Many firearm enthusiasts are known to have a variety of guns in their cabinets. Such as an AR15 with a uniquely configured upper receiver, one or two shotguns, and a few small handguns. For most, utilizing a suitable cleaning kit generally means having a universal kit. This is to accommodate multiple styles, calibers, and barrel lengths.
However, if you’re new to gun ownership and have chosen to start with a pistol only, attempting to find the best cleaning kit for your handgun may prove to be a daunting task.
With such tremendous proliferation on the market today, choosing which cleaning kit will work for you is difficult. It’s about as frustrating as picking out a handgun that’s perfect for your needs too. Unfortunately, many first-time gun owners tend to focus on the type of pistol, the correct type of ammunition for home defense, or shooting at the range.
Frequently, picking out the best cleaning kit is an afterthought.
A Few Good Reasons to Clean Your Pistol
While it’s often the last thing you think about purchasing, it shouldn’t be, and here’s why. Each time you fire your pistol, microscopic amounts of carbon lead, copper, and other types of residue collects at almost every internal and external location of your firearm. The buildup will often create a disastrous firing situation without a cleaning.
If the moment presents itself and you need your pistol to fire efficiently and dependably, proper maintenance is the main reason to clean your firearm continuously. Also, failing to maintain your gun and protect it against the corrosive nature of ammunition will result in rust formation inside and outside your handgun.
Even when cleaning at home, you’ll still need all the solvent and equipment required but without the portability of a field kit. At a very minimum, each kit, regardless of where you intend to use it, needs to have essential equipment that’s compatible with the caliber of your pistol.
If you want to venture into the world of acquiring and firing multiple calibers of handguns, then you’ll need to go with a multiple-caliber cleaning kit. To make the job of picking the best pistol cleaning kit a little easier, here are a few cleaning kits you should consider before making your purchase.
Hoppe’s Pistol Cleaning Kit No.9
Arguably one of the best cleaning kits on the market. Hoppe’s offers the Deluxe No.9 kit at a reasonable price of fewer than thirty dollars. Hoppe’s designed this kit to service multiple calibers and firearms. But it’s one of the best you can pick when choosing a cleaning kit solution for your pistol.
One feature that stands out is that Hoppe’s includes all the solvent and lubrication oil you’ll need.
While different kits offer many parts and pieces in compact cases to aid in portability. These kits often have no space for cleaning solvents and lubrication oil. This means you’ll need to purchase them separately and carry them outside the case.
Not the case with a Hoppe’s cleaning kit. In addition, Hoppe’s includes three-piece brass cleaning rods and four slotted ends for cleaning patches. Also included in Hoppe’s cleaning kit are five bronzed brushes to handle multiple calibers and barrel lengths.
Every piece of the Hoppe’s No.9 cleaning kit has its unique shadow cutout. This prevents the need to search for what you need, and everything comes housed in a rugged wooden case. To top it all off, Hoppe’s includes a silicon cleaning cloth. It also has a “Guide to Gun Care” booklet to help step you through the process.
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Real Avid Gunboss® Handgun Cleaning Kit
Next up and competitively priced at under twenty dollars is the Gunboss® cleaning kit from Real Avid. When searching for a compact kit that’s portable, but also provides patch tips, bore brushes, and rods for calibers from .22 caliber up to .45 caliber, the Gunboss® may be what you need.
One of the best features of this compact cleaning kit from Real Avid is each piece is held in place with either a shadow box cutout or nylon webbing.
Real Avid scaled-down the Gunboss® so you can carry it in your field gear without grabbing already precious landscape for other necessary equipment. While Real Avid includes bore patch jags for multiple calibers and cleaning patches, it doesn’t include the essential cleaning solvents or lubrication oils.
There is, however, a few small spaces inside the Gunboss® compartment that can handle small bottles of both if you decide to include them. When it comes to a compact size for field use, the Gunboss® cleaning kit offers almost all of the cleaning materials you’ll need, including a weatherproof zipper case.
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Otis Patriot 9mm Pistol Cleaning Kit
Don’t let its name fool you. Otis’s 9mm Patriot cleaning kit features multiple-caliber pistol cleaning accessories to handle calibers such as .357, .380, .38 Special, and 9mm caliber pistols. The Otis Patriot also offers an all-purpose brush with a solid rod that will give you extended reach when needed.
One of the best parts of the Otis Patriot cleaning kit is the eight-inch aircraft-grade aluminum Memory-Flex® cables. The cables have large, slotted tips for easy breech to muzzle cleaning.
This kit features some of the best cleaning equipment on the market for under twenty-five dollars. But it, like the Gunboss® from Real Avid, doesn’t include lubrication oil and cleaning solvents. The Otis 9mm Patriot does have all the equipment you’ll need in a reusable and durable hard case but offers little room inside at one and three-quarter inches deep and five inches wide.
You may find space inside the Otis 9mm Patriot for a few small vials of solvent and oil. Unfortunately, they’ll be loose inside the case, so you’ll need to ensure they won’t leak unnecessarily.
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Picking The Best Gun Cleaning Kit for You
Although you may now understand how important it is to maintain your pistol correctly. The next puzzle you need to work out will be choosing a pistol cleaning kit that will work for you. You need to ask yourself where you intend to use the cleaning kit.
Are you intending to carry your cleaning kit in the field or do all your pistol maintenance at home? If the equipment is for use when in the field, it must have all the necessary pieces, solvent, and, importantly, easy portability.
The Hoppe’s Pistol Cleaning Kit No.9 is typically considered a great home cleaning kit. But you may ultimately decide to take it with you on your trips out in the field. There’s no harm in that. But if you need something specifically designed to give you maintenance ability on the go, consider kits such as the Gunboss® by Real Avid or Otis’s Patriot 9mm.
Whichever of these three you finally choose, you’re guaranteed to get the best cleaning kit solution for a pistol you need.
