No magic in using Windex. It's mostly water and the other stuff in it doesn't do anything to remove the salts that water wouldn't do better. Nothing dissolves the salts better than water. Hoppes #9, GI bore solvent, and many other things will but nothing better than water.
Poll: How Do You Clean Your Mosin?
- Thread starter Krozi
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caribou
Member
The Soviets used a water based "Alkali solution" with a few added helpers...
In the deep cold, boiling water was recommended.
Essentially lye solution applied to flax hemp oakum fibers attached to the jag at the end of the rifle's cleaning rod, with a muzzle crown protector in place. Rifle was held by the soldat between the knees and the mess scrubbed up and down inside the bore. There is a chapter in the official manual on the procedure.When things dipped below zero the soldat was directed to thin down the winter lubricant No. 21 with kerosene. Dissolving and removeing the corrosive salts from the priming was the reason for a water based solution.
The British Army, Navy and Home Guard poured six imperial pints of boiling water down the barrel, followed that up with a "flannelette" or patch on a pull-through, and then finished with a single oiled patch. They were issed funnels made just for the job.
In the deep cold, boiling water was recommended.
Essentially lye solution applied to flax hemp oakum fibers attached to the jag at the end of the rifle's cleaning rod, with a muzzle crown protector in place. Rifle was held by the soldat between the knees and the mess scrubbed up and down inside the bore. There is a chapter in the official manual on the procedure.When things dipped below zero the soldat was directed to thin down the winter lubricant No. 21 with kerosene. Dissolving and removeing the corrosive salts from the priming was the reason for a water based solution.
The British Army, Navy and Home Guard poured six imperial pints of boiling water down the barrel, followed that up with a "flannelette" or patch on a pull-through, and then finished with a single oiled patch. They were issed funnels made just for the job.
JHansenAK47
Member
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn mentioned very specifically about punishing one of the soldiers under his command for not cleaning his rifle in his book Gulag Archipelago.
I carry a small bottle of Windex with amonia and add some extra amonia to it. After I fire the last shot (while the barrel is hot) I break out the cleaning rod and patches, dip them in the mix and swab out the bore until the patches come out almost clean (2 or 3 patches). I also carry a small bottle of bore cleaner (Ed's Red) and run 2 patches down the bore, then a oil patch. After 5 years of shooting bore is still bright.
Same here. Just don't understand the need for water in a barrel.
1. Immediately after shooting, at the range, I put some East German Army gun oil on a patch and run it through the bore.
2. At home, I put my Mosin barrel-down in the bathtub (muzzle resting on an old rag) and pour boiling water mixed with soap down the barrel from the breech end. I let the water sit there for a minute or two before lifting the rifle and letting it out. I repeat this process at least once.
I also wipe the the bolt face and the tip of the firing pin with hot soapy water.
3. Then, I wipe everything dry, run a dry patch through the bore, and clean the gun with the East German gun oil. This oil was developed for dealing with corrosive ammo. No one knows what's in it, but its smell makes my girlfriend cough within seconds from 15 feet away.
4. Then comes another dry patch and finally a patch soaked in my standard gun oil.
I'll have to do without step 3 as soon as I move in with my girlfriend, so I voted for "boiling water with a funnel" (although I prefer to use a cute little watering can).
2. At home, I put my Mosin barrel-down in the bathtub (muzzle resting on an old rag) and pour boiling water mixed with soap down the barrel from the breech end. I let the water sit there for a minute or two before lifting the rifle and letting it out. I repeat this process at least once.
I also wipe the the bolt face and the tip of the firing pin with hot soapy water.
3. Then, I wipe everything dry, run a dry patch through the bore, and clean the gun with the East German gun oil. This oil was developed for dealing with corrosive ammo. No one knows what's in it, but its smell makes my girlfriend cough within seconds from 15 feet away.
