I need to update my cleaning kit.  I used to use a combo of Hoppe's and brake cleaner / Gun Scrubber, but damn that stuff stinks!  As I now live in an apartment I'd like to use cleaners that have little to no smell.

I own all modern guns, no classics or wood furniture to worry about.  I do, however, have a bunch of fiber optic sights.  After melting more than one of those I need to add "safe for plastics" to the wish list.

M-pro 7 gets pretty good reviews for both low odor and cleaning ability; is there a better choice?

Do I need to add dedicated bore, copper, or carbon cleaners to the list?

For lube I'm looking at the M-pro 7 LPX.  Is this a "one lube does it all" as claimed, or do I need to pick up specialty grease, etc?

Thanks!

Mpro7 is a great product. Slip 2k is another great one that has no odor.

Mpro-7, Weapon shield, Battle-born are what you should try out. They have little to no smell and work great.

Avoid Eezox, Ballistol, Birchwood casey, hoppes, and most of the old school brands. They are based on older technology and stink.

I did the same thing a few years ago. Got tired of crappy rods, plastic jags and smelly cleaners. (Although Hoppes #9 does have a lot of good memories associated with it)

I switched to 1 piece stainless steel rods and I'm now a regular user of Bore Tech Eliminator and Carbon Remover. Little to no smell. Just have to make sure I don't use any jags made of brass.

To test the Bore Tech stuff, I recleaned guns that were cleaned with #9. The amount of stuff I pulled out made it seem like the gun was recently shot. Very happy with their cleaning products.

One part Murphy’s oil soap concentrate and three parts denatured alcohol makes an excellent cleaner that smells nice. As for lube the ones I use don’t smell nice per say.

ETA: recipes one from my gunsmith who’s in old BP turned benchrest shooter. It’s perfectly safe for plastic and is perfectly safe for wood if down the road you add any.

I switched from Hoppe's #9 to M-Pro 7 Cleaner a few years ago for all my guns. I can clean my guns inside the house and the wife doesn't notice. And Valvoline 5W30 doesn't have much of an odor, either.

There is a product called Safari Charles made in Pearl River, LA, near me, that is just great, good citrus smell

I will call it a cross between and CLP and full lube.  I use it to clean bolt carriers and bolts.  Also as a pre soak down the barrel before scrubbing

There is a YouTube video on the stuff that does not do it justice.  If I could make a Youtube, video, I would to talk about the stuff

My wife hates the smell of any kind of gun lube, she can be shopping at the mall and smell me open a bottle of Hoppes at the house.....never complains about Safari Charlies.

Not sure what the web shows, I buy it by the case from the distributor.

77

As mentioned, M-Pro 7 is good.  UniqueTek makes a clear cleaner/degreaser that's completely odor-free.  BreakthroughClean Technologies makes a similar product that's odorless and works really well also.

SLIP 2000 EWL for lube.

Simple Green Extreme for general cleaning.

That is a black powder cleaner and not really appropriate nor needed for anything modern centerfire, especially an AR. Being alcohol based, it is going to leave your stuff very dry and prone to rusting afterwards. You will want to make sure to re-oil your gun after you clean with it.

If you really like mixing up your own stuff, one part CLP of your choice to 3 parts Odorless Mineral spirits makes a good gun cleaner that only has a light odorless mineral spirits smell and won't make your gun so prone to rusting.

M Pro 7 is my go to

oresis is 100% correct on Bore Tech Copper Remover! I have not used the carbon remover so I have no opinion to offer. The copper product has a very minimal odor which isn't offensive, but is as effective as any other copper cleaner I have tried over the years

I have a minor difference with oresis on rods. I use Otis Systems pull-through cable exclusively. If you don't, I encourage you to look into it. The loops and other parts of Otis are brass, which will be attacked by any copper solvent, but rinsing them off immediately after using a copper solvent makes this a non-issue.

Bore Tech is great stuff, but you should be using coated rods over stainless.

Slip products are what you seek

No Hoppes #9?  Thats blasphemy!   Any gun owner worth his salt should wear it as cologne.

OP I use Froglube cleaners and CLP's .  The cleaner is scent free.  The degreaser is almost scent free.  The CLP's that I use from them are the paste and the extreme.  Both of the CLP's have a wintergreen mint smell.  I hope this helps.

@REGULARGUY556

Do you still completely wipe away all excess FL after applying?

How is their newer extreme formula?

I really wanted to like this stuff but even though I followed the aplication to a T and cleaned everything completely with non-chlorinated break cleaner and also the FL degreaser I still had gumming issues even after thoroughly wiping down all excess FL.

Hil-co Lube and cleaner.  Does a good job of lubing and cleaning and keeping out moisture.  It has a very light fragrance that reminds me of bubble gum.  My wife has a sensitive nose and it is the only thing she does not complain about when I am lubing/cleaning indoors.  I don't know where you are in GA but there are two LGS in Macon that sell it.
The best lube IMO though is Slip 2000 EWL.

I have no clue why it is gumming up for you.  The regular liquid in my experience has gummed up on me big time.  The paste when used as directed works very well and in my experience the extreme is awesome with NO gumming issues.

