For most things Hoppes has served well as long as I’ve been shooting. When shooting NRA Bullseye Pistol the oldtimers swore by “Ed’s Red” which did a great job for a home-brew cleaner. When I got involved in Black Powder/Cowboy shooting I became aware of Ballistol; a mixture of Ballistol with some water in a squirt bottle is my choice for BP fouled revolvers and rifles.

On the topic of Mercury, an old timer I knew kept a vile of it on his bench to attack the lead in badly lead-fouled barrels. It worked great. I thought Mercury would be just the ticket for cleaning a leaded-up Model 41 muzzle brake but I never could find a quantity of Mercury to attempt it plus the health warnings made me leery of trying it.