Chinses Ammo Surplus Corrosive or Non Corrosive 7.62x39 9mm

[CrazyHands13]

So is this stuff from the 1980's truly non-corrosive?

http://www.leverarms.com/products/chinese-military-surplus-7-62x39-fmj

 

[Hornblower_83]

So is this stuff from the 1980's truly non-corrosive?

http://www.leverarms.com/products/chinese-military-surplus-7-62x39-fmj

I'm curious as well

 

[Phat Eagle]

This ammo has been best to death... Lever swears up and down its non-corrosive. I (and many others) completed my own bright nail test on it. I found that roughly 1/3 was corrosive in the 50 or so rounds I checked.

No thanks!

 

[CrazyHands13]

This ammo has been best to death... Lever swears up and down its non-corrosive. I (and many others) completed my own bright nail test on it. I found that roughly 1/3 was corrosive in the 50 or so rounds I checked.

No thanks!

Hmm, that's a shame, but thanks for sharing your results!

 

[jmichelin84]

I have to ask the Romanian surplus, is it corrosive or non?

 

[ShawnC6]

I have to ask the Romanian surplus, is it corrosive or non?

corrosive

 

[jmichelin84]

corrosive

Damn, I gotta clean the sky rifles again then lol, need more nitro cleaner tho

 

[Noob_]

Corrosive

 

[Slamfyre]

So is this stuff from the 1980's truly non-corrosive?

http://www.leverarms.com/products/chinese-military-surplus-7-62x39-fmj

Lever arms says in their website that their non corrosive Chinese surplus is 1980s production. I might be wrong, but I understand that the two numbers stamped on the case represent the production plant number and the year it was produced. Based on this, the crates that I've gotten seem to be produced in 2007 and 2008 in plant #61. See for yourselves:

 

[Slamfyre]

This ammo has been best to death... Lever swears up and down its non-corrosive. I (and many others) completed my own bright nail test on it. I found that roughly 1/3 was corrosive in the 50 or so rounds I checked.

No thanks!

This is probably the 6th or 7th time I post this same report in different cgn threads...

This is the ammo that I use on paper targets on our tacrifle matches, phateagle. I use other lead cores for steel targets.

Lever arms surplus Chinese did turn out non corrosive for me. I've had about 1,600 rounds of it through my CZ858 and there's no trace of any corrosion anywhere. And I've left it dirty, marinating in the burnt residue of this surplus for many days and on several occasions. I even documented it with pictures on another thread.

Here's said report:
While non-corrosive, this ammo did leave, IMO, more than the usual amount fine soot that got everywhere. For lubrication I usually use a heavier, more viscous oil. When the soot is mixed with this oil, it forms a black grease like substance - see image of piston at the base where the spring would go. I don't think this is detrimental to function. It just looks nasty. From now on, I'll only use G96 for lubrication on the CZ 858.

After the 275 round session, the piston face that receives the full direct brunt of gases had a rough surface. I lightly scratched a little bit of that roughness to find out what kind of residue it was made of. It looks like it is made of leftovers from the copper wash. The scratches revealed reddish bright metallic color tone of copper. The opposing side on the gas cylinder didn't show any signs of this metallic copper residue.

Did not do any grouping on paper to test the accuracy, but I can say I was consistently ringing a 9"x9" gong standing offhand at 100m. I did find some cartridges that had some small dents somewhere in the case. I also found some split necks. In spite of these, all fired reliably except for one: there was one case of a failure to feed that was quickly fixed with a forward assist. Later on, as I was reloading the stripper clips I found a cartridge that had a longitudinally bent case. I suspect that the one failure to feed was also due to a longitudinally bent case.

All in all, I'm happy with the results. Please excuse the defective focusing prowess of my camera phone for macro close ups. I also tried to get good pictures of the inside of the barrel, but I was disappointed. Suffice to say that after 96 hours the barrel looked very clean giving out a very slightly dull shine. Now here are the photos of the dirty rifle after 96 hours:

 

[westrifle]

There is many people who did true non corrosive test and it is all corrosive. ALL MILITARY AMMUNITION PRIOR TO 1993 is corrosive ammo because of primer. It was simply cheaper to produce it like that.

Cheers

This is probably the 6th or 7th time I post this same report in different cgn threads...

This is the ammo that I use on paper targets on our tacrifle matches, phateagle. I use other lead cores for steel targets.

Lever arms surplus Chinese did turn out non corrosive for me. I've had about 1,600 rounds of it through my CZ858 and there's no trace of any corrosion anywhere. And I've left it dirty, marinating in the burnt residue of this surplus for many days and on several occasions. I even documented it with pictures on another thread.

Here's said report:
While non-corrosive, this ammo did leave, IMO, more than the usual amount fine soot that got everywhere. For lubrication I usually use a heavier, more viscous oil. When the soot is mixed with this oil, it forms a black grease like substance - see image of piston at the base where the spring would go. I don't think this is detrimental to function. It just looks nasty. From now on, I'll only use G96 for lubrication on the CZ 858.

