I'm seeing quite a few questions about cleaning corrosive salts after firing surplus ammo, no doubt triggered by the flood of cheap Russian SKS rifles on the market. I've been dealing with this for quite some time, and after some trial and error and research, I've found an easy way to reliably clean a rifle...
Among all the firearm communities there has been some back and forth on the ammonia in Windex cleaning the corrosive salts in a rifle. I used to be a fan, but at the same time, generally speaking, cleaning the rifle thoroughly using bore solvent or other chemicals will prevent the salts from causing rust, so if you are using Windex in addition to bore solvent, you're being redundant.
Keep in mind I still use Windex as a stop gap measure when I don't have all the time to clean a rifle, but I highly doubt that the windex without the scrubbing and wiping will prevent rust in the long term.
So with Windex aside, in reality, there is one universally accepted non-harsh chemical method to cleaning a rifle after shooting corrrosive ammo: running boiling water over the metalic parts followed by a thorough wiping down.
The working theory is that the heated water washes down the salts and the wiping cleans anything that is left over.
The working theory works, and it works well. Proven time and time again.
The only real issue I have with boiling water is that it's a pain in the rear. You need a funnel, you need to wait for water to boil, then you pour it down the metal (into a tub or something) which can often lead to being splashed with hot water... all in all it's not fun, and it's a major pain in the rear.
So how do you follow a proven method without all the fuss?
Through steam - or more specifically, a steamer!
What's that you say? I don't own a steamer?
You are missing the most valuable tool in a milsurp/red rifle owner's catalog!
Here is what a steamer can do for you:
1. Remove cosmoline - It doesn't matter who I get my rifle from, how old it is, or how well it's been clean. A session with a steamer always finds at least some if not LOTS of cosmoline, and let me tell you, that sticky stuff just melts and wipes right off!
2. Fix dings in wood - I've never personally done this, but there is lots of info out there on how it's done. Steam supposedly evens the wood out.
3. Clean your rifle - The point of this post.
Go to Canadian Tire, buy the little $50-$60 hand steamers.
When you come home from shooting, rather than boiling a bowl of water and running it through the barrel with a funnel, strip your rifle, point the nozzle of the steam cleaner down the barrel and go for it. You can also clean the gas tube, bolt, operating rod, magazines, the chamber - anything that is metallic and would be exposed to corrosive salts, which is basically everything.
Once you've run the steamer down the parts, thoroughly wipe all the parts down with a cloth/rag. Make sure no moisture remains. For the bore, run cleaning patches down there until they come out clean. You can alternate between rushing steam and patches, but again, make sure no moisture or dirt remains.
Two caveats:
1. Don't leave any moisture behind! The steamers tend to spray hot steam all over the place, which ends up condensing and leaving water droplets in places you'd not expect to find them, like in the trigger assembly, which can cause rust.
2. Metal gets hot! After running my steamer on a metallic part for 5 seconds or so, that part tends to get hot hot hot.. to the point at which it can literally burn you. Be careful when running steam down the bore, as the entire rifle will heat up pretty quickly.
So there you have it, my no chemical, no fuss steam cleaning solution to the problem of corrosive salts.
Among all the firearm communities there has been some back and forth on the ammonia in Windex cleaning the corrosive salts in a rifle. I used to be a fan, but at the same time, generally speaking, cleaning the rifle thoroughly using bore solvent or other chemicals will prevent the salts from causing rust, so if you are using Windex in addition to bore solvent, you're being redundant.
Keep in mind I still use Windex as a stop gap measure when I don't have all the time to clean a rifle, but I highly doubt that the windex without the scrubbing and wiping will prevent rust in the long term.
So with Windex aside, in reality, there is one universally accepted non-harsh chemical method to cleaning a rifle after shooting corrrosive ammo: running boiling water over the metalic parts followed by a thorough wiping down.
The working theory is that the heated water washes down the salts and the wiping cleans anything that is left over.
The working theory works, and it works well. Proven time and time again.
The only real issue I have with boiling water is that it's a pain in the rear. You need a funnel, you need to wait for water to boil, then you pour it down the metal (into a tub or something) which can often lead to being splashed with hot water... all in all it's not fun, and it's a major pain in the rear.
So how do you follow a proven method without all the fuss?
Through steam - or more specifically, a steamer!
What's that you say? I don't own a steamer?
You are missing the most valuable tool in a milsurp/red rifle owner's catalog!
Here is what a steamer can do for you:
1. Remove cosmoline - It doesn't matter who I get my rifle from, how old it is, or how well it's been clean. A session with a steamer always finds at least some if not LOTS of cosmoline, and let me tell you, that sticky stuff just melts and wipes right off!
2. Fix dings in wood - I've never personally done this, but there is lots of info out there on how it's done. Steam supposedly evens the wood out.
3. Clean your rifle - The point of this post.
Go to Canadian Tire, buy the little $50-$60 hand steamers.
When you come home from shooting, rather than boiling a bowl of water and running it through the barrel with a funnel, strip your rifle, point the nozzle of the steam cleaner down the barrel and go for it. You can also clean the gas tube, bolt, operating rod, magazines, the chamber - anything that is metallic and would be exposed to corrosive salts, which is basically everything.
Once you've run the steamer down the parts, thoroughly wipe all the parts down with a cloth/rag. Make sure no moisture remains. For the bore, run cleaning patches down there until they come out clean. You can alternate between rushing steam and patches, but again, make sure no moisture or dirt remains.
Two caveats:
1. Don't leave any moisture behind! The steamers tend to spray hot steam all over the place, which ends up condensing and leaving water droplets in places you'd not expect to find them, like in the trigger assembly, which can cause rust.
2. Metal gets hot! After running my steamer on a metallic part for 5 seconds or so, that part tends to get hot hot hot.. to the point at which it can literally burn you. Be careful when running steam down the bore, as the entire rifle will heat up pretty quickly.
So there you have it, my no chemical, no fuss steam cleaning solution to the problem of corrosive salts.
and I have a steamer already...
