Cleaning Up Milsurp Ammo

bdtyre

bdtyre

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I picked up a box of 48 Canadian .303 British recently for a decent price. They're all headstampped 1940 and seem to be in reasonable shape. The only thing is that some of the casings have some fairly extensive oxidization. I haven't checked them all, but for most of them it appears to be surface oxidization.

Should I just leave these as is, or would it be wise to quickly polish these up so that the leave less mess in the gun? Or would it be safe to not fire them and just appreciate them as historical artifacts?
 
They will be loaded with long string cordite. This propellant is notorious for its erosive qualities, and the primers likely contain lead styphnate. Externally polish em and put them on display. an entirely safe way to do so would be to encase them in clear resin, not necessary from a physical safety stand point, but they would not deteriorate.
 
How corrosive is this stuff? I mostly put commercial soft-point through my LE but wanted to try some milsurp. I hadn't planned on firing all 48; in fact, one of my first thoughts was to donate the box and the ammo to my local museum, but my museum apparently can't take live rounds.
 
I clean them on a hand drill with some 0000 steel wool. I use the Lee case trimmer setup, make real quick work of it.
 
How corrosive? CLEAN THE BARREL THE SAME DAY YOU FIRE IT!!!!!!!!

A kettle full of boiling water down the bore ,using a funnel, will expand the moicrosopic cracks in the bore and wash out the salts. then clean as usual.
Put this off for a day or so and you will be RUDLEY SURPRISED.

Now being in Canada, if you can find an armourers funnel, it was designed for that purpose. Oh by the way that funnel will also work for any other rifle using corrosive primed ammo, such as 8mm, or vintage 30-06
 
Heck, all I do in my sks in spray a ton of windex in the barrel and gas tube/piston, then wd-40 until I actually can clean it for real. That seems to work just fine.
 
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