I goofed..corrosive ammo neglected cleaning

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ghostntheshell

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Ok. Here's my shameful story. I have a beautiful m1 garand that had never
Seen corrosive ammo until this summer. I fired 8 rounds. Forgot it surplus (as I always shoot newly manufactured.

Let the gun sit for four months.

I finally got around to my guns and when I checked the garand a brown dusting out of the barrel. It rusted. I've owned this gun for years and there has never been a spot of rust.

I need some advice on taking care of this asap.
Anyone with experience in making this right?

My fave gun too and I let it rust!

Lesson learned. Any help would be appreciated. I'll post some pictures if I can
 
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Chances are its all supeficial if its only been a few months, also how humid is your area?. A oily patch will probably take it right off if it is a "light dusting".
 
Soak it down with WD-40 and let it soak then plenty of passes with a wire brush alternating with patches until they come out clean. Hope it didn't ruin the bore completely. Also tear down the gas system and clean as that will rust like hell as well. My 2 cents, some Garand guys may come along with better advice.
 
John Sukey is right again: ALL the American WW2 .30-'06 ammo was corrosive. ONLY noncorrosive '06 ammo of WW2 was Canadian-made, headstamped VC_45.

ALL .30 M-1 Carbine ammo, though, is noncorrosive. It uses the small primer and the Army did not have a specification for the filling of a small primer, so they accepted Winchester's (noncorrosive) primer as the standard for the new cartridge in order to get it into production faster.

SOME American-made .30-'06 military ammo was still corrosive as late as 1954, so be warned.

I did the same thing once upon a time, although not with a Garand but with one of my straight-pull Mannlichers. A stainless-steel Tornado brush does a good job of removing surface rust from inside a barrel, but make certain that you are using a NEW brush, not one with the little loops all broken: they can scratch your bore. In desperation, I have used a little plug of Extra-Fine or Superfine-grade steel-wool (which is actually spun soft iron): make up a twist of the stuff and put it into the bore, compact with a cleaning-rod at both ends and drive slowly through the bore. ONE pass should loosen anything nasty. Follow up with a thorough scrubbing with Hoppe's and you should be away easy.

Hope this helps.
.
 
Brush the bore with solvent, patch out, and then check for pitting. Depending on humidity levels, several months w/o cleaning could cause pits to form as a result of primer salts in the bore attracting ambient moisture. If you are lucky it will be surface rust which has not gone on to pitting. Once a bore has become pitted there is no way of removing the pits.

I would only contemplate a stainless steel brush if the bore is really grotty. JB paste is useful, but nothing can remove rust pits once they have formed.

The cleaning routine with corrosive ammo is to use hot water which will disolve the salt residue from corrosive primers. The US military issued tins of water based bore solvent (very foul smelling stuff) for this purpose.
 
Since you're unfamiliar with corrosive ammo and most people haven't said - hot soapy water will get rid of any remaining salts. Oils will just cover them and they'll reactivate when air/moisture gets on them. Probably not much left after 4 months, but worth it to be sure. Also, may as well strip the whole gun down - if you've got to do a solid cleaning may as well make sure it hasn't gotten anywhere else.
 
Thanks for the reponses guys. I'd hate to buy another barrel over 8 bullets of corrosive ammo and a lapse in judgement.

I'm going to break it down tomorrow and go at it. The Sks I was using had corrosive ammo and there isn't a spec of rust.

My poor poor garand.

How obvious will pitting be? If it's present
 
I wouldn't weep too much until I had given it a good going over and seen the actual condition of the bore. If the bore was mirror bright and smooth beforehand you will be able to tell the difference after you have cleaned it.

To examine the Garand bore you can use any of the following methods; a military bore reflector inserted in the chamber with muzzle held up to a light source, a piece of white paper inserted in the breech and held up to a light source as you examine it from the muzzle end, or one of those little gooseneck LED flashlites that you buy at CTire with the light inserted in the breech as you check from the muzzle.

The gas cylinder, gas plug, and lock are made of stainless steel and are pretty much rust resistant. Ditto for the piston on the end of the op rod. You need to check and clean the barrel exterior around the gas port (post WW2 barrels are chrome plated in this area as a rust preventative) as well as the forward portion of the op rod which are also prone to rust. You will want to clean and check the chamber as well as the bolt face.
 
This kinda stuff happens to everyone just clean it well as soon as you can remember i use post it notes when i shoot cor... stuff to remind myself to clean the crap out of as soon i can.
 
Okie dokie.

I bought:

(1) carbon fiber cleaning rod
(2) litter of hoppes 9
(3) bore snake
(4) two new bore brushes
(5) jp bore bright *only to be used if needed*
(6) hoppes 9 oil
(7) lot's of patches. Lot's.
(8) match grade commercial m1 garand ammo
(9) foaming hoppes bore cleaner


So I'm going to do the boiling water first. Pour it down the barrel.

Hoppes foaming bore cleaner and let it sit.

Bore brush.

Inspect.

Hoppes 9 and bore snake.

Inspect.

If bore is rust free - learn valuable lesson. If still any rust try the bore bright.





Sound good?
 
ghostntheshell said:
Ok. Here's my shameful story. I have a beautiful m1 garland that had never
Seen corrosive ammo until this summer. I fired 8 rounds. Forgot it surplus (as I always shoot newly manufactured.

Let the gun sit for four months.

I finally got around to my guns and when I checked the garland a brown dusting out of the barrel. It rusted. I've owned this gun for years and there has never been a spot of rust.

I need some advise on taking care of this asap.
Anyone with experience in making this right?

My fave gun too and I let it rust!

Lesson learned. Any help would be appreciated. I'll post some pictures if I can
Click to expand...



Garland is an American Oven manufacturer, so corrosive stuff shouldn't matter at all.
Seems like you are not only negligent in cleaning your "priced" firearms!
 
Clean it as normal, you can always run some brass wool soaked in solvent on a brush or wrapped around a jag to help if its stubborn.
 
No point in using both a rod and a snake.
Scrub the bore out well.
Shoot it.
Clean it again. Thoroughly. Inspect it.
Even if the bore isn't quite as bright as it once was, I bet you won't notice any deterioration in the rifle's accuracy.
Just a thought - folks are referring to surface rust. Is there subsurface rust?
 
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