After the 275 round session, the piston face that receives the full direct brunt of gases had a rough surface. I lightly scratched a little bit of that roughness to find out what kind of residue it was made of. It looks like it is made of leftovers from the copper wash. The scratches revealed reddish bright metallic color tone of copper. The opposing side on the gas cylinder didn't show any signs of this metallic copper residue.

Did not do any grouping on paper to test the accuracy, but I can say I was consistently ringing a 9"x9" gong standing offhand at 100m. I did find some cartridges that had some small dents somewhere in the case. I also found some split necks. In spite of these, all fired reliably except for one: there was one case of a failure to feed that was quickly fixed with a forward assist. Later on, as I was reloading the stripper clips I found a cartridge that had a longitudinally bent case. I suspect that the one failure to feed was also due to a longitudinally bent case.

All in all, I'm happy with the results. Please excuse the defective focusing prowess of my camera phone for macro close ups. I also tried to get good pictures of the inside of the barrel, but I was disappointed. Suffice to say that after 96 hours the barrel looked very clean giving out a very slightly dull shine. Now here are the photos of the dirty rifle after 96 hours:

 

[05RAV]

There is many people who did true non corrosive test and it is all corrosive. ALL MILITARY AMMUNITION PRIOR TO 1993 is corrosive ammo because of primer. It was simply cheaper to produce it like that.

Cheers

Quote Originally Posted by Slamfyre View Post
This is probably the 6th or 7th time I post this same report in different cgn threads...
This is the ammo that I use on paper targets on our tacrifle matches, phateagle. I use other lead cores for steel targets.
Lever arms surplus Chinese did turn out non corrosive for me. I've had about 1,600 rounds of it through my CZ858 and there's no trace of any corrosion anywhere. And I've left it dirty, marinating in the burnt residue of this surplus for many days and on several occasions. I even documented it with pictures on another thread.
Here's said report:
While non-corrosive, this ammo did leave, IMO, more than the usual amount fine soot that got everywhere. For lubrication I usually use a heavier, more viscous oil. When the soot is mixed with this oil, it forms a black grease like substance - see image of piston at the base where the spring would go. I don't think this is detrimental to function. It just looks nasty. From now on, I'll only use G96 for lubrication on the CZ 858.
After the 275 round session, the piston face that receives the full direct brunt of gases had a rough surface. I lightly scratched a little bit of that roughness to find out what kind of residue it was made of. It looks like it is made of leftovers from the copper wash. The scratches revealed reddish bright metallic color tone of copper. The opposing side on the gas cylinder didn't show any signs of this metallic copper residue.
Did not do any grouping on paper to test the accuracy, but I can say I was consistently ringing a 9"x9" gong standing offhand at 100m. I did find some cartridges that had some small dents somewhere in the case. I also found some split necks. In spite of these, all fired reliably except for one: there was one case of a failure to feed that was quickly fixed with a forward assist. Later on, as I was reloading the stripper clips I found a cartridge that had a longitudinally bent case. I suspect that the one failure to feed was also due to a longitudinally bent case.
All in all, I'm happy with the results. Please excuse the defective focusing prowess of my camera phone for macro close ups. I also tried to get good pictures of the inside of the barrel, but I was disappointed. Suffice to say that after 96 hours the barrel looked very clean giving out a very slightly dull shine. Now here are the photos of the dirty rifle after 96 hours:

Slamfyre is right. The Lever Arms ammo is non-corrosive (or slightly corrosive at worst), at least the one which we have. I bought around 6 months ago, 2 crates (3,000 rds) of that ammo from Lever Arms. I have exactly the same experience as Slamfyre. The headstamp on my cartridges shows 61/08 which means that the ammo was produced in 2008 in a factory #61 in the PRC. Thus, the ammo was NOT produced prior to 1993! The Lever Arms ammo uses post-1990's modern primers!
The Lever Arms' website says: "1980's export production". I guess that this is a mistake arising from reading upside-down the headstamp which would then show 80/19. But I'm not sure.
All corrosive Chinese 7.62x39 mm cartridges which I bought from other suppliers have a clear red band/sealant around the bullet where it enters the case. The Lever Arms cartridges do not have any red markings which may indicate at the first look that they are non-corrosive.

 

[CrazyHands13]

Well this has been eye opening. Thanks Slamfyre for the write-up and clearing this up. Looks like I'll be getting some of the Lever-Arms stuff!

 

[westrifle]

You are completely wrong on 2008 production. I called lever arms and asked. They told me that on the box it is 1980 production, In the beginning of this thread there is video on how to test it. Can someone please do the test and tell us the findings.

