Mosin and sks cleaning....do you let the solvent soak overnight? Please give advice

CoverFire

CoverFire

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Hey guys, gals.:yingyang:
I'm getting rather frustrated lately because I can't find a definitive answer for a repetitive cleaning practice. Everybody has a product they prefer for solvents or oils and I get that. But what throws me off is when I read people dumping water down the barrel after shooting corrosive rounds followed by a light oiling and thats it....there gun is in good shape for years to come

Before the ban i fired about 100 rounds of Czech corossive ammo out of 2 of my sks's. I SWEAR I put over 100 patches through those barrels and gave it 4 HOURS EACH to still have dirty patches coming out...(mustve been me)
What I would do is as followed for the barrel
1) soak barrel with 2 or 3 patches of hoppes 9 regular solvent, let sit 2-3 min
2) run a brass brush through 20 times
3) use a dry patch to pickup residual crud
4) 1 solvent patch followed by 1 dry patch to see if anything remains (there was ALWAYS crap coming out)
5) I would run a bore snake through even a couple times to mix it up
6) bore still dirty...cry in the corner and drink 7% beer. Gun 1 myself 0

NOW could you guys please give me a basic point 4 point of your method and products used because mine arent working and I just need a solid tried a true from people I can trust on this site....

Also i was wondering if I can use hoppes 9 copper solvent, I use it for my shotguns mainly.....can I use this on the milsurps and let it soak, will it damage the barrel/chrome? (Soak for 6-12 hours lets say ) is it a waste of time to breakdown the corrosive deposits


SIDE NOTE. I will be doing the producers on my old milsurp mosins as well as sks. One 1950 sks appears to not be chrome lined, the other 1958 is chrome lined, also the mosin is polished steel so I need a cleaning practice that works on both ( i don't know if some solvents affect Chrome more so than regular steel )
 
same day as shooting run boiling water down the bore, let dry, clean with brass brush and solvent, then patches and solvent, then a patch with some oil

day 2 repeat without the boiling water treatment
 
I do a full take down and use Windex to flush out the corrosive salts. Windex has high amounts of water and ammonia. The water in Windex helps flush out the corrosive salts, and the ammonia helps the water evaporate. Oil everything once it evaporates and reassemble.
 
Windex changed their formula from 5% ammonia back in 2006, now there’s just enough to help the glass cleaner evaporate on a warm day. Unless you’re pouring an entire bottle down the barrel, there isn’t much neutralizing going on that the water wouldn’t do on it’s own.

55recce has it right: boiling water, clean with solvent, oil. Rinse & repeat as needed.
 
Why water? Because the cause of rust is the mercuric salts in the primer of corrosive ammo. Like regular salt, it dissolves in hot water, it does not dissolve in solvent. Why boiling? because it dissolves the salts very quickly, and then most of it evaporates. Chase it with some WD40 (WD stands for water dispersant) and then the lube of your choice. If you have a dirty bore you can use Wipe-Out - it's a foaming liquid cleaner, you plug the muzzle, spray it in until the bore is full and leave it overnight. Next day use patches and your favourite gun cleaner. It's generally better on jacket residue.
 
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Ok so everybody says do the water method, I guess its true:rockOn: ill give it a go.:ar15:

I think the previous owner fired alot of non corrosive as there was no rust buildup but alot of crud/powder residue . Is Wipeout still the best method to eliminate this or a copper grade solvent (hoppes 9) soaking overnight ? (Will this type of solvent affect chrome compared to regular polish steel barrels) for shotgun fouling I let it soak 6 hours and all the plastic and xrap breaks down and I scrub it out. Will same apply to corrosive/ non corrosive buildup ? Or will this hurt our old barrels?
 
I use Hoppe 9 and let it sit overnight on a new used milsurp. Old frosted bore Mosins are particularly hard to clean. I'll liberally apply No.9, scrub 10 or so times with a brush and let it sit a minimum of 20 min and up to 24hrs. Wet it down again with more No.9, Scrub again 10 or so times right away before patching it all out with a tight fitting jag.

On the worst bores it'll take a couple of times but after that, usually one treatment and 20min is all it needs.

Once they're clean of carbon I'll inspect for copper residue as well. Usually there is lots but it seems to fill a lot of the pits in the bore which makes future cleaning easier. I can't say I've seen any benefit to removing the copper deposits unless I plan to shoot lead bullets in it exclusively.

