Corrosive Ammo? Bargain or Bane

It's incredibly easy to clean a Mosin of corrosive salts. The way I do it is simply mixing half (or a little less) ammonia with water and then putting a little on a cloth and running it down the barrel a couple times. Throw in just a little lube on another cloth afterwards and you're golden.

Your poll's a little biased. Why even ask the question? You've made up your mind.

I shoot corrosive .303, 7.62x54R, and 8mm. I don't consider corrosive ammo harmful to my rifles at all. I don't have any problems with corrosion on any of my rifles (Those that have dark bores, had them when I got them). Rinse your bore and wipe the receiver and bolt down with hot soapy water after firing. What's so hard about that?

None of the above... I handload for my milsurps. After all being corrosive may not be the only bad issue a person may have with antique ammo from god knows where. Besides for some milsurps surplus ammo is not avalible 7.5x54MAS, 7.7x58 Japanese, even 6.5x55 surplus is almost nonexistant.

Yeah, my option is not there.

'I only shoot surplus when I can find it, irregardless or corrosivness, and my bores are no more darkened than when I took possession of the gun'.

Seriously, if I can get a gun that has been through two world wars, probably countless training excersises, and still have a decent bore with the soldiers using corrosive ammo, I should have no problem keeping it clean.

I just ordered a M38, and a M91/30 Mosin, they are not here yet and 440 rounds of Polish surplus ammo. From what I read here and some other places on the internet all is well as long as you clean the corrosive right after you are done shooting. A couple cleaners have been recommended, ammonia and water, hot soapy water or Windex with ammonia. Follow this with a standard cleaning and oil, this is what I will use. Jim.

If a 'dumb' illiterate peasant from the Soviet Union could figure out how to keep a Mosin in good working order while using corrosive ammo, then there is no excuse for an educated person who can use the internet.

huh

There is no option for "Cleaning up after corrosive ammo is amazingly easy, why buy anything else for plinking?"

"I buy and shoot corrosive because I can't handload as cheap as I can buy surplus and I'm not too lazy to take ONE extra step to clean my rifle."

Seriously, Why not use surplus to target shoot with? It makes holes in paper and blows up fruits and veggies just fine. So what if you have to buy some ammonia (very cheap) to clean afterwards?

Yeah cleaning up after shooting corrosive is easy and fun. Just take the gun out of the wood pour hot water down the barrel scrub and repeat. Or you could just handload like i do. Of course of the 3 milsurps i own there isn't any corrosive ammo to be found.

Jason M. said:

It's incredibly easy to clean a Mosin of corrosive salts. The way I do it is simply mixing half (or a little less) ammonia with water and then putting a little on a cloth and running it down the barrel a couple times. Throw in just a little lube on another cloth afterwards and you're golden.

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FYI, you are wasting your time by adding ammonia to the water. All you need to flush out (not neutralize as is often stated) the salts is water. Ammonia doesn't do anything for the salts.

As for the OP, the difficulty of cleaning after shooting corrosive ammo is quite overstated, especially if you're shooting a bolt action rifle. A couple of patches through the bore wet with a water or something largely water, like Windex, followed by a dry patch, then cleaning as normal is enough to prevent the bore from rusting. Don't forget to wipe off the bolt face, too.

There is no option for "Cleaning up after corrosive ammo is amazingly easy, why buy anything else for plinking?"

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+1

Plus it's dirt cheap - 7.62x54R for about $0.08/round vs $0.25/round for non-corrosive...no brainer there.

I take a windex soaked patch after about 40 rounds and run it down the barrel. I do this a few times until the patch is fairly clean then keep shooting. When I'm done for the day, I repeat the above until the patch comes out clean...then clean as normal when I get home with Hoppe's and Breakfree CLP. No rust...ever!

There is a reason

All of those wonderfully accurate K-31 rifles have such great bores and shoot so well because GP11 ammo is not corrosive and never was. Of corse it could be that people enjoy the poor accuracy and the ocasonal hangfire. Nuthin more fun than pullin the trigger and geting a thunk........hiss.....................................thoom.

Cleaning a bolt action after corrosive ammo is a snap. I just use windex then clean normally. Been shooting corrosive ammo for a couple of years through my 91/30 and the rifle still looks great. Now with my 4 sks's I don't shoot corosive ammo. It cost as much as the russian commercial ammo and semi auto rifles are more of a pain to clean after each shooting. Mark

Use both.

I like handloads more, keeps the deviation down, can be customized per rifle, distance, etc. Costs more too.

Yep, all my surplus guns get is corrosive. I avoid it for the semis though since then there is the gas system to clean.

I just pull the bolts when I get home, put a pot of water on the stove. Once it's good and hot I just pour it down the breech and over the bolt face, dry it off, and clean as regular. Adds only a minute or so to my cleaning time.

But I'll let the anti-corrossive people keep their prejudices, that way the supply won't dry up as fast!

I have never had a problem with corrosive ammo. Just clean the rifle when you are through shooting, and you will have no problems.
I favor the boiling water and brush method, then oil it good.

Corrosion -

Few people are old enough to remember that much, if maybe not most, ammo was corrosive in the early 1930's.

Some of the ammo most available and most affordable was left over WWI loads. Pretty much all rimfire ammo was corrosive. We just wiped the bore with water, sometimes before we even left the range, then did a normal cleaning. Everybody's standard was Hoppe's #9 and a few drops of Singer sewing machine oil from the little squirt can.

It worked. I'm still shooting some of those guns Dad and I had back then.

GrayBear

Shrinkmd said:

So it sounds like cleaning a bolt like the mosin is no big deal as long as you take it apart when you get home and basically wash everything off with that good 'ole universal solvent, H20. I will have to give it a try. It is sooo much cheaper, and without the gas system to worry about seems ideal.

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As far as taking it apart, all you need to do is remove the bolt (maybe that's what you meant).

After washing out the bore and wiping off the bolt and receiver, don't forget to run some bore cleaner through, brush it and run patches through, then oil. Maybe that's what you meant too, but just making sure you understand that the water is just a preliminary step to normal bore cleaning, not in lieu of.

Cpl Punishment said:

"I buy and shoot corrosive because I can't handload as cheap as I can buy surplus and I'm not too lazy to take ONE extra step to clean my rifle."

Seriously, Why not use surplus to target shoot with? It makes holes in paper and blows up fruits and veggies just fine. So what if you have to buy some ammonia (very cheap) to clean afterwards?

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Same here. My son's M38 Mosin shoots a steady diet of 7.62X54. In fact tomorrow I am ordering another 880 rounds from the Ammo Store for 49 bucks. Now my No4Mk2 shoots handloads only. Well almost only. I hand load for it since .303 surplus has dried up around here. My Yugo SKS Uses WOlf or Golden Tiger, since surplus 7.62X39 is getting a bit hard to find. My son's mosin does not know what to do with brass cased boxer primed ammo!! OK jus t kidding it shoots that just fine!.

But surplus heck ya I shoot a ton of it. .79cents for a pint of Parsons Ammonia and then folled by Hoppes #9 (It stills smells right you know) and then slome light oil and she is done. No where near the fn of cleaning my flintlock!!

Chuck

50/50 ammonia and water, then clean it as I would any other rifle.

Nothing wrong with corrosive surplus ammo in my opinion.