Slamfyre is right. The Lever Arms ammo is non-corrosive (or slightly corrosive at worst), at least the one which we have. I bought around 6 months ago, 2 crates (3,000 rds) of that ammo from Lever Arms. I have exactly the same experience as Slamfyre. The headstamp on my cartridges shows 61/08 which means that the ammo was produced in 2008 in a factory #61 in the PRC. Thus, the ammo was NOT produced prior to 1993! The Lever Arms ammo uses post-1990's modern primers!
The Lever Arms' website says: "1980's export production". I guess that this is a mistake arising from reading upside-down the headstamp which would then show 80/19. But I'm not sure.
All corrosive Chinese 7.62x39 mm cartridges which I bought from other suppliers have a clear red band/sealant around the bullet where it enters the case. The Lever Arms cartridges do not have any red markings which may indicate at the first look that they are non-corrosive.

 

[westrifle]

Cracked casings
Dave Porter on Aug 27, 2016
I bought a case about a month ago. I like the non corrosive aspect.
I have found some rounds to be slightly damaged, but worse I found the reason I was finding cracked casings after shooting is because I am now finding cracked casings in some of the un-used cartridges. It appears many of the casings were cracked when they were loaded. FAIL!
it is Chinese military Ball ammo, FMJ. they are not high precision rounds. they are produced in volume for the military, they work flawlessly for what they are deigned for "BULK". if you expect pretty bullet 1500X ammo crates will cost you way more that $325.

Fusion 762X39 123 gr commercial ammo will run you $30 per 20... it ll run you $2250 per 1500x .. do the count.

if the rounds failed or did not fire or have actual issues i would investigate but if the only complain you have is the casing is slightly cracked on some rounds,.. that is not an issue.

- Lever Arms Service Ltd.

 

[05RAV]

Quote Originally Posted by 05RAV View Post
Slamfyre is right. The Lever Arms ammo is non-corrosive (or slightly corrosive at worst), at least the one which we have. I bought around 6 months ago, 2 crates (3,000 rds) of that ammo from Lever Arms. I have exactly the same experience as Slamfyre. The headstamp on my cartridges shows 61/08 which means that the ammo was produced in 2008 in a factory #61 in the PRC. Thus, the ammo was NOT produced prior to 1993! The Lever Arms ammo uses post-1990's modern primers!
The Lever Arms' website says: "1980's export production". I guess that this is a mistake arising from reading upside-down the headstamp which would then show 80/19. But I'm not sure.
All corrosive Chinese 7.62x39 mm cartridges which I bought from other suppliers have a clear red band/sealant around the bullet where it enters the case. The Lever Arms cartridges do not have any red markings which may indicate at the first look that they are non-corrosive.

You are completely wrong on 2008 production. I called lever arms and asked. They told me that on the box it is 1980 production, In the beginning of this thread there is video on how to test it. Can someone please do the test and tell us the findings.

Apparently you don't know how to read a year of production from a headstamp of a Chinese military cartridge (Ammunition headstamp has the arsenal number at 12 o'clock and the last 2 digits of the year of manufacture at 6 o'clock). On the ammo from Lever Arms it's 61/08 which means the production year of 2008 and the factory # 61. I suspect that Lever Arms reads it upside down.
The ammo I bought from Lever Arms is of a very good quality. After shooting my SKS (bought from you guys at Westrifle) there is just a little of dirt left. Very clean ammo. Never seen any cracked cartridges.
I also shoot it in my Zastava M85. In this case it's a bit tight in a chamber sometimes. I also use another typical Chinese corrosive 7.62x39mm ammo with a headstamp 31/73 which means a production year 1973 and the factory # 31. This one leaves my SKS very dirty. A lot of carbon deposit.
The Lever Arms' ammo is not so cheap for someone leaving in Ontario, like myself. With taxes and shipping it costs me $0.29/cartridge. The other corrosive Chinese ammo I have comes to $0.23/cartridge. However, the ammo from Lever Arms' is still cheaper for me than the 7.62x39mm Tulammo that comes to nearly $0.59/cartridge and is definitely non-corrosive. On top of it, both my 61/08 and 31/73 ammo seem to be slightly more accurate than Tulammo.

 

[bluevalley84]

Just got a crate of this from lever arms. After going through one spam can I found about 40 rounds out of the 750 were cracked at the head. Ill be doing the nail test tomorrow

 

[Jesuswon]

wow

 

[05RAV]

Just got a crate of this from lever arms. After going through one spam can I found about 40 rounds out of the 750 were cracked at the head. Ill be doing the nail test tomorrow

Can you provide evidence of those cracked heads, like pictures? The numbers on a headstamp?

 

[westrifle]

Just got a crate of this from lever arms. After going through one spam can I found about 40 rounds out of the 750 were cracked at the head. Ill be doing the nail test tomorrow

What is Lever Arms comment on it? Can you bring the cracked one and get a refund ?