When I use the paste in the summer I wipe it away. I use the paste on the BCG and use extreme on everything else internally.  I do not wipe the extreme away and it has NOT gummed up on me at all summer, winter no matter.  The extreme in my experience is an excellent CLP.  I even use it on my Glocks and put a drop on the trigger spring and it has NOT gummed up.  I also clean with the solvent.  I use the entire Froglube line of solvents/CLP's on all of my firearms now. FWIW I have no connection to the aforementioned companies I merely use some of their kit.  Edited to add content.

Regular, thanks for breaking it down for us.

How about long term storage with the extreme?

I'm talking 4-6 months.

This is where the older CLP gummed up on me.

I't migrated into the FP channel of the bolt of one of my ar's I didn't shoot for at least 2 months and froze it up so there was no ignition of the primer.

I used to do the paste on the BCG with a complete wipe down of all excess and just put a few drops of the clp on the gas rings.

Low odor mineral spirits. Buy a small parts cleaner from Harbor Freight if you have a garage or shop to keep it in

Naptha is also a good cleaner.

Weapon shield or FP10. Slight cinnamon odor. Use it as a CLP. You don't need a copper remover, a carbon remover or a solvent for AR's and pistols.

Okay 3 days since my last post I decided to try frog Lube again on one of my AR's.

I broke the fire control group completely down, the upper, bolt carrier group completely down and de-greased everything with brake cleaner and then de-greased everything again with 90% rubbing alcohol to make sure there were no traces of any older oil or anything.

Heated everything up, and applied as per the directions and wiped everything down completely.

Went to the range and fired 100 rounds the first day, and  I noticed that the action felt really gritty when hand cycling it after.

I took it down for cleaning at home and carbon was caked on everything and it was very dry and hard to clean off. Also had a green color to it that I usually only see when running a patch of copper solvent out the barrel.

I chalked this up to maybe the FrogLube just had to be worked into the metal some more like they state, so once again I scrubbed everything down with the FrogLube CLP and completely wiped everything off.

Second trip to the range after another 100 rounds were the same results, so once again I thoroughly cleaned everything with the FrogLube CLP wiped it down with the extreme this time and completely wiped everything off again.

Third trip to the range yielded the exact same results as the other 2 times with carbon being hard caked-on to the bolt, the carrier and the firing pin.  The hammer face was also caked hard.

I still had to scrub twice as hard and twice as long as I would have with my older Spartan systems accuracy oil that I have been using that has been working fine for me.

Going back to my old oil now and I am done with FrogLube but I did give it another shot because to be honest I really kind of like that minty smell while cleaning my guns and kind of missed it.

Anyways this is my experience and also seems to be the experience of the majority of users of FrogLube.

I will say that the newer extreme formula feels like it is much more thinner and may work better for colder conditions.

I also think that maybe if I had just used the extreme liquid and didn't do the whole rigmarole of heating up all the parts and applying the paste and then wiping it completely off that I may have had better results with just using the Extreme liquid instead, but I'm never going to know this because there is no way I am going through this whole rigmarole again.

I know this isn't just my observation because I have read many times here and on other forms that any kind of lube where you have to follow some kind of crazy preparation instructions is just ridiculous, and I could hear this ringing in my head as I was going through my self evaluation of this lube.

https://www.brownells.com/gun-cleaning-chemicals/index.htm?avs|Manufacturer_1=breakthrough%20clean

Don't know if this brand was mentioned yet.

Have'nt used it, but the reviews are that it works well, doesn't smell, and is safe to your hands.

Can't and don't wanna hi-jack this thread but sorry bro this is happening.  I dunno what's up with the CLP but I promise I don't have the same results. Now I only use my firearms in South Carolina temps so it get from 100ish in the summer to our so called winters, at worst about 25-30ish with no issues.  I used to use Breakfree CLP and it is good to go also but does not last as long on the BCG in my experience in what I consider a decent round count without relube or cleaning of approximately 750ish rounds .  Try lubes and see what works for you.  YMMV

I don't see it as a hi-jack.

I think the new formula extreme really felt like it was some slick stuff.  Like it wouldn't wouldn't gum up after long storage or burn off as quick as using the paste and wiping it off.

If I get bored enough and have some idle time on my hands I may revisit FL and just try using the newer liquid extreme all by itself.

Like I said its really slick stuff, and when I sprayed some on a piece of metal on my bench it was kind of hard to get it off and completely dry it. Makes me think using just the extreme FL liquid exclusively may be better than going threw the whole prep cycle with the the paste as long as everything is cleaned of all older oils.

I think I may even try just leaving a thin coat of it on everything instead of completely wiping it down after preping.

My only issue I had last time was the gumming up with the older CLP liquid when it sat for a while. I also recall the heating up and applying the paste was more slick even after wiping it off ,when I tried it a few years ago.

This time around after prepping the paste it felt way more dry and not as slick after wiping everything down.

I just bought some Bore Tech Eliminator a few weeks ago...…….so far so good !!

Mpro7 or tw25b are both effective and not too offensive in scent.  Cherybalmz is not offensive either

I tried froglube and it sucked.  It pooled in the bottom of my lower, 2nd range trip I had jams.  I can go 3-4 range trips with any other lube no issues.

Is Mpro 7 water based?  So you have to oil the bore after cleaning?

I believe they claim on their website that it is non water based, but either way yes you need to leave a thin film of oil in your barrel after cleaning as it is a degreaser.

Low odor mineral spirits for general cleaning and degreasing.

CLP for general lube/protection.

Slip 2000 EWG for slides, ALG 0000 grease for triggers.