Is corrosive ammo that bad?

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Boliervac

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Got my first SKS the other day and the guy at the store said that corrosive ammo wasn't bad if you cleaned your rifle after using it, this true? I've seen people say that it's bad regardless whether you clean it or not. Trying to decide if I buy one of those Chinese surplus ammo crates or not.

Thanks!
 
Yeah, corrosive isn't bad. Get it.

I pour hot water out of a thermos down the barrel while it is still hot from shooting. Sometimes a shot of brake cleaner if really concerned then fluid film.

Watch a youtube video on the gas system disassembly, that and the chamber are the worst parts for rust.


Eventually it will be sold out and the value will double
 
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I just clean it with hoppes 9 or balistol then check on it 24hrs later to make sure you did a good enough job. No need to do fancy stuff with boiling water or windex
 
People have been using corrosive ammo for ages. It seemed to be no issue while a SKS was $200/300, now at $500 and up, people are getting more concerned. First, most SKS (like 98%) have chrome lined barrels, second, if you don't mind spending a few minutes cleaning (like hot water through the bore and maybe a quick disassembly and scrub - 10 min tops overall) when coming home from shooting, it is no issue at all. It is not the ammo which is corrosive but the primer. Yes, and don't believe all those people saying they never shot corrosive ammo. Internet ads and lies go hand in hand.
 
Corrosive isn't a big deal in commie guns. It's pretty dry around here in the summer so I don't even bother cleaning anymore. I did find that in x39 chambered AR15's that corrosive ammo was more prone to rusting them but SKS and T81 seem to not care unless it's wet weather.

But cleaning after using corrosive, regardless of the humidity, is never a bad plan.
 
^What ammo and gun oil?



My first sks 20 years ago grew the rust hairs that cleaned off. lesson learned, I clean it every time now out of good habit. Takes 2 mins once you've done it a couple times
 
fritzhanzel said:
People have been using corrosive ammo for ages. It seemed to be no issue while a SKS was $200/300, now at $500 and up, people are getting more concerned. First, most SKS (like 98%) have chrome lined barrels, second, if you don't mind spending a few minutes cleaning (like hot water through the bore and maybe a quick disassembly and scrub - 10 min tops overall) when coming home from shooting, it is no issue at all. It is not the ammo which is corrosive but the primer. Yes, and don't believe all those people saying they never shot corrosive ammo. Internet ads and lies go hand in hand.
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It's true. I bought an SKS once where the seller, an elderly gentleman, indicated he never ran corrosive ammo through the gun. Well, when I got it home, I took it apart and sure enough the gas tube piston rod was seized in the gas tube. Orange corrosive bits all over the place. It was easy enough to clean it out and lube it, but unless he was the original owner of the 1950s SKS, doubtful he would have the whole history of whether any corrosive ammo was used it in before. I'd say the chances are 100% that at some point in its history, SOMEONE ran corrosive ammo through it (whether they knew it or not) and didn't bother to clean it properly. Some people check the bolt face and breech, don't see any corrosion and assume ammo was all good. It is really that gas tube and piston rod that will give you a decent indication. But as others mentioned, it's not an inordinate amount of effort to clean with hot water and such...it does require some effort but how much each owner decides to expend doing this will vary.
 
I run 1970s east block ammo (East German, Czech, Romanian) through all of my x39 guns, including my CZ Bren and WS-MCR. I just hose down the bore with G96 bore solvent before I leave the range (upside down so that it runs into the gas system) and then pull it through and wipe down the gas system parts when I get home. Zero issues with corrosion.

As an aside, I got some red box Norinco non-corrosive ammo in a trade deal recently. That is the only time I’ve ever had issues with with cases getting stuck in the chamber, and in one case, the extractor breaking off part of the case rim. I’m sure it’s just a bad lot of ammo, but suffice it to say, I’d never pay the prices retailers are asking for that crap because it’s non-corrosive.
 
It's no big deal.

Clean thoroughly after shooting corrosive ammo. Within a day or so. Dont leave it to sit for days.

Pour hot water down the bore to wash out the corrosive salts, then clean as normal. Or use windex, with ammonia, to neutralize the salts.

A little orange build up in a chrome lined barrel wont hurt it. But you can soon get pitting on the bolt face, the gas piston and in the gas tube.
 
In a gun that's easy to disassemble like an SKS, corrosive is fine to use.

Unlike some of the advice given here, I'll say use water to clean, plenty of it. Tepid water is perfectly fine to dissolve the salt. Hot water doesn't hurt, but it doesn't need to be. Then dry thoroughly, a hair dryer is helpful.

NB: Salt is not soluble in most modern bore cleaners. That is why you use water, plus its plentiful and cheap.
Use of the average bore cleaner alone will not remove the salt! I witnessed a beautiful handgun get ruined that way, the owner used bore cleaner, then oil. A week later the bore had lots of oily rust in it.
 
I'll add my voice to the chorus that corrosive is fine, just clean your rifle afterwards.

Cleaning corrosive salts doesn't have to involve water, which generally doesn't go well with steel and wood. I've yet to see anyone, upon spilling salt on a table or kitchen counter, grab a kettle of hot water to sluice down the area. Brushing salt off the table works fine; it doesn't need to be dissolved to remove it. Same with a rifle bore/action/gas system--a proper cleaning with oil will remove corrosive salts just fine without risking the unwelcome potential effects of water.
 
BirdCity said:
I'll add my voice to the chorus that corrosive is fine, just clean your rifle afterwards.

Cleaning corrosive salts doesn't have to involve water, which generally doesn't go well with steel and wood. I've yet to see anyone, upon spilling salt on a table or kitchen counter, grab a kettle of hot water to sluice down the area. Brushing salt off the table works fine; it doesn't need to be dissolved to remove it. Same with a rifle bore/action/gas system--a proper cleaning with oil will remove corrosive salts just fine without risking the unwelcome potential effects of water.
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Respectfully, salt is NOT soluble in oil.
Try mixing salt into some oil in a glass. No solution is formed, the salt will not disappear.
 
Cocked&Locked said:
Respectfully, salt is NOT soluble in oil.
Try mixing salt into some oil in a glass. No solution is formed, the salt will not disappear.
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Neither does a whole bunch of other types of corruption found in a bore after shooting, yet magically solvent and oil combined with brushing and swabs seems to remove them. I can't explain what happened to your buddies handgun... but at the end of the day, you do you and those of us that don't find a need to dumping water down our barrels will do us. The issue are the chaps that do absolutely nothing in the way PMCS.
 
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