Corrosive ammo cleaning?

[hawkeye10]

As I stated in another post I'am thinking of getting a Saiga rifle in 7.62x39. I see on the net that you can buy surplus ammo pretty cheap but it is corrosive. How do you clean a rifle after using corrosive ammo? The surplus ammo looks to be better than other ammo. All brass and lead. Don

 

[colt1911fan]

On the rare occasion that I did shoot corrosive ammo out of my AK I cleaned the bolt the barrel, chamber and gas tube extremely well. No problems with it but I started shooting the steel cased stuff because its not that much more. It works just as well for me, and it's not corrosive. But thats just me

 

[briansmithwins]

I've been shooting a lot (several lots, actually) of Yugo M67 due to local range restrictions of no steel.

Clean up is actually pretty simple:

1) Use a solvent that contains water. I choose soapy water as the soap cuts grease but it's the water that dissolves the corrosive salts.
2) Dry.
3) Oil. I use a gun oil that's very creepy and gets into all the areas between metal parts of the AK.

After several thousand rounds of M67, some of which were shot while it was raining or with 100% humidity, I have no rust problems.

BSW

 

[mainmech48]

I've always used plain ol' Hoppe's No.9 and it seems to have worked just dandy. Says that it "removes corrosive primer residue" right there on the packaging, and I haven't seen anything happen to any of the many old milsurp firearms I've cleaned with it over the past 55 years or so to make me doubt it. FWIW, I do buy it by the quart and apply it pretty "liberally". But I've never found any signs of rust or deterioration on them the next time I took them out to play, either.

 

[Sam1911]

My Kalashnikovs, and some other milsurps don't see anything but corrosive ammo. First stop is out on the porch with a tea pot of boiling water.

Water dissolves the salts, and the heat helps that water evaporate quickly. Then clean and oil as usual.

 

[JayPee]

I manage our club's military rifle and pistol match program, in which a lot of corrosive ammo gets fired. The best and most common solvent used for eliminating the corrosive firing residue is Windex. Not the cheapo blue stuff from Dollar General either.....real, live, blue, name-brand, Windex.

Our bore cleaning procedure is to squirt Windex in the chamber until it runs out the bore, then start running Windex soaked patches through the bore on a jag from the chamber end until they come out white - usually about five or six patches. Then dry patch it and clean the bore as normal. Flushing, scrubbing, and wiping other parts with Windex will also neutralize the corrosive elements there too. This is so common it is even written into our Club's Military Match Manual. I've done a ton of it. I like the convenience of having a squirt bottle of it in my range box so I can get the process started before I even leave the range.

Then clean the rifle as normal after the Windex treatment. Best wishes.

JayPee

 

[briansmithwins]

Windex works.

Personally, I feel you're over paying for soapy water with blue dye, alcohol, and perfume in it.

But to each his own.

BSW

 

[Tom609]

...a tea pot of boiling water.

Yup; keep it simple. Nothing is cheaper or more readily accessible than heated tap water.

 

[VA27]

Clean it just like a black powder gun. Water (preferably hot, soap is optional), oil with Ballistol. No worries.