A strange way to clean rifle after shooting corrosive ammo?

I used to fully disassemble my x39 and x54R rifles and run kettle or two of boiling water through barrel and action before cleaning. Now I just clean them with hoppe's 9 and use ATF for lube/rust protection - and results are the same. I don't have any problems with rust.
 
As I have noted you can shoot your gun for years with cheaper, and I say, healthier corrosive ammo, clean it properly and your gun will suffer no adverse effects. Or you can shoot it once with corrosive ammo and clean it only with Hoppes 9, Outers Gun Cleaner, or any other common gun cleaner and be well on your way to ruining your gun, after that first time.

Common gun cleaners make lots of wild claims on their labels - BUT they don't even claim to clean-out the corrosive salts, left from firing corrosive ammo.

Shoot corrosive ammo and omit the initial flushing out of the corrosive salts with water or, Windex or, diluted Ballistol (A.K.A "Moose Milk") or a diluted mix of Hornady One Shot Muzzleloader Cleaner and you will ruin your gun! Don't believe me? Do your own tests - like I did (see LINK below):

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1383124-Ruin-your-gun-shoot-corrosive-ammo-and-clean-it-with-Hoppes-9-Frog-Juice-etc?p=12473022&viewfull=1#post12473022
 
Ballistol, on their website, advise using an emulsion of 10% ballistol, 90% water for the initial flush. This emulates certain military cleaning procedures where the water took care of the salts and the oil in the emulsion remained to protect the bore after the water was swabbed out or dried. Makes sense if you're in the field and need a simplified procedure. If you're at home in the garage the oil in the initial treatment serves no real purpose as you can fully dry the water out then oil the bore (or continue cleaning with normal bore solvents). There have also been efforts to use ethanol or methanol in solutions as the bad salts do have some (minor) solubility in them- look on Hoppes No. 9 and you'll see ethanol in the ingredients. But check out a chemical handbook and you'll see the solubility of KCl in either is orders of magnitude lower than in pure water. If you use these and don't see corrosion it may only be due to the humidity where you live. I believe if the level in the air is low enough corrosion won't occur- my meter reads 30% this morning.

milsurpo
 
I thought in the many discussions it always go back to hot water, seems like an electric kettle and the laundry tub is the way to go.
 
Umka said:
I used to fully disassemble my x39 and x54R rifles and run kettle or two of boiling water through barrel and action before cleaning. Now I just clean them with hoppe's 9 and use ATF for lube/rust protection - and results are the same. I don't have any problems with rust.
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Agreed, used to always pour boiling water all over rifle. Now just a good cleaning. Most of the time just g96 and leave a thin layer in barrel gas system as well as action. Hardly shoot anymore and still no rust and shinny bores. I think we over think the corrosive ammo. Clean and lube is all you need. Not as humid in lower BC than other areas I suppose. Never had any issue to date.

That being said. Don't clean it and suffer. I do have an SKS that was test fired 20-30 years ago and put in storage. The lands on the chrome lined barrel are very corroded and even missing in some areas. Believe it or not. Still shots as good as my shinny new looking ones!!
 
Before I leave the range I fire at least 2 non-corrosive rounds to blow out any salts in the barrel and action.

Then clean/rinse as normal when I get home.

Individual results may vary.
 
hayday said:
Or you can shoot it once with corrosive ammo and clean it only with Hoppes 9, Outers Gun Cleaner, or any other common gun cleaner and be well on your way to ruining your gun, after that first time.

Shoot corrosive ammo and omit the initial flushing out of the corrosive salts with water or, Windex or, diluted Ballistol (A.K.A "Moose Milk") or a diluted mix of Hornady One Shot Muzzleloader Cleaner and you will ruin your gun!
Click to expand...

Perhaps you're exaggerating for some effect but if that was remotely true I would have several piles of rusting metal in my gun safe now.
 
weasel1 said:
Gunzilla claims to neutralize corrosive salts. Anyone give that a try?

morganproductscanada.com/gunzilla.html
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Snake oil. You are not neutralizing anything, the salts are already neutral ph.

You need to flush away the salts or they will pull moisture from the air. And as anyone who's ever cooked pasta will tell you, salt dissolves in water.
 
Hoppes #9 on everything use a small tooth brush and a narrow nylon bristle type brush/pipe cleaner for the gas port and the firing pin channel in the bolt. Then apply oil as usual. Been doing this for several years and not a spec of corrosion. Hoppes #9 is designed to clean up after using corrosive powder and/or primers.
 
Beermaker said:
Hoppes #9 on everything use a small tooth brush and a narrow nylon bristle type brush/pipe cleaner for the gas port and the firing pin channel in the bolt. Then apply oil as usual. Been doing this for several years and not a spec of corrosion. Hoppes #9 is designed to clean up after using corrosive powder and/or primers.
Click to expand...

this!

I got set of brushes from amazon - they are perfect for sks/svt gas systems, firing pin channel, svt muzzlebrake etc
brushes.jpg
 
|Shot some commercial Russian soft point out of my Mosin one time and didn't realize it was corrosive. Holy smoke!!!

Good thing I looked down the bore a few days after. It was all rusty and crusty in there. Took a pile of work to scrub it clean again. I think I had Sweet's 7.62 at the time, an ammonia-based cleaner.
 
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