Brake cleaner works great for cleaning, but keep it off of wood and plastic, and don’t use it in the house.
The down side is that you don’t get the same manly smell as Hoppes gives you.
Try Carb cleaner from Walmart. Cheaper and works better that the brake cleaner. Brake cleaner harden ups some oils.
Carb cleaner rinses all the bad things away with no problem. Then use the Walmart version of WD-40. The gun comes out really nice at low cost.