Corosive Military Ammo & Gun Bore Rust?

[Cob]

i have a Surplus military rifle (7.62 x 54r) that I recently shot some surplus ammo thru...

When i was finished shooting it, I cleaned it thoroughly, and left for an out of town job. When I returned, I inspected it, and noticed rust showing in the bore, at the end of the barrell.

I believe (now know) that the military ammo was corrosive, and that normal cleaning does not seem to prevent the rust?

Any suggestions on the best bore cleaner to prevent rust, and how to remedy the rust situation?

 

[husker]

I use CRC Power Lube on mine

 

[ColtPythonElite]

Those old guns were designed to be shot with corrosive ammo and most of our surplus ones have been. A little cleaning goes a long way. I know lots of guys recommend water, Windex and so on. I know they will work based on my knowledge of cleaning BP guns. However, I have never used water, ect on my Mosin. I bought it over 20 years ago and shot piles and piles of corrosive ammo thru it when I first got it. I simply cleaned it with whatever solvent I had and then oiled it down. The gun still has a nice shiny bore.

 

[451 Detonics]

I use black powder bore cleaner, it does a better job of removing the hydroscopic residue than smokeless cleaners.

 

[ball3006]

I just give mine a few squirts of Windex with ammonia. Then clean normally. I use Hoppe's. Most guys are lazy and don't clean their rifles after shooting which results in a rusty bore....Corrosive ammo remedys have been beaten to death over the years so any surprises should not arise......chris3

 

[Phaethon]

Yeah, ammonia and water usually does the trick. That or warm soapy water. I tend to not need either as I just vigorously clean it until my patches are white, and then heavily oil the barrel to prevent any sort of rust anyway.

You might find this link handy; I dropped across it a long time ago.

http://www.empirearms.com/clean.htm

 

[Sam1911]

Here's a great thread on this: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=7129524

You don't need anything but WATER to dissolve and remove the corrosive salts.

Ammonia / windex happens to be popular, but it only really works -- at all -- because of the WATER that makes up 90% of it, not the ammonia in it.

The whole "windex/ammonia for corrosive ammo" thing is one of those myths that will not die -- mostly because the results are just as good as plain water and people generally like buying a product rather than trusting to basic chemistry.

Concentrated ammonia does help remove copper fouling, but does nothing for corrosive salts.

 

[gotmine]

It does me good to read something sensible on cleaning corrosive salts rather than relying on magical formulas. A little soap to cut oil in the nooks and crannies, and lots of hot water to dilute and wash away the salts.

 

[19-3Ben]

You don't need anything but WATER to dissolve and remove the corrosive salts.

Ammonia / windex happens to be popular, but it only really works -- at all -- because of the WATER that makes up 90% of it, not the ammonia in it.

The whole "windex/ammonia for corrosive ammo" thing is one of those myths that will not die -- mostly because the results are just as good as plain water and people generally like buying a product rather than trusting to basic chemistry.

Concentrated ammonia does help remove copper fouling, but does nothing for corrosive salts.

Epic +1 to this. The only thing I'd add is that I usually boil water in the kettle and then pour it down the barrel. Hot water dissolves stuff more quickly than cold water, and the hot water heats up the barrel enough that it starts to evaporate itself so there's even less clean up when you're done.

 

[fireman 9731]

I dip the end of a boresnake into some Hoppes and give it a few passes through the barrel. Not a speck of rust yet.

 

[Sam1911]

More recent formulations of Hoppe's do appear to contain water and will work to wash out corrosive salts.

 

[P5 Guy]

Boil some water and take the pot of hot water poke the muzzle into it. Push from the breech a tight fitting patch on a loop all the way out the muzzle. Keeping the muzzle submerged in the hot water pull the rod out of the bore slowly. When the patch gets to the chamber the hot water will fall back into the pot. Repeat until your arm gets tired or the water cools.
Dry out the bore and continue cleaning as you would with non-corrosive ammo.

 

[Jotobo]

I did the Windex then Hoppes as well. Been two weeks since I last shot the rifle. Looks like a dream down the bore.

 

[Frozen North]

Tea kettle and a transmission funnel make it super easy to just dump boiling water down the breech end. Some guys go crazy and pour hot water all over, in my experience this is a bad idea. The Russians used cheap shellac on their stocks and hot water/steam can give it a milky appearance. I had to rub some milky spots off of my first M44 from spilling hot water over the stock.

Remove the bolt, stick the transmission funnel in the chamber, dump the water in. Its that simple. If the water is hot enough, the bore will be dry before you get back to the bench to push an oiled patch through.

 

[Aren't we all]

I enjoy using my electric tea kettle works wonders. And FYI any yugo or turkish 8mm surplus will destroy your bore if you don't clean soon.

 

[Ignition Override]

Maybe Windex is recommended because it squirts, most people can't find a funnel, or are too lazy to go to Auto Shack etc for an oil funnel.

Scrubbing the bore, drying with a few patches, then three-four minutes with a hair dryer works.

I'm the laziest person around, but will take any steps to avoid corroding a bore on a WW2 or later combat rifle, whether the bore is good or excellent.
I've seen the results of careless use at gun shows, and imagine that many of those do not sell.

A buddy has two otherwise decent-looking Czech VZ-24 Mausers with bores that have no rifling and have very rough, straight streaks (parallel with the barrel), nasty metal in the bores.
Maybe those bores were over-heated and never cleaned. What a waste of a rifle that might have equaled the quality of 1930's German Mausers.

 

[Frozen North]

I took my M91-30 Mosin Nagant out today and put 50 rounds of surplus through it. I just got done cleaning it with the teapot/tranny funnel method. The black stuff just ran out of the muzzle. It took me one minute plus the time it takes to boil water. You cant get much easier than that!

 

[Cob]

I had read somewhere to use windex, wondered why.... I thought that mayb the ammonia did the trick, but understand... I am used to hot/ boiling water to remove black powder residue in my MZLDR. It's clean now, thanks for the input... BTW have some Butch's, and used windex, then the bore shine, followed up with oil.

will use hot-water next time, and save the windex for the wife..

 

[Samson7]

Windex + Hoppes + Boresnake = Shiny, rust-free bore