Solvents for gun cleaning?

So I am getting frustrated with spraying gun cleaner solvent. Or even using cotton cloth and swiping it thorugh the barrel just to let it sit to eat away at build-up. The thought occured to me that instead of spraying or using patch to put solvent barrel,ect why not get bulk solvent and soak the parts for the 5min(or whatever your preferance is? You guys have any thoughts on this? Perphaps some firearm experts tell me what solvents to stay away from? Was thinking Xylene or Mineral spirit possibly.

Also if this is a possible solution to my dilema are there any parts on a glock 17 upper reciever/slide that would oppose such treatment? Or maybe such a soak would be not so good for the firing pin? I just figure solvent evaporates so quickly it seems almost pointless just to swab it on.

I couldn't find my favorite foam solvent and used Winchester Break Free Powder Blast on my wifes JA 380. The magazine well was dirty and I sprayed it too. Can you guess what happened?

It leaked onto the grips and melted them. Now I'm out 11 bucks. I'm glad the barrel separates from the grip on my Glock and XD.

sharkey said:

I couldn't find my favorite foam solvent and used Winchester Break Free Powder Blast on my wifes JA 380. The magazine well was dirty and I sprayed it too. Can you guess what happened?

It leaked onto the grips and melted them. Now I'm out 11 bucks. I'm glad the barrel separates from the grip on my Glock and XD.

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Yeah I am familiar that solvents and most plastics dont go together... gotta laugh when I see in the paper guys stealing gas with styrofoam cooler.... you know they didnt even make it out of the parkinglot before the bottom melted out and dumped gas all over them... Think those guys are hard to find later?

The sad thing is I was well aware that stuff melts plastic. I just wasn't aware how fast and liberally it sprays out. The foam is nice and slow.

My treehugger side came out and I was kinda upset about all that toluene, lead and **** getting into my yard. We plant veggies but there was no way I was gonna spray that in the house.

The damage is barely noticeable on the exterior of the grips but it ate away the safety catch.

It wasn't fun cleaning that Saturday night special. The firing pin/cock indicator, take down button, and spring flew halfway across the house when field stripping it and when I took off the melted grips to clean them up the safety, cam and sear assembly exploded (ok, i may have been playing with th e trigger when the grips were off). I thought it was neat to get a view of how everything works. I just didn't know I'd be putting it back together. I put the sear assembly in backwards the first time. :shocker:

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I use nothing but Shooter's Choice for cleaning (spray cleaner and power solvent), and Clenzoil for lubrication and corrosion prevention.

The only trouble I've EVER had was with the crap polystyrene grips on my Norinco M1911. The Shooter's Choice spray cleaner melted them to my hands. I replaced them with Ajax fake ivory grips and haven't had a problem since.

At the boy scout summer camp I work at thats how we clean the choke tubes on a shotgun. We soak them for 15 minutes or so in a container of Hoppes 9 solvent, it makes it a lot easier to clean the powder and the plastic shavings off them. I am sure it would work the same way for a glock barrel, but I have no idea what it could do to the exterior finish on it, might be a good idea to call glock and ask them to be safe.