When folks keep saying hoppes is worthless for copper I just thought they were referencing the standard hoppes9 GP cleaner, but apparently they dont excell at anything when compared to other products available. But now I know. Hopefully somebody will stumble upon this before wasting their money like I did...it was in stock at academy so i figured it was better than nothing, well i figured wrong, in the time it took me to get all the copper out completely, the boretech showed up on my doorstep. Followed the directions on the bottle exactly, ran the borescope down it and it's done. I'm in the process of my first true barrel break in so I feel like it's a pretty fair comparison at this point
Not defending Hoppes, but it does have it's place. As stated in another post, It is one of the solvents that can be left in the bore for extended periods. Not many solvents can because they harm the bore.
Like you, a long time it was a staple that we used to keep our barrels in good shape.\
but now that we have more powerful and higher pressure cartridges that foul more, we have to change the solvents that are best for the use, and Hoppes is just not strong or fast enough for today's cartridges and barrels.
The demands have increased and Hoppes have not adjusted. I still use it for it's attributes and use it to remove much stronger solvents. On really fouled barrels,
I will use Sweets 762 and it is very strong and "Must" be removed after using so I follow up the cleaning with a Hoppes solvent to assure that there is no Sweets left in the bore or chamber. (I have seen my share of chambers and bores ruined by leaving solvents in them damaging the chamber) so I also recommend a good swabbing with a swap and some Hoppes #9 before applying oil for storage.
Even though some say it is safe to leave their solvent in the barrel indefinitely, I just don't trust them enough to do so, so after cleaning properly I take the extra step to apply a light coat of oil that I can trust.
I know Hoppes was intended to clean bores, But it just doesn't do it as well as we need.
Just my 2 cents
J E CUSTOM