4. Then comes another dry patch and finally a patch soaked in my standard gun oil.
I'll have to do without step 3 as soon as I move in with my girlfriend, so I voted for "boiling water with a funnel" (although I prefer to use a cute little watering can).
caribou
Member
It seems backward, but water is the solution to the pollution in the barrel......it Boiling water heats the steel of the barrel and it dries itself in under a minute.
The need for water is simply to dissolve and flush the salts that are used in the priming, and are spewed the entire length of the barrel, attracting water and bring on rust to the exposed steel.
After a dissolving flush, a scrub with any solvent and patches definitely takes any problems the water might bring on. A light oiling and the barrel is ready to wait for its next use.
Boiling water has always been the best way to clean Black Powder weapons as well.
Im fair to middling sure that any soldier in any Army anywhere in the world had to keep his weapon clean, no different than anyone elses gun, Hunters, Civilians, ect, 'cept that punishment would be a greater motivator, and getting the job done properly was the goal.
The need for water is simply to dissolve and flush the salts that are used in the priming, and are spewed the entire length of the barrel, attracting water and bring on rust to the exposed steel.
After a dissolving flush, a scrub with any solvent and patches definitely takes any problems the water might bring on. A light oiling and the barrel is ready to wait for its next use.
Boiling water has always been the best way to clean Black Powder weapons as well.
Im fair to middling sure that any soldier in any Army anywhere in the world had to keep his weapon clean, no different than anyone elses gun, Hunters, Civilians, ect, 'cept that punishment would be a greater motivator, and getting the job done properly was the goal.
Actually, the ammonia in Windex dissolves some of the corrosive salts.
I've read that Russian soldiers in the field would fill the barrel and chamber with urine to dissolve the corrosives. Seems reasonable, but I wouldn't recommend it at your local range.
I've read that Russian soldiers in the field would fill the barrel and chamber with urine to dissolve the corrosives. Seems reasonable, but I wouldn't recommend it at your local range.
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Normandy, read Hatchers Notebook on corrosive salts. Nothing dissolves them better than water. The tests used to determine this are outlined in Hatchers. Household ammonia (in its natural state ammonia is a gas) will dissolve the salts too but not as good as water. Ammonia came to be used for 2 reasons:
1. After years of telling soldiers to keep their rifles dry and free of rust it was a bit confusing to tell them to use water to clean the bore. Household ammonia is a cleaner so this made sense to soldiers.
2. Ammonia helps to remove copper deposits.
There are many things which will dissolve the salts like Hoppes #9 and old GI bore cleaner but water is best.
1. After years of telling soldiers to keep their rifles dry and free of rust it was a bit confusing to tell them to use water to clean the bore. Household ammonia is a cleaner so this made sense to soldiers.
2. Ammonia helps to remove copper deposits.
There are many things which will dissolve the salts like Hoppes #9 and old GI bore cleaner but water is best.
BluesDancer
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Nice, this poll is easy! Boiling water down the barrel without a funnel. After that I shove a patch soaked with BreakFree CLP through the barrel and call it a day. It works, and it works very well...period.
FROGO207
Member
I do not shoot corrosive ammo in mine. Problem bypassed. I reload my lot of brass with non corrosive ingredients and accurate hunting projectiles. If I want to shoot a metric butt load of rifle rounds inexpensively I will do it with either the 308 or 223/5.56. The way to deal with corrosive ammo is to use boiling water ASAP. Use enough to heat the barrel and boil the bolt in said water before pouring it down the breach Then clean and lube as normal using oil based cleaner/lube of your choice.
RC has it again! You can't treat your Mosin too good or it will expect this treatment every time.
