Best way to remove cosmoline, clean barrel after corrosive ammo shooting..

[devildog32713]

Alright THR experts, what is the best way (not looking for speed, looking for quality) to COMPLETELY remove ALL cosmoline from a rifle, and what is the best tactic to clean a barrel after shooting corrosive ammo? Do I need to clean the whole gun (action, mag well, etc.) after shooting corrosive, or just the barrel? Thanks all

 

[Uncle Mike]

Cosmoline runs from Kerosene or Mineral Spirits... and hot soapy water is the ticket for corrosive ammo salt neutralization. There are/is many, many other solutions to your quest....and you'll hear of theme here!

 

[nbkky71]

If I had to recommend one thing to remove cosmoline, it would be heat.

There were some plans on surplusrifle.com where a guy made a heat-lamp drip container to remove cosmoline.

 

[navyretired 1]

Heat gun and time then disassemble and use degreaser like "Grease Buster" or "Simple Green".
I clean my barrel, gas system and bolt after corrosive ammo with hot soapy water, 2 days in a row, them oil, grease and store then inspect carefully in a week. Haven'tlost one yet.

 

[THE DARK KNIGHT]

Brake Cleaner or Mineral Spirits both work well. I have been removing cosmoline from various AK parts lately. First I make a little tub of Mineral Spirits and let the pieces sit in there for about 2 hours. Then I take them out, blast with brake cleaner, and wipe off with a scrap rag. Comes off nicely.

 

[gpr]

mineral spirts and kerosen will desolve the comos and not harm long term because they are oil based....if you take it to the next level of brake clean, you are down to bare metal, which is good if you want to coat/paint, just becareful, because now it can rust...gpr

 

[briansmithwins]

Low heat to melt off the the cosmoline.

Soapy water works very nicely to remove corrosive primer residue. Basically clean with the soapy water like you would regular solvent, dry, then oil. You need to clean everything exposed to the gas residue.

I've been doing exactly that and have 2000+ rounds of corrosive Yugo M67 thru 2 AKs and an SKS with no rust.

BSW