For the record, I really and truely believe that a well cleaned gun immediately dried and oiled will last several lifetimes with no noticeable harm. For the sake of discussion I add:
I've always been one for tinkering and trying, and I've given a lot of the cleaning "tricks" a try just to see if it works. I want my guns to last, and run trouble free, but I enjoy no part of cleaning a gun other than being done, but I do want it done well. I'm not looking for shortcuts, just what does the job with minimum effort. I don't use commercial products because of the volume required. On one of those to rare months that the days work out with my work schedule, I get to shoot every weekend, 4 guns x 4 weekends, that's a minimum of 16 cleanings, side matches, take a guest, provide a gun for someone else, practice session, load development, and just other shooting starts to make for a whole lot of gun cleaning in a months time.
My reasoning for using dish detergent and hot water are: Hot water cleans better than cold, we can work this out with physics or by reasoning why would the have increasing temperature selections on the washing machine. The increase in temperature also aids in drying for exactly the same reason that it cleans better, all those excited little molicules. Soap is merely a surfactant, breaking down the surface tension of the water allowing it to be "wetter". Dish detergent, while not adding abrasives for "scrubing power" adds things to the soap that hold the loosened particles in suspension as opposed to allowing them to seperate into clumps of crud. I'm sure most of us old folks remember Ivory soap and that nasty ring on the sides of the bathtub and how it went away when they started adding immulsifying agents to soaps. Same deal.
I do not believe that guns cleaned with solvents are as well cleaned, not necessarily because solvents won't clean as well, just that $2-$3 for a 4oz bottle and human nature we don't use suffecient volume for complete washing away of residue. While the residue of the cleaning solvent may be harmless to the metal, the particulate with it is not. It is 1 abrasive, 2 accumulates to hold moisture, and 3 there has never been a brush or patch fine enough that I could get the "stuff" out of the cracks and corners.
I don't use counteracting agents, ie vinegar, because instead of going from one "bad thing", alkaline residue from black powder to three. First being the small amounts of the B P residue that was not reached by the vinegar due to the physical properties of a wet thing trying to mix with a dry thing, second the reaction between acids and bases produce salts. While I do not know if these particular salts are conducive to corrosion or not and while I like to tinker, I'm not going to try this experiment, because I can avoid them. Third, the addition of excess acid, the probability of my adding just enough acid for a balanced equation is nil, and we know the results of acid on metal, otherwise why would we always be grabbing that oily rag after someone has handled our guns?
I don't use alcohol for water displacement because I think alcohol is a solvent for natural fats, the basis of the "seasoning" obtained from using natural lubes.
The length of time between cleaning and drying, and lubing is small enough that what amount of natural ozidation might occur would take longer to have any noticeable effect than it would to completly wear out a gun and still be less harmful than inadequate cleaning.
I may be all wet, but this is what I was thinking when I started cleaning this way a bit over thirty years ago. I have still to see any adverse effect. I'm still not too set in my ways to change, it just takes a little more prodding.
