Breathes there a shooter with a nose so dead that he does not cherish the sweet scent of Hoppe's No. 9? Gun oil smells passable, but some solvents and lubricants are downright nasty. But Hoppe's is perfume to hunter and non-hunter alike. It even has reached antique status. Frank Hoppe developed the cleaner in Philadelphia in 1903, so the familiar bore cleaner now is 110 years old -- and I saw a bottle listed for $8 in an Ohio antique store.
The company has a wonderfully geographic history: Hoppe's, developed in Pennsylvania, now is owned by Michael's of Oregon, which has its headquarters in Meridian, Idaho.
My kit bag has carried a bottle of Hoppe's since I started cleaning guns about 50 years ago. That's about half the age of Hoppe's, which has been around since guns had external hammers and the limit on ducks was whatever you decided it was.
The question that immediately pops to mind is, "If this is No. 9, were there eight others before it?" But the number refers to the nine ingredients that make up the chemical brew. The exact formula is a trade secret, but there's kerosene, ammonia and alcohol in it.
Ammonia probably is the key to Hoppe's ability to dissolve copper residue. Copper-clad rifle bullets leave traces that can build up and affect the accuracy of the gun. Many rifle bore cleaners are ammonia-based and dissolve copper, but can pit the bore, too, unless completely removed within 10- to 15 minutes. Hoppe's isn't that virulent, but the bore should be wiped dry after it does its job, then protected with gun oil.
Gun writer Warren Page recommends leaving the bore wet with Hoppe's for a day or two before running a patch through it. No. 9 probably wouldn't damage a bore, but Hoppe's also makes more aggressive bore cleaners, as do many other manufacturers (Sweet's and Shooter's Choice, for example), which contain much more ammonia than No. 9.
Many Bore Cleaners Available Active shooters recommend a variety of bore cleaners, including Hoppe's, but also Butch's Bore Shine, Sweet's, Breakfree and RB 17 gel. There is a do-it-yourself bore cleaning formula called Ed's Red, which contains brake fluid, kerosene, mineral spirits and acetone. You can get the details by Googling "Ed's Red Bore Cleaner". Obviously from the ingredients it's highly flammable, so I wouldn't recommend smoking a celebratory cigar at the end of a good shooting day while you're cleaning the gun with Ed's Red.
Modern shotshells have cups that encase the shot load until it leaves the barrel, so there is no residue of lead, steel or any other shot metal. And there is little powder fouling from modern, smokeless powders. Old-time bore cleaners contained sperm oil (from a sperm whale). That may have worked in the time of Moby Dick, but the modern substitute is brake fluid.
Here's how I bore clean my shotguns: stuff a hefty wad of paper towel in the breech end of the barrel, pour a dollop or so of Hoppe's down the muzzle, let it soak into the paper, then push the wad through the barrel with a cleaning rod. Refold the wad and use again until it comes through clean. Finish with a wad treated with gun oil.
If Im lazy, the day has been dry and I'm going to hunt again the next day, I'll wipe the exterior metal with a lightly-oiled rag and leave the gun out of its case. That sounds like heresy to those who religiously clean their gun every time it's used, but Jack O'Connor, the best of the gun writers, says, "The use of non-corrosive primers in shot shells has made regular cleaning of the bores much less necessary than it used to be."
He did caution in "The Shotgun Book" that moisture in the air will rust barrels if you don't clean them with some regularity. He did what I do: run a patch wet with Hoppe's through, and then follow with an oiled one. Resist squirting oil into each orifice -- gun oils will cake up over the years and gunk up the action. Bringing a cold, cased gun into a warm room will condense moisture on the gun and moisture equates to rust.
The most common cleanser for the bore of a black powder gun is a hot water bath. Birchwood Casey No. 77 Black Powder Solvent smells almost as good as Hoppe's. It's water soluble and dissolves powder residue and loosens metal deposits. But soap and water and a scrubbing with a wire bore cleaning brush will work just as well.
Hunting birds with a black powder enthusiast can be a trial. I hunted quail with the late Jim Keefe, who built his own guns. When the bird went up, Keefe vanished in a cloud of smoke and we all ran around the smokescreen to see if anything fell. Then we had to wait patiently while Jim reloaded.
When we were running a few patches through our modern guns and inhaling the subtle perfume of Hoppe's No. 9, Keefe was taking a stinking sulphur bath with his shotgun.
For a fine assortment of Gun Cleaning Kits, and including Hoppe's No. 9, click here.