Corrosive Ammo Questions/Discussion

[cassius]

Unless it says it removes corrosive priming fouling - no. Hoppes for instance does not remove corrosive fouling.

Where did this nugget of info come from? How does cleaning a weapon properly NOT remove the salts.

[aklon]

Hoppe's is good, but when shooting corrosive ammunition you should also swab your barrel down with either Sweet's 7.62 or Blue Wonder. Both are chemically active and clean out the bad stuff pretty quickly. Two applications in a row followed by a couple soaks with Hoppe's and your barrel will be powerfully clean.

[bohoki]

i used to be a windex spewer till i found out that it is salts not acids that cause the corrosion

ammonia would neutralize the acid but would alone make more salt in the action of neutralization so without a salt "solvent" you wont remove the real culprit

[steven_m64]

only "solvent" needed for salt is water witch windex has along with ammonia.

this topic has come up before so ill quote myself from that recent thread:

i use a 50/50 of water/Simple green

the water will neutralize the salts from the primer (as well as windex) and the simple green will eat away some of the carbon/residue.

simple and fast to do at the range just spray or pour some of the mix down the bore and into the action + on the on bolt then use a bore snake.
then a spray down of CLP/rem oil on the areas effected and a last pull through with the snake and your done.

this is what i do with my nagant's and mauser's and has always worked well.

another option my friend does is just put the gun immediately in a VCI gun bag after the range session then just get to cleaning it whenever he feels like it later ;p since as long as its in the bag it will never rust.

[bigstick61]

Either clean the weapon using the hot, soapy water method used for cleaning black powder guns (which also requires using hot, clean water for rinsing), or use windex or a rougly 50/50 ammonia and water solution to swab the bore and chamber, and wipe down parts that get fouling on them, gas tubes, etc. It then has to be wiped off, and then you clean like normal. Some solvents are able to by themselves neutralize the salts, but I forget which ones.

[Tony.]

I use a product called Ballistol. It's essentially the same thing the German Army issued in WW II for weapons oil, bore cleaning, and as a protectant for stocks and slings.

It's nice because you don't have to carry around 5 or 6 bottles of different things to clean up after corrosive ammo.

Don't remember if it came from Graf's or Brownell's, but it was one of those two.

Ballistol rocks, pretty much a do it all in the firearms world. I use it as a CLP and have used it to oil leather slings and as a BLO substitute when refinishing a stock.

[cannon]

When done shooting I squirt Windex down the barrel, bolt face and gas port.

Wipe dry where the Windex is and then clean as normal. Been doing this for years and no rust yet.

[maxicon]

As others have said, the culprit in corrosive primers is the residual salts. These are removed by water. Hot water works best, but any cleaning compound that's water based (including Windex) works. Windex has ammonia, which helps with copper fouling.

They're also trapped by other stuff, like all the other residual crud in a gun. The salts can be captured in with grease/oil residue in nooks and crannies, as well as under copper or lead fouling in a rough barrel.

To help get out the oily/greasy residues, hot soapy water is good. Likewise, anything that removes fouling helps remove captured residues.

What it boils down to is performing a thorough cleaning after shooting. There's nothing magical about corrosive primer residue - clean it out with anything, and it's gone, but hot soapy water helps clear the bulk of it out before a traditional cleaning.

I won't shoot corrosive in a gas gun, because there are more nooks and crannies for it to hide in, but again, as long as you clean thoroughly, you're good to go.

[LeadIntoGold]

Thanks everyone. I think I've got a good idea on how to handle all this cheap ammo.

I don't mind cleaning my guns, I kind of get into a Zen state. (and I can get out of doing the dishes). "Too busy with the guns dear"....

[smle-man]

No need to remove the action from the stock. Get a plastic funnel and a short length of clear plastic tubing that will fit inside the small diameter of the funnel neck and also fit into the the chamber of the rifle. put the rifle in a cleaning cradle (you do have one of these, don't you?) position a bucket to catch the run off, put the tube in the chamber and pour a tea kettle of boiling water into the funnel through the bore and into the bucket. The boiling water dissolves the corrosive salts and flushes them away, opens up the metal in the bore to get the salts out and is hot enough that the heated barrel evaporates most of the water in the bore. Wipe the bolt face with a wet patch and use wrap a wet patch around a GI tooth brush type cleaning tool and wipe the chamber. Dry everything and then proceed to clean with your favorite bore cleaner. Lightly oil afterwards.

[Beelzy]

Where did this nugget of info come from? How does cleaning a weapon properly NOT remove the salts.

Don't worry, that nugget of info is incorrect.

Hoppes #9 removes corrosive primer residue......says so on the front of the
bottle.

[chiefcrash]

here is some thorough, if be it unofficial, testing on corrosive ammo and cleaning methods: http://www.surplusrifle.com/reviews2...salt/index.asp

Short version: water is what cleans after corrosive ammo. If windex works, it's because of the water in it. If oil based stuff works, it's because of the small amount of water and through wiping/scrubbing.

[cgseanp1]

here is some thorough, if be it unofficial, testing on corrosive ammo and cleaning methods: http://www.surplusrifle.com/reviews2...salt/index.asp

Short version: water is what cleans after corrosive ammo. If windex works, it's because of the water in it. If oil based stuff works, it's because of the small amount of water and through wiping/scrubbing.

Good info. Article also mentions that unless you live in a humid area, you might not see any rust at all.. maybe that's why my guns look good even though I only use a basic gun solvent. I'll try the water method