Is corrosive ammo that bad?
- Thread starter tipper
- Start date
a friend of mine did the same with his VZ or CZ or whatever, anyways he was bragging it up so we went out shooting, guess what, its now a paper weight. locked up solid the bolt is now one with the reciever. not cleaning the bolt and firing pin on a sks is asking for slamfires.
Look. Cleaning and maintaining your firearms is just a fact of firearms ownership. I quite frankly enjoy cleaning and maintaining my firearms (almost) as much as firing them. Good gun ownership is a responsibility, but is also a joy for me. If people are too lazy to want to clean and properly maintain their firearms, then they should sell them and take up knitting or some such other worthwhile hobby like posting selfies on Twitter...
This ^^^^^
If you're doing proper maintenance anyway, corrosive ammo is a non-issue.
I take pride in making sure that I know each of my firearms inside and out, and keep them well maintained. It isn't just a matter of maintaining the value of the rifle, but of ensuring safety. Stripping and cleaning a firearm after every use should be pretty much mandatory - you get to know it, and will spot problems long before they become a safety issue.
In a way, using corrosive ammo promotes safety, because it forces you to go through a strip and clean after every use. And as for wear and tear - again, a non issue. If you clean it properly all the time, you'll wear out the rifling of the barrel at exactly the same rate as you would if you didn't use corrosive.
I've noticed corrosive ammo seems to leave dark discoloration on the bolt and carrier...I clean my sks religiously...I even take the trigger group almost completely apart. no matter what I do, or what I use (short of scotch brite), some parts of the bolt just won't clean up...I just hot rinse and scrub everything really good and oil her up for storage, and wipe dry before shooting. after shooting and cleaning, i'll do a quick field strip after a few days, to inspect, and make sure nothing was missed.
Heres what I do, I'm new to the SKS and corrosive ammo so if I'm doing something damaging, PLEASE let me know.
-After shooting corrosive ammo through my SKS, I break it completely down except for taking the trigger group APART and I havent removed the firing pin yet.
-I spray all metal parts down with Brake Cleaner and wipe them down really well and blow them dry with an air nozzle.
-I spray Break Cleaner down the barrel and run a brush back and forth a couple times, then run a patch down it a couple times.
-I spray it down the gas tube and wipe it out with a few patches and Q-tips
-I spray it into the firing pin and work the pin back and forth and then blow air through it to clear it out.
-I spray Remoil on everything and then wipe it all off leaving just a very thin thin film on all parts, including inside the gas tube and the barrel.
So far the few times I have used it, it has functioned perfectly every time!
-After shooting corrosive ammo through my SKS, I break it completely down except for taking the trigger group APART and I havent removed the firing pin yet.
-I spray all metal parts down with Brake Cleaner and wipe them down really well and blow them dry with an air nozzle.
-I spray Break Cleaner down the barrel and run a brush back and forth a couple times, then run a patch down it a couple times.
-I spray it down the gas tube and wipe it out with a few patches and Q-tips
-I spray it into the firing pin and work the pin back and forth and then blow air through it to clear it out.
-I spray Remoil on everything and then wipe it all off leaving just a very thin thin film on all parts, including inside the gas tube and the barrel.
So far the few times I have used it, it has functioned perfectly every time!
Any problems with rust?
I'd strongly recommend removing the firing pin from the bolt. Take a piece of 2x4 and drill a hole in it that you can place the bolt on with the retainer pin over the hole. You can pick up a 1/8" pin punch at Lordco for less than ten bucks. Q-tips fit nicely in the firing pin hole. You'll be surprised how much crud comes out.
- Location
- Some where in bc
You have a picture you can show?
Actually, I advise against that... Flush it with water, blow it out with compressed air, use some C96, blow it out with compressed air. The firing pin channel is wide enough that I put the tip of the compressed air right up against the front of the firing pin, and when you blow through the channel, you can see any grit/grime oozing out the back. Repeat as necessary until you see the C96 coming out clean and clear.
Usually, it's just a matter of soaking, blowing, C96, blowing again. Done. You want to leave virtually no C96 in the pin channel, because it just serves to collect grit if you leave oil behind in there.
I personally advise NOT knocking out the retainer on a regular basis (maybe once a year, if you shoot a lot), because sooner or later, you'll bend or otherwise f**k up the retainer pin. You're more likely to cause problems than solve any. I'm not alone in that opinion, though I'll acknowledge there is a "remove the pin" school. The odds of either side agreeing are about the same as Catholics and Protestants suddenly deciding to undo the rift in the church.
I use glass cleaner in the bore, then clean with hopes solvent, then oil, I just clean the gas piston with oil. and dip it in the solvent, never had any problems with rust.
only time I ever had rust/corrosion on a cz 858 was when hunting in rain, fired the rifle at a deer first thing in the morning, with prvi partisan ammo then hunted the rest of the day, dryed the rifle off but didn't take the gas system apart, the piston had gotten mildly stuck in the gas cylinder the next morning, had to tap it out and clean it up with oil.
only time I ever had rust/corrosion on a cz 858 was when hunting in rain, fired the rifle at a deer first thing in the morning, with prvi partisan ammo then hunted the rest of the day, dryed the rifle off but didn't take the gas system apart, the piston had gotten mildly stuck in the gas cylinder the next morning, had to tap it out and clean it up with oil.
Right here, although Joce [svt1940] has a more detailed description in his great sticky. I've done this dozens of times with all four of my SKS's with no problems.
After shooting SKS, flush barrel with boiling water, then gas tube and block. Rinse bolt and firing pin with hot water also. Blow everything off with air (just to be sure nothing left!) and then oil any bare metal that was hit with water.
I use Ed's Red (and oil) on the bore, and follow the cleaning procedure outlined in the original recipe after flushing with water.
http://www.handloads.com/articles/?id=9
I use Ed's Red (and oil) on the bore, and follow the cleaning procedure outlined in the original recipe after flushing with water.
http://www.handloads.com/articles/?id=9
- Location
- Georgetown Ontario
I've pulled it off for many years! I liberally spray ammonia window cleaner, little bit of brushing then a normal cleaning. Works like a charm! My first SKS that I bought many years ago at a gun show (when they were still in Mississauga, bottom end of Mavis road) still looks like a champ even after several cases of corrosive.
Water still cuts the salts (hot or not) and the effectiveness of ammonia is hotly debated! but for me it works, never have used boiling water once and I now own 5 SKS's and a x39 XCR that all see the same treatment. If the windex method didn't work I would have no problem going to the boiling water method. Just a little more work involved.
