Do I have corrosive ammo?

summerside sniper

summerside sniper

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Head of St Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia
Just got back from the range today, putting my recent purchases through their pase's to see how they're working and all. I fired my K98k with some 8mm Mauser ammo and I am wondering if it corrosive. The guy I bought it off of wasn't sure. Its got red on the primer and has 22 over and 77 under the primer. The brass is a dark greenish colour.

If it is corrosive, how do I clean my rifle? I know I need to wash out the barrel, receiver, and bolt with hot/boiling water (and I've heard I can use Windex - please confirm) but other than that I don't know what else I need to clean and how to clean it.
 
I usually clean with Hot "soapy" water ( dish detergent) , a couple of wet soapy patches , then with a funnel flush the bore with hot water , wet patch again , flush again , dry thoroughly ( the hot water heats the metal which helps it dry) ,--clean as normal Hoppes --(water based ) lightly oil .
Never tried Windex.--I like the idea that as much water as possible evaps from the hot metal.
 
I'm wondering if I did enough last night. I put all the parts that I thought would be affected by the corrosive ammo with the reciever into the bath tub which had dish soap and hot water in it. I brushed the parts and ran 3 swabs through the barrel. I finished with giving them all a hot water rinse and let air dry. Did I do enough to counteract the corrosion?
 
Does anyone know if corrosive or not?

- unmarked light green boxes of 7.62X39 with two stripper clips, each holding ten rounds of ammo.

I know it's not a lot of info but that's all there is.
 
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DAR 701 said:
Yep, that is Czech corrosive ammo.
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Very good ammo, I have crates of the stuff, very high in fun factor! Boil water for some tea after you shoot and pour the rest of the hot water over the rifle, then clean as usual. Wipe all parts with oil after cleaning. Store in a dry place.
 
summerside sniper said:
I'm wondering if I did enough last night. I put all the parts that I thought would be affected by the corrosive ammo with the reciever into the bath tub which had dish soap and hot water in it. I brushed the parts and ran 3 swabs through the barrel. I finished with giving them all a hot water rinse and let air dry. Did I do enough to counteract the corrosion?
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reposting the question as no body gave me an answer. I need to know this guys. I don't want to end up with a bad bore.
 
Has it rusted since you cleaned it? If not, you probably did enough.

I hope your last step was to oil all the parts after soaking them.
 
Don't forget the soap if you use hot water (mentioned by previous posts).

My understanding is that corrosive ammo (usually the primer) corrodes is due to the deposition of strong oxidants in the barrel (Chlorates, usually). These oxidants are inorganic salts, and in the presence of water will undergo a reaction with the steel of your barrel, etc, (without water both the steel and salts just sit there, dormant).

Inorganic salts disolves in water but won't in oil and most solvents. Tests have been carried out with a number of solvents and none came close to water. Adding soap to the hot water will help cut through the grease and allow the water to better disolve the oxidants.

As mentioned in previous posts, complete drying and regular cleaning of gun (hoppes, oil, etc) is required before the job is considered done.

Duke1
 
Windex

duke1 said:
Don't forget the soap if you use hot water (mentioned by previous posts).

My understanding is that corrosive ammo (usually the primer) corrodes is due to the deposition of strong oxidants in the barrel (Chlorates, usually). These oxidants are inorganic salts, and in the presence of water will undergo a reaction with the steel of your barrel, etc, (without water both the steel and salts just sit there, dormant).

Inorganic salts disolves in water but won't in oil and most solvents. Tests have been carried out with a number of solvents and none came close to water. Adding soap to the hot water will help cut through the grease and allow the water to better disolve the oxidants.

As mentioned in previous posts, complete drying and regular cleaning of gun (hoppes, oil, etc) is required before the job is considered done.

Duke1
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Windex is better than soap and water cause windex has an evaporative agent that prevents flash rust - yes - oil after- absolutley
 
chopper 1 said:
Windex is better than soap and water cause windex has an evaporative agent that prevents flash rust - yes - oil after- absolutley
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Windex is frequently used for dissolving corrosive salts in barrels, etc, but tests have shown that nothing is better than hot water and soap (several references available on the internet).

