Corrosive ammo?

[WhiteGT]

How do I tell If my old Yugo 8mm ammo is corosive or not? I bought the 900 round "can" from ammoman.com. It says it is 1950's issue Yugoslavian made. The primers have what looks like red loctite around the edges and some times on the surface. Any idea?

[Mssr. Eleganté]

There is no way to tell if an ammo has corrosive primers just by looking at them. You actually have to test the primers by firing them on bare steel to see if they cause rust. The test is a bit more complicated than that, but that's not important, because other people have already tested the 1950's Yugo 8mm and it is corrosive for sure. Even the 1980's surplus Yugo 8mm is corrosive.

Not a big deal though. You just need to clean the bore with a water based cleaner right after your range trip.

[oaklander]

I've heard that all surplus 8mm Mauser ammo is corrosive. Even the non-corrosive!

Water is good. Some people (me included) use Windex - it has ammonia, which is supposed to help neutralize the corrosive salts.

I spray it down the barrel from the breech as SOON as I'm done shooting.

Then I let it sit for a minute, and then clean it out with some clean patches.

Then I do it again.

Then I saturate the barrel with Hoppe's #9 and take the gun home.

Once home, I use some more #9 and let it sit overnight to get rid of any copper fouling.

I take apart the bolt, and run it under hot water, then I dry it out with WD-40, and then saturate it with CLP for storage.

[HeHateMe]

you can safely assume all surplus 8mm is corrosive. I pretty much do what oaklander does for all my milsurps (Nagants, Mauser, and Enfields). no rust yet (knock on wood).

[kenc9]

[stevie]

As mentioned, consider all surplus 8mm corrosive. Just clean with water right after shooting and all will be well. If using a semi-auto, make sure you also clean the gas system with water, or a water based solvent.

[fal_762x51]

FNM 8MM surplus is not corrosive, but will cost you a pretty penny.