If I'm going for really clean and the bore is shiny I'll use some Hoppes copper remover for a few applications until it's gone. It seems to work best if it sits overnight.
 
bWONGER said:
I do a full take down and use Windex to flush out the corrosive salts. Windex has high amounts of water and ammonia. The water in Windex helps flush out the corrosive salts, and the ammonia helps the water evaporate. Oil everything once it evaporates and reassemble.
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I cannot find today Windex marked "ammonia" like in the past.
 
Salt is removed with water. Period.

The other crud comes out with solvent. If I was listing all the solvents, Hoppes #9 would be listed as the poorest I have ever used.

If you want to have a clean barrel, spray some Wipeout in the muzzle. It will foam up and migrate to the chamber. When it gets to the chamber, stick a patch in in the chamber to stop it from getting into the action.

If you do this at the range, when the barrel is warm, the Wipeout will do its thing by the time you get home. Patch out all the gunk, pour in a kettle of boiling water, let dry (takes only a minute with a hot barrel) and then oil the barrel. The barrel is now salt-free and clean.

Easy - peasy.

If you have a real dirty barrel, leave the WipeOut in over night, as a second treatment.
 
This is probably a stupid question but I'm just gonna go for it.... How are you all pouring boiling water down the barrel with out burning yourself or getting it in places you dont want it to go (the action for example)... Funnel?
 
55recce said:
same day as shooting run boiling water down the bore, let dry, clean with brass brush and solvent, then patches and solvent, then a patch with some oil

day 2 repeat without the boiling water treatment
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Yep, easy peasy, boiling water, use rubber gloves, and clean as usual, the hot water evaporates from its own heat! Don't forget the gas chamber and bolt head etc.
 
Prariehopper said:
This is probably a stupid question but I'm just gonna go for it.... How are you all pouring boiling water down the barrel with out burning yourself or getting it in places you dont want it to go (the action for example)... Funnel?
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Back in the day they used special funnels with a long spout. You can probably improve one of these for your use.

lee-enfield-galvanised-funnel_360_783163f1bb6342d1dfe273f1b3632a40.jpg
 
I use a smal lhand held steam cleaner with a rubber hose that fits in the chamber,filled to the top it spits out a mix of boiling water and steam ,does an excellent job of flushing the corrosive salts from the barrel,barrel gets very hot and dries in no time at all,then follow with regular solvent and patches.
 
I'll add that scrubbing with a copper brush may leave copper in the barrel, especially if your cleaning rod does not spin freely. Or, if your copper brush is just old and gungy it will redirty the barrel. I now use the copper brush once at the beginning of my cleaning, switch to a nylon brush at the middle of the cleaning, and use no brush after that (just patches with your favourite cleaner).

As an aside, there is a good Youtube video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCk26fJ62II ) showing the effect of cleaning with Hoppes vs Ballistol. Very interesting to see the effect on lead, copper, and burnt powder
 
No need to over complicate cleaning corrosive ammo. Clean it with hoppes 9 or similar product. Then put a light coat of something similar to CLP. Put rifle away. Check on in 24hrs and 48hrs to make sure you did a good job and there is no rust.

I have don't this for several thousand rounds over 3 SKSs and a mosin
 
You should bear in mind that a lot of milsurps have pitted barrels, and trying to get them squeaky clean is a thankless task, and probably a waste of time. Give it a good clean with a decent bore cleaner when you first get it (soaking is better than scrubbing). Clean moderately as accuracy dictates. If using corrosive, definitely do the hot water method. FWIW - Hot water does a pretty good job on rust...
 
Gnome75 said:
No need to over complicate cleaning corrosive ammo. Clean it with hoppes 9 or similar product. Then put a light coat of something similar to CLP. Put rifle away. Check on in 24hrs and 48hrs to make sure you did a good job and there is no rust.

I have don't this for several thousand rounds over 3 SKSs and a mosin
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I wasn't trying to, I did what you said and I never could get it clean using hoppes 9 solvent and hoppes 9 patches/oils.
I'm going to try this Wipeout stuff it sounds promising. Any other solvents people tried that they would recommend over the hoppes 9 solvent. ?
 
I've always used ammonia on a patch / q- tips after shooting corrosive ammo. Most gun cleaning solvents are ammonia based and way more expensive. A 1 liter jug from the grocery store lasts years. I pour it in a contact lens solution dripper bottle to apply to patches and q-tips.
 
Lee Enfield funnel works well if you can find one. Don't forget the piston end of the rod which can also corrode if not flushed with boiling water
 
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