Track’s Best Bore Cleaner Solvent

Do any of you use it? Or tried it? What’s the good, bad, and ugly.

I use it and I love it. It is as good as soap and water. I believe it is a water based cleaner. Any other commercial product I have used I have found to not be a cleaner. They just don't work for me but the TOTW product works great. About every time I place an order I get one. It is something I do not want to run of!

In my experience none of the wet commercial lubes work any better than what you have in your home already. Windex, MAP, moose milk, Mean Green, or even spit. I mostly use Windshield Washer fluid with a squirt of Dawn in it. I never have to clean between shots.

I have some and use it occasionally. It works when I quick clean in the field. Have also used Windex and mostly Hoppes #9 BP lube and cleaner for the same purpose. But when I get home I give a good cleaning with Dawn dish washing liquid and water.

I tried Hoppes #9 BP lube and was surprised to find it didn't do anything. Oh well.

What's wrong with plain old water?
If you aren't satisfied with that, commercial solvents depend on surficants. Check your laundry detergent, it's probably got a good amount, and mix it with some water. Why spend money on things you don't need?
Guns excluded, of course.

I have been using Windex with a little washer fluid for years to wet swab between shots. Never found a need to try anything else.

Boston Bill said:

I tried Hoppes #9 BP lube and was surprised to find it didn't do anything. Oh well.

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That’s because it is better, if not for what it was really designed for, to be a ‘patch lube’.

For that it excels! Shoot all day, without wiping the bore and you’ll put all your shots in a tiniest group you ever will shoot … if you load develop of course.

FWIW, besides water, which I typically use, the best ‘chemical solvent’ I have a tried is, without a doubt, Butch's Black Powder Bore Shine - Bore Cleaning Solvent.

At previous & many weekend shoots and/or woodswalks, I have challenged many people to clean their rifle/musket, then try a swab with the Butch’s, and it always, ALWAYS pulls more manure out … it is fantastic! It actually was formulated to clean the barrels of 155mm Howitzers for the US Army.

Not that I use that much, because water will kill the salts, which is really all you really need to do …

Tracks Best has worked well for me too…along with other cleaning methods as i never do it the same way all the time.

Flint62Smoothie said:

FWIW, besides water, which I typically use, the best ‘chemical solvent’ I have a tried is, without a doubt, Butch's Black Powder Bore Shine - Bore Cleaning Solvent.

At previous & many weekend shoots and/or woodswalks, I have challenged many people to clean their rifle/musket, then try a swab with the Butch’s, and it always, ALWAYS pulls more manure out … it is fantastic! It actually was formulated to clean the barrels of 155mm Howitzers for the US Army.

Not that I use that much, because water will kill the salts, which is really all you really need to do …

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That is interesting and I have not tried it yet, the benchrest crew I used to hang with for a time swore by regular Butch's in their benchrest rifles.

Funny... The black powder we shoot is essentially the same, so you would expect the solvents to work the same for all of us.

I bought a bottle of Track's solvent and have used it a couple of times. The stuff I got is a thin, clear, and slightly foamy liquid. I'm not favorably impressed. My cleaning regimen includes a couple of rotations of a breech-face scraper, then plug the nipple or touch-hole, pour in an ounce or two of solvent, slosh it around, and let it sit for a few minutes. Then you pour it out, and continue with the detail cleaning. When the solvent is poured out of the barrel, I expect it to come out black. The Track solvent comes out clear. However, continued swabbing, pumping, etc. reveals there is plenty of fouling still down there. Track's solvent just doesn't work for me. My lube of choice (80% tallow, 20% beeswax) may have something to do with it... I don't know. Maybe a more soluble lube would enable the Track solvent to work better (?).

Warm water and Dawn work for detail cleaning, and I use T/C #13 for applications (as above) when I use solvent. I haven't experimented much with other brands.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

I’m using TC#13 with good results. Alcohol flush then Ballistol.

T/C No. 13 is all Ive used since the barrel was new in 05.

I clean with plain, room-temp water and it works wonders. I do not wipe the bore when shooting a session; I only wipe when it's time to clean the rifle for the day. Yes, I have been known to put a drop (1 drop) of Dawn in the water on occasion - we all have feeta clay, you know.

I’ve tried a plethora of patch lubes and cleaning products and find that blue windshield washer fluid (the cheap stuff) works as a great patch lube for me. At the end of a woods walk I use lubed patches to swab down the barrel a few times. When I get home I use warm water, plug the flash hole with a tooth pick slosh the warm water around in the barrel dump, brush the barrel. I slosh, dump brush a few times. I also use a TOW barrel flush hose connected to the flash hole and a bucket of warm water, pumping a cleaning patch on a jag to swab and further flush the barrel with a pumping motion. No fancy stuff here and the process is efficient for me.

SulphurForkVagrant said:

Do any of you use it? Or tried it? What’s the good, bad, and ugly.

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I use a home recipe for Moose Milk, when shooting at the range. It’s easy to formulate and has been a very good patch lubricant during warm weather shooting. I use a mixture of bee’s wax and lambs tallow for patch lube when hunting in cold weather.

I have another home recipe that I use to swab out the bore when I’m home from the range, or hunting trip. This is followed by a thorough cleaning using a WWII surplus cleaning oil, and then followed by BreakFree CLP for the win.

I can clean a gun in about 15 minutes.

Days later, I always run a dry patch down the bore of guns that I’ve shot recently…the patches need to come out clean, or I completely clean the gun again. Cannot recall the last time I had to re-clean a gun.

Every 6 months or so, I run a CLP patch down each gun, to ensure that the bore is clean and that no rust is present. That can take a while, as my collection has matured with time. Again, cannot recall the last time I had to clean a gun from storage due to rust or a dirty patch.

* It would be interesting and useful to see a comparison of members patch lube to cleaning product.
Patch lube: XXXXXX
Cleaner: XXXXXXXX
* My theory/guess is that Dawn mixed with XXX works well on animal fat / seed oil lubes. Straight water for spit lube / water soluable lubes. Windshield washer fluid must have a detergent that disolves oily grime, a surficant, probably some alchol to prevent freezing, and a carrier (water?). Makes sense it would be a good lube/cleaner. I have many lubes on hand: mink oil - synthetic whale oil - wonder lube - bore butter, and some I'm probably forgetting. I have many bits of cleaners left over because I've been using 90% alcohol from the Dollar Store for the last 4-5 years.
* Once I get the last of the garden in (Memorial Day +/-) I think I'll try a test. Take a smoothbore and a rifle and try mixing and matching lubes and cleaners.
* I do have a question for everyone. I had some Butch's BP for years, and it seemed to me (sense of smell) it was petroleum based. Has anyone looked at that before or seen the MSDS sheet for it? I know there is a thread on here where someone explained why different petroleum products react in different ways to BP residue, with some not producing the dreaded tar.