - Windex with ammonia or Windex with vinegar.  Is there something bettter to use than Windex?  After you use Windex and or water and soap what is the best way to dry shotguns and lever guns?  Dutchy

[Tensleep]

I clean my guns with windex and vinegar to get rid of fouling, then Ballistol to lube and prevent rust.

Avoid ammonia..............

[Grapeshot]

STAY AWAY FROM THE AMMONIA!!!

If you must use windex, use the one with vinegar.  Ammonia with attack the metal of your firearm like you wouldn't believe.

With the brass shotgun shells I just put them in a big jug of water and dish washing detergent, shake them up, and rinse them off.  Spread them out on a few paper towels to dry.  If you are obsessive compulsive, a 12 gage wool mop and a chamber cleaning rod can be used to scrub out the shells as you rinse them out to be sure you get all the residue out.

As for the shotgun.  Doubble barrels are the easiest to clean.  Just squirt your solution, I use Ballistol and water mix, down the bores, wait a few minutes and run a tight patch or wadded up paper towel down each bore and repeat until clean.

Make sure you clean the breech face and the extractors as well.  A little Ballistol on the moving parts and you're good to go.

If you use water, make sure it is HOT.  That way, once the metal is heated it will dry by itself and all you have to is give it a good shot of Ballistol.

I use Ballistol.  CLP, or any other preservative will work as well.  

[Dick Dastardly]

For the brass shells, dump 'em in a jug of soapy water at the match.  When ya get back to the ranch, rinse 'em and dump 'em in  yer tumbler with some Ceramic Porcelain tumbling media.  Three hours later they will be clean outside and in and brighter than new.

For yer barrels, a nice spritz of Moosemilk and pull yer boresnake thru.  Presto, yer done.

Want more work, go ahead.  Want more work, go ahead.  But ya don't hafta.

DD-DLoS

[Wills Point Pete]

 I use the Windex with Vinegar because my shotgun patterns better with the plastic one piece wads. Unfortunately the plastic and black powder coats the inside of the bores with awful stuff. The Windex with Vinegar takes it right our, though. I take the shotgun down, squirt the bores full of the windex and then clean a revolver. Then I run a patch through each bore, the "black snot" comes out like a shed snakeskin.
Since I still have nightmares about the Drill Instructor I had in '64 finding a speck o dirt on a shootin' iron I then squirt some more Windex in the bores and clean the other revolver. The I patch out the bores, they're usually squeaky clean but Windex is cheap.
The only reason for the Windex is the plastic wads. If you use fiber wads then moose milk does just as well. I use the moose milk after the Windex.

[J.J. Ferrett]

+1 on the Ballistol

At a match, I spray the bores with Ballistol/water after each stage and run a boresnake through. Squirt ballistol on the cylinder pin of a BP revolver, you wont have a binding problem again!
After the match, squirt with Ballistol/water, boresnake then rag clean. Squirt with neat Ballistol to store.

Avoid Windex and all other glass cleaners like it!! Ammonia or not, theres nasty stuff in there.

[litl rooster]

I clean my guns with windex and vinegar to get rid of fouling, then Ballistol to lube and prevent rust.

Avoid ammonia..............

Was it you who showed me why

[Tensleep]

Was it you who showed me why

Them spots on my cylinder?

[Adirondack Jack]

Vinegar is relatively safe.  Ammonia is not.  Ever see the rust on even heavily chromed fittings in a men's room?  'nuff said.

[Springfield Slim]

Hot soapy water and a Tornado brush takes out the plastic easily. Isn't vinegar the stuff you use to take off the bluing if you want to "antique" your gun?

[Howdy Doody]

I get my Windex with vinegar at Lowes pretty cheap and they have refill bottles too. It is the clear stuff. Works better than anything else I have ever tried and I have tried a bunch of stuff over the years.
I shined off Ballistol though.

[Wills Point Pete]

 Slim, pure vinegar will take bluing off. The little bit of vinegar in Windex will not. It doesn't hurt anything.
I have used soap and water, plain hot water, moose milk and a couple of commericial mixes, noting gets the combination of plastic wads and black powder out of my tubes like the Windex with vinegar.
I'm not gonna get down on the floor, rollin' around bitin' ears and gougin' eyes over it, y'all use what you want. Just don't go tellin' me that it won't work. Will something else work better? Don't see how, clean is clean. I don't see much else cleaning a bore with two patches with another patch running moose milk into both barrels for rust proofing.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I don't let either ammonia nor vinegar anywhere near my brass or my guns.

For cleaning brass, I do just like Dick. Dump it in a jug of water with a squirt of dishsoap at the end of the match. No need to drag the jug around all day, they won't melt if you wait until the end of the match, or even wait until you get home. Rinse them good until the rinse water runs clear, then lay them out to dry on paper towels. Recently I've been letting them air dry a couple of days,then I dump them in the tumbler to shine them up a little bit. If they sit in the rinse water a little long, they may get stained and never get really shiny again, but who cares? Shiny brass does not shoot any better than stained brass.

While I agree with Seth that nothing cleans guns any better than soapy water, the difficulty can be getting the water out again. With some designs, water may become trapped and cause rust. Instead, I clean my BP guns with Murphy's Mix, a 1/1/1 solution of Murphy's Oil Sopap, Rubbing Alcohol, and Hydrogen Peroxide. These are all available in most grocery stores. The main active ingredient is still water, since the H2O2 is about 97% water, and the Alcohol is about 20% water. The alcohol serves as a drying agent, helping to evaporate the water faster, the H2Os gives it a little bit of fizz, and the Oil Soap leaves behind a nice oily residue that coats any remaining BP fouling with oil rendering it harmless and unable to suck any more moisture out of the atmosphere. Easily accessable parts of my guns get a light coat of Ballistol when I'm all done, parts that are unaccessable without a major teardown just get the magic treatment from the Murphy's Mix.