Really bad idea?

Starting with clr instead would be way less awful

Zack49 said:

so i think this is a bad idea & i'm looking for reinforcement. a friend found an abused 39A for cheap. he's in the process of cleaning it up & thinks that running a cleaning brush dipped in muriatic acid several times thru the barrel will clean the bore. i told him that it will likely do some serious damage. what do y'all think? i did see on one of those true crime shows i saw where a guy did this trying to change the rifling so the gun couldn't be matched in a criminal ballistics tests but that's not the goal here.

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Muraric acid (hydrochloric acid) for cleaning the bore of a firearm?
Not only no, but hell no!
😳😳

clr? i've only ever used hoppe's #9. i did push a piece of big 45 pad dipped in hoppes to clean a dirty 39 that i bought. members on this forum turned me on to those pads & they work!!!

Yeah acid is a really bad idea.

Ywah CLR not recommending it but I've seen it used on centerfires and it's definitely way way way safer then the acid idea. Last older gun I cleaned up I used hoppes only myself.

my thoughts exactly. i'm sure more posts are coming. i'll copy & paste & email this thread to him. he's pretty stubborn. hopefully he hasn't already done it.

Clean your guns with the appropriate bore cleaners and methods.Why add to the abuse.

The acid would eat the copper in a heartbeat, not so much the steel. Not the safest thing to use.

Acid down the bore to clean it. I bet he would also run the acid in his car engine, to clean out that carbon fouling.

Using a bore paste, like JB's, should be the most aggressive cleaner used in a rifle, or pistol, barrel...

I know man (who shall remain anonymous) that buys every civil war musket he can and pours muratic acid down the bore "because it needs cleaned"! Makes me sick to see it.

The acid will quickly dissolve the rust before the metal. Just need to flush it to neutralize it after using and treat it.
For an old rusted musket it ought to work well.
Bluing is made from a different acid with copper added.
I wouldn't get to bent out of shape using muriatic acid.

Not rusty muskrats. The ones I have seen just had dirty bores. He didn't do anything with them . No oil or anything. Just throwed them in a pile on a concrete floor in a locked room .

If he persists, he probably won’t have to worry about pesky barrel fouling in the future- or rifling either for that matter.

Bubba solves the long time mystery...Marlin 39-A smoothbore

Very very bad idea indeed. Others have already offered valuable cleaning solutions that were developed to clean and preserve the barrels of old and new firearms. Stick with em, a good soaked patch, time , brass cleaning brush and patience. Abused, dirty barrels don’t get clean in one afternoon. Sometimes it takes many hours of soaking and scrubbing. Its a labor of love.
If you’re friend is still unhappy with his end results, don’t be afraid to have a competent gun smith have a go. He would have everything on hand to make that barrel as close to new as one could get; and it’s not expensive at all!

I use to work with muratic acid nasty stuff. after I saw what it did to the calcium on the heating elements we cleaned. I would not bring it with in ten feet of a firearm. Better to put a rubber plug in the end of the barrel and pour a good bore cleaner in and let sit overnight.

MA is a horrible idea. I use it every 2 years to clean the tannic stain off the hull of my boat while on the trailer. This dumb infidel sprayed it on the wheels to clean em up. I had to soak the acid corroded lug nuts for 2 days with a good penetrating oil to break em loose when I got a slow leaking tire. Live n learn eh?

That is a really BAD idea!