Does vinegar remove gunpowder residue

Answer 1

I don't know if vinegar removes gunpowder residue or not, however I wanted to respond to your question to let you know not to use vinegar to remove gunpowder residue from any metal firearm parts. Vinegar isn't a "strong" acid, however each time it is used it will dissolve some of the iron in the steel, eventually pitting it. Vinegar won't harm your skin if you want to see if it will remove residue from your hands.

By "gunpowder," are you speaking of black powder or of smokeless powder? It sounds like you're talking about black powder residue. The best way to remove black powder residue from the barrel and from any other metal firearm parts is by using warm, soapy water. Of course it's very important that all washed parts are dried immediately after they are cleaned. You can use dry cleaning patches attached to a cleaning rod to dry out the barrel. To remove smokeless powder residue, which takes firing a lot of rounds to build up, use a solvent specific for removing smokeless powder residue. Most, if not all, of these solvents contain nitromethane or another nitrated organic compound. Any gun shop will carry such solvents.

What shooters often believe is smokeless powder residue is actually bullet lubricant and/or lead. Therefore, if you are using lead bullets being propelled by smokeless powder, any visible residue is almost certainly some of the lubricant applied to lead bullets, and/or it is metallic lead. Again, just about any gun shop will have a solvent to remove bullet lube from a barrel. Removing lead from a barrel requires several bronze, wire, barrel brushes and plenty of elbow grease. Pure or nearly pure lead bullets will "lead" the barrel if they are fired with a velocity greater than about 800 ft/sec. If you are using lead bullets, then I recommend getting to know someone who casts bullets or purchasing cast bullets from a popular company who uses lead alloyed with tin and/or antimony (using both is normally better). Such bullets are much harder and will not lead ones barrel unless they are fired at a velocity greater than about 1200 up to 1700 ft/sec., depending on the alloy and your particular barrel. Lead bullets that are "swaged" are pure or nearly pure lead. They are made by cramming the lead into a mold; that is the lead isn't melted and, therefore, it must be relatively soft. It's better to not use such bullets unless they will be fired at less than 700 to 800 ft/sec.

Finally, copper-jacketed bullets fired at high velocities, like over 2000 ft/sec., will eventually leave a visible, albeit a very thin, layer of copper in the barrel. After a while, depending on the average humidity, the copper will turn green. To ensure maximum barrel life, one should remove any copper before it oxidizes and becomes green. Once again, there are solvents available that will easily remove any copper. I believe the active ingredient in a quality copper solvent is ethylenediamine (EDA), although it may be some other nitrogen-containing chelating agent. Compounds like EDA perform two functions: 1) they catalyze the oxidation of copper using oxygen in the air; and 2) each solvent molecule forms a minimum of two bonds to each solvated copper ion (called "chelation"), which greatly increases its solubility.