Windex is frequently used because it contains ammonia which helps in removing metal fouling in the barrel and also because it can be considered a degreaser. Ammonia will not dissolve the corrosive salts and can under certain circumstances do harm to your bore and other parts of the gun (Windex is probably pretty safe because of the small amount of ammonia).

As far as having an evaporative agent, I believe that hot water will evaporate just as quickly unless you heat the Windex but by doing this, I don't know what would happen to the ammonia agent.

Major producers of gun cleaning products have tried for years to come up with a solvent that would be equivalent to hot water and soap and as far as I know, none have been found to dissolve corrosive salts as efficiently.

Personaly, under normal circumstances, I would not used Windex but would not write it off as it can be used when hot water and soap is not readily available such as at the range, etc.

Duke1
 
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summerside sniper said:
I'm wondering if I did enough last night. I put all the parts that I thought would be affected by the corrosive ammo with the reciever into the bath tub which had dish soap and hot water in it. I brushed the parts and ran 3 swabs through the barrel. I finished with giving them all a hot water rinse and let air dry. Did I do enough to counteract the corrosion?
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holy crap this is why i sold my sks, why would anyone want to go through this process over and over again?:runaway: i go to the range at least once a week and my last trip with the sks, i cleaned it up and promptly sold it, and the ammo. i believe in properly cleaning you firearms immaculatly as soon as you return from the range, but it was just too much work to shoot corrosive ammo, and without it you get raped by the ammo gouging prices you pay for non corossive ammo. so it kinda defeats the purpose of a cheap milsurp.
 
summerside's procedure is definitely on the extreme end of cleaning for corrosive.

Here's mine for my SKS:
1) remove gas tube, piston, and bolt. Spray with WD-40 and wipe. Run an lightly oiled patch down the tube.
2) Windex down the bore then a brush, a couple dry patches then a oiled one.
3) spray WD-40 in the receiver and wipe out.
4) re-assemble.

It takes less than 5 minutes. I've used this method on my SKS for 17 years and never had a spot of rust anywhere. YMMV.
 
duke1 said:
Windex is frequently used for dissolving corrosive salts in barrels, etc, but tests have shown that nothing is better than hot water and soap (several references available on the internet).

Windex is frequently used because it contains ammonia which helps in removing metal fouling in the barrel and also because it can be considered a degreaser. Ammonia will not dissolve the corrosive salts and can under certain circumstances do harm to your bore and other parts of the gun (Windex is probably pretty safe because of the small amount of ammonia).

As far as having an evaporative agent, I believe that hot water will evaporate just as quickly unless you heat the Windex but by doing this, I don't know what would happen to the ammonia agent.

Major producers of gun cleaning products have tried for years to come up with a solvent that would be equivalent to hot water and soap and as far as I know, none have been found to dissolve corrosive salts as efficiently.

Personaly, under normal circumstances, I would not used Windex but would not write it off as it can be used when hot water and soap is not readily available such as at the range, etc.

Duke1
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here we go again - been posted on cgn previously -- windex is soap and water - and windex evaporates faster than plain soap and water -try washing half a window with windex and the other half with soap and water for proof:rolleyes:
 
chopper 1 said:
http://www.surplusrifle.com/reviews2006/alittlesalt/index.asp

That is the most extensive test on the net - check out the windex rating
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Thanks for the link and the very interesting testing results.

It's unfortunate that the tests concentrated on commercial solvent products and somewhat less on the home products (Windex and Water/Soap)

Based on part 3 where home products (Windex and Water/dish soap) are tested, although somewhat subjective on my part, I believe that the water and dish soap results are slightly better than the one for the Windex. This is not to mean that Windex is inferior - just that it is hard to come by with something better than hot water and soap (dish soap).

Also in the final tests and conclusions, the information is less than complete (no mention of water and soap on the samples being tested)

In concluding, I see a lot of people using Windex and completely satisfied with it. I would never claim that they are not using the right stuff to remove corrosive salts. It is just that in my case, hot water and soap is all that I believe I need.

Duke1
 
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