Cleaning corrosive waaay after the fact.

[Third_Rail]

Okay, so, going through the basement with my neighbor... and we find another 1917 in 30-06 that we fired maybe a month ago with corrosive. I just need to know if I can clean/rescue it or if it's way too late. I didn't see any pitting or anything in the bore, but then again, I didn't really take a hard look.

Soapy water or windex, drypatch, hoppes? What he did to put it away was hoppes, drypatch, wd-40, so I don't think anything was done to the salts.

Thanks in advance, and I'm sorry if I was unclear or anything. Long day already!

 

[sm]

Hoppe's probably negated a lot of the salt, hopefully the WD40 penetrated to stop any additional.

I'd go Hot soapy water, real good. Check the bore. If need - Simichrome or Flitz to see if that helped. Clean this out, oil the bbl. Dry patch before shooting.

 

[Third_Rail]

Gotcha, thanks. I'd really hate to ruin the rifle that he's going to give me!

 

[TimRB]

If it looks like a duck...

If you didn't see any pitting, there must not be any pitting. At least not any *horrible* pitting. Anyway, you should wash out the bore with Windex or plain old hot water asap. Hoppes and Ed's Red do nearly nothing to get rid of the salts that cause the corrosion.

Table salt is very similar to the potassium chloride that is left by corrosive primers. Try to dissolve a little salt in Hoppes or Ed's Red, and then try water. Nuff said.

Tim

 

[sm]

Agree it is the HOT Water that does the trick.

I "thought" the original Hoppe's #9 ( Penguin Industries) had some effect on the salts. The formula was changed and the benzene and something else removed...

Hence all the head scratchig and cussing for years until the primers changed.

Oh well maybe I just Dreamed Frank Hoppe's designed his #9 to "help out to some degree" with salts...

I do know Hot soapy water at the car wash works...

 

[spacemanspiff]

my ritual begins with a bore snake to get the gunk on the surface, then a few patches with hoppes.
next i plug the muzzle with some patches and pour windex into the barrel, i plunge it with a bore brush several times and then let it sit for a while. the patches keep it plugged pretty good, and i do some more plunging 10 or 15 minutes later. the bore brush i use is a nylon one for .45acp, its bristles can get into the grooves pretty easily and cut through all the gunk.

once thats done i run dry patches through and then some hoppes. that just about does it and i run dry patches through until they come out clean.

its about an hour and a half process, but its worth it. my bores are smooth, bright and shiny.

 

[RustyHammer]

What was the corrosive ammo that you shot in it last?

 

[jrhead75]

I'd be very interested to hear how that bore looks after a good cleaning. Let us know, okay?

 

[DMK]

Sometimes you just get lucky and don't rust your barrel out. Corrosive salts attract moisture, but if the gun is stored in a very dry place or if the oil you used sealed the moisture out then no rust. Of course, that can't be depended on.

 

[Third_Rail]

To answer RustyHammer, the last ammo I fired through it was 1943 TW 162gr AP ammo, 20 rounds, about a month ago.

I got to the range today to blast away with the 1917, but before leaving I gave it a good cleaning with a soapy patch, then hoppe's, then a drypatch, the bore looked good as new (lucky me to have a barrel with less than 100 rounds through it... with 80 of them mine!)

I think it was a combination of not too much ammo that was corrosive, a dry basement, and an oiling that made it so that the barrel survived. In any case, I won't leave it uncleaned when I fire the corrosive again, the panic attack helped me learn my lesson this time, but I may not be so lucky if I neglect it again.


Thanks for all the responses, I feel like you guys helped me save a rifle from serious damage.