Corrosive AR 7.62x39 Experiment

[H&R Glock]

My AR works fine and is accurate with my commie 1966 corrosive ammo. I am, however, getting sick and tired of turning the garden hose on it, during cleaning, and can't help flooding the lenses of the scope. (no scope leak yet) Drying it out is just another part of the job.
I have a spam can of that ammo to get rid of before it dies of old age,(or I die of old age) but I need to find a quicker method of cleaning up the corrosive salts without making the cleaning job so nasty.
The experiment involves spray cans of Carburetor cleaner, Brake cleaner, WD40, and oil.
I ****** out the lower, bolt, gas tube, barrel, and carrier with the spray cans and clean the bore with swabs and Hoppe's as usual. Oil the springs of the lower, re-assemble, then open a beer.
I will report the condition of same in about 2 weeks. Any guesses as to how it will go?
Well, if it rusts up, I will just have to replace parts, no sweat.
No I don't use the beer in cleaning, but figured it might be suggested that it does a better job of cleaning.
Semper Fi

 

[entropy]

Use Sweet's 7.62 Solvent, and clean like normal. That's all I ever do when I fire corrosive ammo. If I get a rifle with a crud-lined bore, like the 1899 Ishevsk M91 Mosin I picked up as a barreled action, then I hop in the shower with it and the Dewey rod and scrub until the water starts to drop in temp.

 

[BSA1]

You are WAAAAY overdoing the cleaning. I am a long time blackpowder shooter and never had a gun rust.

Several run several patches wet with water to remove the corrosive salts. Use another wet patch or two to wipe around the chamber and the bolt. I run a couple of patches wet with Ballistol through the barrel, wipe the bolt and call it good.

I know some bp shooters that put a small funnel in the chamber and pour hot water through the barrel. Hot water evaporates making it simple. However the AR makes it more difficult. If you have a piece of tubing the size of the cartridge you could stick one end in the chamber, put a funnel on the other and pour hot water down the barrel.

If the barrel is chromed lined it is even easier than all of this.

It If you are planning to clean the copper fouling just clean like you do with smokeless powder after the dry patches.

 

[Jim Watson]

There is a lot of room for effective cleaning between the garden hose and WD40.
I'd use Windex like I do on my BPCR, or Moose Milk (Ballistol emulsified in water.)
Be sure to wet wipe everything that the smoke touches.

 

[H&R Glock]

I believe there is a wide corrosive gap between BP and corrosive primers. My experiment will show us what happens. The AR remains in it's case for 2 weeks and I'll take pictures of all the parts after to show the world.
I believe 2 weeks oughta' be sufficient to let rust form where it ought not form.
If it does rust I believe it will be the extractor root and spring as I did not dis-assemble same in cleaning. I just D****** out the bolt with the two spray cleaners as I did the gas tube and key.
I can always fall back on my junky SKS when getting rid of the bad ammo. Somebody once said the commies had no problems with the SKS and corrosion. Maybe old ammo would sell at a garage sale???? 15 cents a round would be profitable!

 

[BSA1]

Are you going to leave it outside? The temperature and humidity changes will be a better test than sitting inside a case case in a climate controlled house.

Is the barrel nitride or blue steel?

 

[illinoisburt]

The receiver is aluminum, so no worries there. If you simply pulled the bolt out and gave it a spray down with windex and a cuple quick shots doen the barrel, thats pretty much it. Clean as normal after. I suppose someone could argue for a spritz through the gas tube too. This really isn't difficult. A bottle of cleaner is $1 at the dollar store. Flooding with a hose is silly and unneeded.

 

[wally]

Flooding with a hose is silly and unneeded.

But its satisfying and easy with my AK

With my AR I take a more focused approach doing the upper normally as you would a black powder gun, I dunk the lower and bolt/carrier parts and re-lube when dry. I do the lower and bolt/carrier first and set them in the sun, so they are generally dry by the time I'm done with the upper.

 

[Robbins290]

I put alot of rounds thru my windham weaponry in 762x39. All i do is run a wet patch with hot water thru the barrel and clean like normal. Never had a issue.

