Corrosive or NON Corrosive 7.62

This basically makes corrosive 7.62x39 M43 surplus somewhat of a rarity to our southern neighbors as the stuff imported before the ban has been mostly all shot by now, although still sealed spam cans of it occasionally turn up on sites such as gunbroker for a somewhat inflated price. I think an exception to the import ban on 7.62x39 M43 is the Yugoslavian M67 ammo, which is corrosive, as it's a bit different, but I'm not 100% sure on that. If it's considered importable into the US, than I would imagine they guys with AK's down there clean their rifles much like we do, with water or Windex. Corrosive ammo isn't some unheard of thing in the US, as corrosive surplus 7.62x54r, 5.45x39, 8MM Mauser from Yugoslavia, and as I said possibly Yugo M67 7.62x39 and other calibers are all importable and very popular in the US, so the awareness for cleaning after shooting corrosive ammo in the US is quite similar to here in Canada.

M67 is lead core.
 
Chinese production, 1971 manufacture. Definitely corrosive. Chinese stopped using corrosive primers around 1985.

Do you know where there is any info on them not using corrosive primers past 1985? I had heard early 90's, but it's all just word of mouth
 
Do you know where there is any info on them not using corrosive primers past 1985? I had heard early 90's, but it's all just word of mouth
Sorry no, heard it here so take it for what it's worth. Using your measure of 90s would definitely err on the side of caution.
 
I treat all surplus 7.62 as corrosive... better safe than sorry...


There was a batch of South African 7.62x39 that came into the coutry about 10 years ago that wasn't corrosive. There was also a batch of Israeli that was non corrosive about the same time.

Recently, Canada Ammo was selling a bunch of Chinese produced 7.62x39 that was non corrosive as well. It was made for the Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry. I iron plate tested a half dozen rounds and the plate is still rust free.

Back in the day, when China first started to import 7.62x39 in the silver or yellow boxes, the ammunition was non corrosive as well. It was packaged in boxes of 20, without chargers. I suspect it was commercial production, rather than military. Good ammo but the powder they used was filthy.

OP, the ammo in your picture was definitely for military use. It is corrosive.

As for the person behind the counter, they can be as uninformed as anyone else.
 
Its been posted before, potassium chlorate is best dissolved by hot water. Windex simply washes alot of it away, its also formulated to remove grease and oils then evaporate (streak free window cleaner) And yes, old Enfield kit used to include a small funnel for troops to pour boiling water down the bore before cleaning as usual with their pull-through kit. Obviously this was not always an option but it was simple and it works. I just clean and oil as normal. Oil seals out misture and oxygen preventing rust. Its a simple task, removing carbon and salt from the surface of steel. There isnt some magic formula for it, there arent magical cleaners for it, you arent going to find a pile of iron oxide laying beside your nice birch SKS stock if you dont do exactly what the interwebs told you! Clean, oil, store. See? No magic! Ive owned more SKS' than I can remember but not one of them rusted out and I never used windex or snake oil on them.
 
why not test it? Pull the bullet, dump the powder, and discharge the primer so that the exhaust lands on some steel. Let sit for a few days and see if it rusts?

OP mentioned that the crates were unpainted...how are the green crates? slightly corrosive?
 
How about the crates of 1200 that CanAm was selling as non-corrosive? Norinco "silver box," 20 rounds per box, dark brown laquered casing, lead core, stamp says 71 on the top and 95 on the bottom.

Is this stuff really non-corrosive?
 
10-4. Thanks.

I put 60 rounds through my 858, but after reading some of these threads about mis-represented corrosive ammo, I only left it a couple days before cleaning it.
 
There is a chart of headstamps floating around that lists all the headstamps for 7.62x39 and then tells if it is corrosive. I wish I could find it as I have some old Chinese surplus that looks like that. I think it is corrosive. My guess it was made in 1971 so a person would have to see when they stopped using corrosive primers.

View attachment 2590
The top number is the number of the factory that produced the ammo. The bottom number is the year of production.

Good information regarding 7.62 x 39 ammunition can be found here:
http://www.ak-47.us/JAFreeman/AK_ammo_identification.php
 
Now with the windex issue. I used to rock the windex and then bore snake it. This worked awesome but not perfect. I figured there was TOO MUCH water in it and then went and 'bought' some ammoniated floor cleaner that was meant to be mixed with water to clean floors [i stole it from work]. I use that, without water mixing, from a spray bottle and it is infailable. So I'm now buying into the ammonia theory.

Why do you reckon it only works because of the water?

-chris

Water removes the salts. If there's no salts on the metal, then there's no need to worry about neutralizing them. Simple as that.

Salts in themselves do not cause rust. Oxygen does. The salts attract and hold water to the surface of the metal, and the oxygen in the H2O cause the rust.

Then you oil to keep moisture in the air from settling on the metal surfaces over time.
 
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