Problem bypassed. I reload my lot of brass with non corrosive ingredients and accurate hunting projectiles. If I want to shoot a metric butt load of rifle rounds inexpensively I will do it with either the 308 or 223/5.56. The way to deal with corrosive ammo is to use boiling water ASAP. Use enough to heat the barrel and boil the bolt in said water before pouring it down the breach Then clean and lube as normal using oil based cleaner/lube of your choice.RC has it again! You can't treat your Mosin too good or it will expect this treatment every time.
gandog56
Member
How about a Hoppe's #9 air freshener?
http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/newshound/2010/08/stroke-marketing-genius-hoppes-no-9-air-freshener
Ash
Member
Cleaning corrosive salts are no big deal. I sometimes use USGI cleaner for corrosive ammo or any of the water-based cleaning products meant for guns. I've shot Mosins for 20 years and no rusty barrels that were of my making.
Steel Horse Rider
Member
I find it pretty amazing that well over 50% of the Mosin owners who responded do not use the water method we are told on a regular basis MUST be used in order to prevent any weapon which has fired corrosive PRIMED ammo from instantly becoming a pile of rust. Think about it a while.......
Hammer059
Member
In mother russia… Mosin clean you!
Ash
Member
Patterns of thought begin and get repeated. This happens everywhere and they get repeated as truth. After a while, everyone believes it. Then, some folks scratch their head and begin wondering. Then they speak from time to time and others begin to wonder. Then the mantra becomes hollow.
gandog56
Member
It still gets me that people think the ammonia in Windex does anything for the corrosive salts. First of all there isn't even enough ammonia in the stuff to even do even anything for copper deposits, which is about the only good thing about ammonia. It's the WATER in the Windex that dissolves the corrosive crap, not the ammonia.
I remove the bolt, put the muzzle down on a folded towel, and fill the barrel with Windex.
I use the Windex soaked towel to wipe down the bolt face and receiver innards.
Then Breakfree LCP on all the metal, leaving a bit in the bolt channels and in the bolt.
I use the Windex soaked towel to wipe down the bolt face and receiver innards.
Then Breakfree LCP on all the metal, leaving a bit in the bolt channels and in the bolt.
Comrade Mike
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I don't shoot corrosive ammo in it so clean regularly.
Also windex does nothing for corrosive salts that plain water won't do. Stop using it.
Also windex does nothing for corrosive salts that plain water won't do. Stop using it.
kBob
Member
Well I did take it into the shower with me without the wood. Both of us in the altogether as it were. Unfortunately I dropped it once and spalded a divot from the enameled iron tub which my wife pointed out many times before we remodeled the bath rooms.
I use some octagon soap in a gallon milk jug with the spout cut off and pump warm soapy water up and down the barrel with a patch and rod......same as I do my BP stuff. Then pour hot, clean tap water through it.
When dry I put what ever greasy stuff that is at hand on it, everything from drips of motor oil from my truck's dip stick to Ballistol. When everything has been dried and then lubed up I drop it back in the stock.
Scientific, it ain't.
-kBob
I use some octagon soap in a gallon milk jug with the spout cut off and pump warm soapy water up and down the barrel with a patch and rod......same as I do my BP stuff. Then pour hot, clean tap water through it.
When dry I put what ever greasy stuff that is at hand on it, everything from drips of motor oil from my truck's dip stick to Ballistol. When everything has been dried and then lubed up I drop it back in the stock.
Scientific, it ain't.
-kBob
kBob
Member
Don't be surprised if some other old fart does not come on and tell you about how taking M-1 Garands and Springfield 03's and M1917's to the shower was a common thing. It was the Army and the Corps recommended way of dealing with possible corrosive priming. Followed by two more cleanings over a couple of days with RBC.
I had a ancient platoon sarge ( Korean War vintage) in the early 1970's that learned it that way and no amount of explaining to him that 5.56mm M193 used in the US army was non corrosive would prevent him from "strongly encouraging" us to take our M16 A1 rifles to the shower.
-kBob
I had a ancient platoon sarge ( Korean War vintage) in the early 1970's that learned it that way and no amount of explaining to him that 5.56mm M193 used in the US army was non corrosive would prevent him from "strongly encouraging" us to take our M16 A1 rifles to the shower.
-kBob
gandog56
Member
I guess it was better than the Russians who were told to pee down their barrels if they had nothing better.
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