While working in the booth at the S.H.O.T. Show, I noticed that we were answering a large number of questions about a free sample that we were handing out. In the first part of 1997, Brownells, Inc. became the exclusive suppliers of an industry-standard, time proven product, the genuine, J-B® Non-Embedding Bore Cleaning Compound. 

After more than 35 years of making and selling J-B Compound, Jim Brobst had decided to slow down, and we were truly honored when he selected us as the only licensee for the product he invented, and devoted so many years to perfecting.

Back in the early 60’s, Jim was doing a lot of benchrest shooting, and all those hot rounds left some absolutely brutal fouling in his barrel. 

Copper jacket material and burned on powder are tough to get out, but the extremely mild polishing materials and complicated mixing process that Jim developed, created a cleaning compound that cut the fouling, didn’t hurt the bore and wiped out easily. He started selling it to his benchrest pals, and the demand for the product just grew from there.

Over the years, as gun folks tend to do, J-B Compound was tried on everything. One of the successful experiments combined it with the Lewis Lead Remover; and those two made, and still make, short work of the heavy lead fouling that plagues magnum revolvers and hot-loaded autos shooting lead bullets. At the S.H.O.T. Show, I spoke with a customer that was shooting low velocity lead bullets in his Schuetzen rifle. He told me that the first time one of his shots strays a bit, he cleans the bore with J-B Compound, fires a couple of sighters and goes right back to putting record shots in the X-ring.

Recently, another company has started producing a bore cleaning compound that they are touting as the “original J-B formula”. This is what caused us to answer a lot of questions about their claim of “original” because our customers have come to trust in the J-B brand and really want nothing else.

In an effort to put an end to those questions and to let our customers know just what it is that other company is selling, let me tell you this. Years ago, when Jim Brobst first worked at developing his formula, he tried many different ingredients in many different mixings. He experimented quite a bit until he came up with the formula he’s been producing and selling since the late 1970’s.

And that’s the same formula we’ve been licensed to produce and sell. It’s still called J-B® Non-Embedding Bore Cleaning Compound just as it’s been for the last 35 years.