 

[P5 Guy]

Boil some water, have a tight fitting patch on your cleaning rod.
Push from the breech end thru the barrel all the way, place the muzzle in the bucket of hot water and pull the rod up. This will suck hot water up to the chamber. Scrub back and forth a few times alway completely leaving the barrel, muzzle and chamber.
Remove from the bucket of water and dry patch the barrel, blow some compressed air thru the gas system. Clean and lube as normal.

 

[jak67429]

I fired thousands of rounds of surplus 7.2x39 in my sks and ak, all I ever did was run a wet patch down the barrel then clean as normal.

 

[Steve762us]

Same here....several hundred rounds of corrosive ComBloc ammo thru
a Mosin, and a Tokarev.

Just use an old eye drop bottle, refilled with water. Wet a patch at range, run thru
bore; repeat, then a couple of dry patches, and finish with oiled patch. Wipe bolt
/breech face with damp patch, same routine.

Based on the surprisingly good condition of the bores of the Mosin,
Tokarev, and a 1943 Garand, it seems the primer's corrosive action
is conveniently slow.

 

[Robbins290]

Same here....several hundred rounds of corrosive ComBloc ammo thru
a Mosin, and a Tokarev.

Just use an old eye drop bottle, refilled with water. Wet a patch at range, run thru
bore; repeat, then a couple of dry patches, and finish with oiled patch. Wipe bolt
/breech face with damp patch, same routine.

Based on the surprisingly good condition of the bores of the Mosin,
Tokarev, and a 1943 Garand, it seems the primer's corrosive action
is conveniently slow.

slow if taken care of. I had a old yugo that was flawless. Shot some 40's turkish surplus in it. and never cleaned it, About 6 months later the bore was so dark and pitted. It was my first rifle for deer hunting. I was never told about corrosive ammo. With the dealer i bought the rifle from told me about it. I still have that mauser. With the dark bore, she still shoots very accurate.

 

[H&R Glock]

My upper is an AR-STONER with 4140 heavy chrome-moly steel barrel that is "flat black" and I think pickled.(from Midway USA.com)
I'm gonna take it out of the case tonight and put it "bare" in the basement. If I see any overt condition problems I'll take pictures.
All of you have calmed my fears of communist rust invasions in my AR. By the way I have 3 AR's now. 9mm, 5.56, and this 7.62 one. I have a new PSA lower on which I'm gonna' install a 4th caliber when you'se guys suggest a good one.
Thanks for the feedback so far.

 

[silicosys4]

After I'm done shooting my stainless Ruger Old Army with BP, I disassemble and put it in the dishwasher for a cycle. Comes out sparkling clean and dry. Never had any rust issues.
It doesn't get any less nasty than that, IMO.
Check with your significant other before trying that, though.

 

[H&R Glock]

After a day at the range (2 wet days in a row) and cleaning my 9mm........... I got the 7.62 out of the damp basement and gave it a quick check. No rust anywhere. I even looked inside the flash hider to an area that was not intentionally wiped. No problem. The gun goes back into the black hole of rust for another week of torture.

 

[FROGO207]

For my BP revolvers I remove the grips and put it in a bucket of boiling water on the stove for 10 minutes. Then fish it out with a wire hook and let it cool. All moisture is evaporated by then. Then I remove the cylinder, clean it, run patches down the barrel, oil as needed and reassemble. Never any issues. For rifles I pour liberal amounts of boiling water through the barrel using a funnel from the muzzle with the breech plug removed. Let that cool, run patches till clear, then oil as needed. No issues there either.

 

[H&R Glock]

Frog- that is about what I did with my 98 Mauser. Boiling water thru the bore. I used a funnel with rubber gas line to channel the water. The bore dried itself in no time and then I ran an oily patch thru it. Never any corrosion problem.

 

[H&R Glock]

It's been 2 weeks now so I took the AR7.62 out of the pit and checked it over. There is no trace of corrosion anywhere. I took it to the range today and shot up another 60 rounds of that 1966 vintage commie ammo. When I got home my inventive mind produced a new tool. The "AR ENEMA" see picture:

Just happened to have some rubber hose that slipped on the gas tube. The syringe was filled with warm water and Windex mix. Followed by carb cleaner, brake cleaner then some WD-40.
The gas tube was the only part treated this way. Inner receiver scrubbed with Hoppes and toothbrush. BCG dismantled and treated the same way.
I spent more time gathering my equipment than cleaning the gun.