Citric Acid and gun cleaning?

[GARCIA]

Has anyone tried using citric acid to clean a weapon with?

Thinking about trying it on a stainless steel cylinder to remove powder markings.

Will I be screwing up?

Tom

[btroj]

I would wonder about a couple of things. Would it remove bluing? Will it potentially lead to rust?
Seems to me there are better ways of doing this. I have a jar of Slip 2000 carbon cullet I soak the cylinder in for about 5 minutes. Wipe it off and most of the crud is gone. Works well for me and I feel comfortable with using it.

Brad

[songdog53]

Never have tried it but would be hesitant to use citric acid on a firearm. Something inside my weak brain says would remove bluing on blued weapons and not sure what would do to stainless. I think have better options out there than citric acid.

[grisy11]

I left some 9mm brass in a jar of lemon Juice for a week and thay where black when i got them out.And thay are vary hard to find in the grass lol

[bohica2xo]

Citric acid is just fine for stainless steel.

It is in fact one of the processes used to passivate the surface of the stainless to prevent corrosion.

Passivating Stainless with citric acid.

I would not recommend using citric acid on carbon steels, or blued parts.

B.

[shotman]

most gunsmithes like Simple green . It dont tend to rust . It will clean the carbon on SS guns .
It wont remove the burnt on face of cyl . A GRAY scuff pad will.
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