How did they do it?!

[mif_slim]

I had recently gotten a M44 for free from a shop. I asked them if I can get any old gun to fool around with because my gunsmithing school needed some old rifles. Anyways, I got one with super dark bore..everything was rusted, the stock had better days and the chamber, trigger and magazine was smashed in making it totally useless.
Anyways, it got me thinking....during the war, with the ammo being corrosive, how did they do it? I mean I mistakenly forgot to clean one of my M44 when I got home and in two days my bore started to get dark already. It must of been a pain to clean it everyday or right after they shot the gun.

[smle-man]

Even military formations with good discipline sometimes couldn't clean their weapons in a timely manner. The weapons rusted. I have read about and seen pictures of U.S. soldiers coming off the line in Europe and the Pacific in WW2 handing their rifles over to Ordnance detachments and drawing replacement rifles. The Ordnance guys inspected, repaired and cleaned the turned in rifles. Probably a lot of barrels and oprods were replaced at the GS level.

When the U.S. forces were pulled out of the Philippines after the pacification (one way to describe it!) of the locals in the early 1900s their arms were dumped in Manila bay because of the extreme corrosion from the wet conditions and corrosive ammo.

[eighteenninetytwo]

Sometime sthey;d pi$$ in teh bore. The corrosion is mostly caused by moisture attracted to the salts which are left from the corrosive ammo, not necessarily the content of teh cartridges or primers themselves. They used to pour boiling water through the barrels barrel in WW1 (peeing was asubstitute but worked also - when teh rifle has been fired and the action is hot this would wash the salts out of the miniscule cracks and th heat would dry the water up before it had time to affect the bore.

[Crusader]

I'm sure urinating down the barrel was more common than we realize today. I think it makes sense, because think of the men in the days after D-day who were huddled in those hedgerows for the month or so after the battle. With enemy soldiers as close as the other side of the hedgerow, disassembling the rifle for maintanence probably wasn't the best idea, so they did was worked.

[gunboat]

1892 -- you are a bit confused about "corrosive ammo" --
The corrosive part is the primer, when fired the potassium chlorate in the primer turns to potassium CHLORIDE which is a salt - like sodium chloride/table salt -- the salt is the part that attracts moisture causing rust -- It would take quite a few days of firing every day and not cleaning to cause a rust build-up that would render the weapon useless -- after all, the first shot clears the bore still you stop firing again -- Carbon build up might be a greater short term problem under severe combat conditions --
I don't see why you would need to piss down the barrel - a wet patch would suffice -
Even under the most severe combat situations supplies of ammo and water need to be brought up -- There are always exceptions ----
my ha-penny

[eighteenninetytwo]

Don't think carbon build up ever stopped an Enfield. I'm just letting the guy know what was done in WW1 with their rifles. My particular area of (almost) expertise is lee enfields. I'm aware of the primer situation but I was not aware that there was nothing in the cordite, thanks for that info. Learning every day. However I was not really on about making a rifle inoperative - but what I am on about is keeping the bore clean and not permanently pitted due to corrosion. British army regulations required that this was done on a regular basis after action. They used galvanized steel funnels to pour boiling water behind the lines but in the front line the guys at the sharp end pi$$ed down the barrels. Don't think they had many nice wet patches in 2 feet of mud in 1914 though.

[gunboat]

I am not knowledgeable about BEF practices in WWI -- However even in WWI everyone carried a canteen and it only takes one or two patches to remove the salt. It is my recollection that cordite, while not corrosive is quite erosive -
It was my impression OP was talking about WWII and the effect of US primers of that period on the garand and springfield --

[smle-man]

I am not knowledgeable about BEF practices in WWI -- However even in WWI everyone carried a canteen and it only takes one or two patches to remove the salt. It is my recollection that cordite, while not corrosive is quite erosive -
It was my impression OP was talking about WWII and the effect of US primers of that period on the garand and springfield --

The cordite wasn't corrosive but the primers were certainly. The British practice was to 'pull through' the rifles on at least a daily basis. The pull through was a simple cord that either a cloth patch or a piece of window screen like material was attached to and pulled through the bore. Do this enough and the bore became 'cord worn'.

[jamesob]

during the war they most likely didn't clean the bore to often since they were shooting it every hour of every day.