Corrosive Ammo? How to tell?

[1337-Alpha]

Question as stated: How can you tell if the ammo you bought is corrosive?

I'm buying Russian surplus ammo in the green sardine tins and this partially worries me. Also if corrosive is there anything that can be done about it to prevent it from messing up the barrels?

[Vlad 11]

in before 100 ways to clean a barrel

If its East European or Russian Berdan primed surplus, it has corrosive primers.

Of course its easy to prevent messing up the barrel. Just wash the salts out

Corrosive primers simply leave a salt residue that washes right out with water

[NOTABIKER]

do not over do it with water, water will rust places you do not clean and oil properly. get a spray bottle, at the range tilt the rifle down hill with the bolt back or out. spray down the chamber while it is hot. that will dry it out right away, spray your favorite gun oil liberally [ rem oil etc]at the range in the chamber. when you get home do a full normal rifle cleaning. Me i remove the bolt and spray the firing pin area with hoppies 9 blow dry with compressed air and oil the bolt. their are many ways to do it .that is just the way that works for me. if you spray too much water on the rifle things will rust from over doing it with water. it is worth it to shoot .18c ammo instead of 1 dollar a bullet ammo. my mosins seem to always feed and eject better with cheap surplus ammo. that is what it was made for.

[1337-Alpha]

Ok that sounds simple enough. Don't be afraid of the surplus ammo, just make sure to clean the gun thoroughly after shooing. Not a problem, I love my babies so they get cleaned thoroughly every time I shoot!

[Mustang]

Just use Hoppe's #9, it will clean the corrosive salts away

[smle-man]

Or any water based gun cleaning solvent. The WW2 milk-white GI bore cleaner is perfect for corrosive ammo cleaning.

A German former WW2 soldier showed me a cleaning method for corrosive ammo: Put a couple inches of boiling water into a small pail, place the muzzle of the rifle into the boiling hot water, push a patch down the barrel from the chamber end and pump the rod up and down drawing the boiling hot water in and out of the bore. The very hot water will dry almost immediately when you finish since the metal heats up. Clean the chamber with a wet patch and the bolt face with a wet patch and dry both. Then use Hoppes for the copper fouling.

[mosinnagantm9130]

If it's old surplus ammo from any country, assume it's corrosive unless proven otherwise.

[kygen]

Ive noticed as long as i clean my gun out with the cleaning solvent, everything is A okay.

[Divernhunter]

I use windex at the range on a few patches followed by a coupe of dry patches while the rifle is still warm. That really makes cleaning easier at home.

Some say only plain water and thet will work. But just like cleaning your hands. You can do so with plain water but using soap cleans faster and better. Same for the gun barrel.
If I remove the barrel from the stock(like with my BP rifles) then the hot(and soapy) water in a pail using a rod and patch pumping the water thru is great. I finist with plain hot water the oil. If it is a muzzle loader I use Bore Butter when done.

My 2 Cents

[watt79]

Don't worry about it. After getting back from the range I pour some boiling water down the barrel and then clean as usual. Never had rust problems with any of my rifles.

[kouye]

I also patch with Windex followed by an oil patch before leaving the range. Then do normal cleaning at home (with Sweets 7.62). What I don't like about pouring water down the barrel is that, unless you're really careful, you will get water between the barrel and stock and if you don't dry it out, you can cause it to rust under the barrel.

I've shot thousands of rounds of corrosive ammo and I don't have a bit of rust in any of my C&R rifles using this method.

[The Gleam]

My water heater is in it's own closet that opens to the outside portion of my house; I hook up a hose to the drain spout, then that hose intersects with another smaller hose that I then stick in the chamber. After running a patch down the chamber to get the basic crud out, I can shoot hot water through the barrel for hours if I wanted to without without getting a single dot of water anywhere else on the gun. Turn it off, pull the hose, and because it's hot it dries in seconds. Then I clean as normal.

I just cleaned an SVT-40 and a VZ52 in this manner last weekend. Never a problem. Was shooting brass-cased (but corrosive) 7.62X54R and 7.62X45 respectively.

[MasterChief]

If you have a bullet puller, you can pull projectiles and powder from a couple of suspect rounds and fire the primer-only cases onto polished (ferrous, non-plated) sheet metal plates from a few inches away. Clean the rifle as for corrosive ammunition. Observe the sheet metal for rusting over several hours or days. This method can also be used to test various corrosion-preventative coatings, cleaning methods, cold vs hot vs boiling vs soapy water, etc.

If you have a lot of different surplus ammo and want to know fer shur, this is the way.

Or you can do as recommended above and simply always clean as for corrosive ammo.

Nothing difficult is ever easy. Best wishes. Dave

[NOTABIKER]

all of the above work, their has been some controversy about weather hoppe's# 9 still has a corrosive ammo formula or not. i am not saying it does not. i use it all the time. if you go to the net their is a lot of back and forth about weather hoppe's counter acts corrosive ammo. i use ammonia& water mix at the range then hoppe's and then oil patches before i go home.

[Lurch762]

I use a Ballistol/water mix to clean after shooting corrosive surplus ammo and black powder in my golf ball mortar. If you happen to shoot with your bayonet attached, don't forget to clean it. Residue will get on there too.