Hoppe's 9

I share this child hood memory many of us out there have, the smell of Hoppe's 9 after a father, grandparent, mother, older brother, what have you, being in the room as they carefully cleaned up any firearms that had been used that day.
For me it was my Grandfather that taught me how to shoot, as well as my brother in the year and a half I lived with him in Arizona.
Nothing like walking off your porch ten feet to the stack of bricks set up and shooting up the hillside in to some targets. Yes, we cleared rocks and such so there was little chance of ricochet.
And every time, every single time that day or failing that the very next day Granddad would sit and meticulously clean up whatever we used. This man was an infantry officer in WW2, and while he never yelled at how I cleaned the things he was far, far far far more of a perfectionist about cleaning guns than any Drill Sergeant I had in the Army, or any one. As the unit Armorer and a Direct Support repairman I took after him in cleaning up firearms after a long hard run in the field, but I digress...

I have played around with various solvents, chemicals and for cleaning up plane carbon residue there is nothing better that I have found that is safer on  your hands, the air your breathing, less messy, and can still be even spilled on a wood stock with out risk of  damage instantly.
Yes CLP is good for machine guns and it too has a distinctive smell. I just did not like it in the use overseas for M4's. (With that I preferred Militech but that will be a future upcoming post)
While Hoppe's is not what should be used if your shooting corrosive ammunition, and it is not a effective copper solvent, it is still the best thing out there. Cheap and easy to get, you can get the stuff anywhere.
I use Barnes CR 10 for a copper solvent, but that stuff is fairly unpleasant on your hands, the smell is terrible.


So as I sit, cleaning up the last of my firearms that have been long overdue tonight, I'll be reflecting back on as a kid, watching and learning from Granddad, who started me out shooting and got me interested in it in the first place. Thank you Granddad, rest in peace.