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

Long ago and far away all military ammo was corrosive primed. The cleaning regime in the American and Commonwealth armies was to clean the bore with water after shooting to disolve primer salts and powder residue, then dry and oil. Standard practice was to inspect the bore the next day and repeat the procedure as necessary.

The same procedure is used for cleaning a muzzle loader after shooting black powder or Pyrodex. Hot water is best.
 
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
Click to expand...

We may get away without using water out here in Alberta where there's virtually no humidity for much of the year. Personally I would never shoot corrosive without doing a boiling water cleanout. I use a soft jaw clamp on the edge of a table to hold the gun vertically and dump boiling water straight from a kettle down the chamber with appropriate funnel. After the first pour I run water saturated swabs through from the breech then pour more water through. I then move the gun to a horizontal stand and after giving it a few minutes to dry do a normal cleaning with solvent followed by a bit of oil. With good, smooth bores, I find the boiling water and wet swabs gets much of the fouling out and the final steps are quick and easy. With SVT's and SKS's you have to deal with the parts of the gas system and the bolt but even with that it shouldn't take a half-hour for the whole process with an SVT. Note that militaries have tried to come up with universal cleaners for corrosive that consisted of an oil in water emulsion. The water would dissolve the salts and the bit of oil in the mix would remain for protection.

milsurpo
 
-Boiling water down the barrel and gas system, any small parts like the bolt group, trigger or anything with carbon fouling on them soak in a tin of boiling water and a splash of balistol.
-Clean powder fouling like normal with Hoppes9 or g96 with brass brush and patches, I’ll let the solvent soak in the barrel while I clean all the small parts in the tin first. Then clean the rest of the gun.
-Oil lightly with a patch.
-Reassemble

Takes me anywhere from 30-60 min depending on how ocd I am about it, I’ve never had to soak anything over night and if I’m shooting corrosive I’ll shoot enought to make it worth the full strip down and cleaning. I’ve never found it takes long to be honest, aside from the boiling water flush it’s no different than cleaning any other gun. The boiling water gets the metal hot enough to dry itself off, before you start using the solvent.
 
milsurpo said:
We may get away without using water out here in Alberta where there's virtually no humidity for much of the year. Personally I would never shoot corrosive without doing a boiling water cleanout.
milsurpo
Click to expand...

For years of cleaning my Mosin's and SKS's I've NEVER used even a drop of water, boiling or not. I've solely been using Ballistol. All my milsurps have beautiful shiny bores and not even one spot of rust. Ballistol was used by the German armies in both world wars and the Bundeswehr is still using it.
 
I assume other than the hot water method you guys do the same cleanout for your other firearms .....mainly shotgun?
has anybody here used wipe out on there shotgun that has alot of fouling on it ? ive only used the hoppes 9 copper and it takes about 24 hours with 4, 6 hours sessions of letting it soak to break down the plastic/copper followed by a light brush once or twice.

so on the list we have
Hot water
Wipeout
Ballistol
any other good brands you guys would recommend ? as they say try out multiple products until you find one you like the most, ( i ordered a aerosol can of wipe out/ wipe out no sweat for my shotguns, and ballistol oil to test)
 
Last edited:
Same routine for cleaning powder fouling as my other guns, with the exception of heavily fouled 12g barrels. I will spray the barrel with g96 and let it soak while I clean the trigger group and receiver, then run a brass brush on a rod attached to a drill through the barrel till all the plastic wading is removed. I don’t like waiting overnight to finish cleaning, I like to do it all in one sit and I don’t clean my shotgun barrels often. I’ll drag a dirt snake through it periodically and oil the action and exterior regularly but I don’t do a detail clean that often, only when necessary.
 
I don't use Windex I use a generic glass cleaner in a 4 litre jug. I pour it down the bore at the range after I'm done shooting the rifle. Then I spray the action and bore with some generic spray oil and then I pack it up for the ride home. Once at home I do a regular cleaning regiment.
 
05RAV said:
For years of cleaning my Mosin's and SKS's I've NEVER used even a drop of water, boiling or not. I've solely been using Ballistol. All my milsurps have beautiful shiny bores and not even one spot of rust. Ballistol was used by the German armies in both world wars and the Bundeswehr is still using it.
Click to expand...

Ballistol was/is a mixture containing alcohols within which the corrosive salts have a limited solubility- much lower than in plain water. Good to know that it works- might give it a try.

milsurpo
 
anybody try KG-12 before on there milsurps or shotguns :confused:
After a lot of reading during my break I found it is highly recommended and also doesn't require a neutralizer as it doesn't contain ammonia (neither does wipe out) so you can just let it dry out without worry.
most comments on the product were related to copper fouling in shotguns as it is a big bore" cleaner but the point behind the product is it specializes in copper buildups (copper rounds through the sks and mosin).
Just thought id ask the KG line does look rather impressive, they also have fancy kits depending on your firearm.:50cal:
 
The beauty of ballistol is it’s compatible with water, they mix and dissolve salts and clean powder fouling at the same time. When I dump all the small bits covered in powder residue in the mixture they come out of the solution clean, no scrubbing needed. Quick wipe to get any film off and a quick oil.

I started using it after reading posts on here about guys taking a spray bottle of ballistoil and water to the range for a quick flush before heading for home, plus it’s safe to get on bare skin etc etc. It has a ton of recommended uses.
 
milsurpo said:
Ballistol was/is a mixture containing alcohols within which the corrosive salts have a limited solubility- much lower than in plain water. Good to know that it works- might give it a try.
milsurpo
Click to expand...

Yes, that's the whole trick why one doesn't need water but can use undiluted Ballistol instead. It contains benzyl, amyl and isobutyl alcohols. Some people mix Ballistol with water which is also O.K. just to save money on Ballistol. I've been using undiluted Ballistol and it's been working splendidly. I bought 8 gallons a few years ago when the price was $90 per US gallon so, it's gonna last for some time. Unfortunately, nowadays the price is $135 per gallon (at Sew'Knit), so indeed mixing it with water might be a good idea (10% Ballistol+90% water). Ballistol prevents water droplets from sticking to metal, anyway. After cleaning just wipe with undiluted Ballistol and that's it.
What I also do with any milsurp (3 Mosin's and 4 SKS's) and any other firearm (long or short), for that matter, is that after acquiring a firearm, I remove the action and barrel from the stock and clean them with undiluted Ballistol using a white cloth till all reddish color from surface rust is gone. Then I put back the metal parts into the stock. I reapeat this procedure once a year. For example, after shooting an SKS for a year or so, after removing the action and barrel, I see a lot of black corrosive ammo residue from shooting on the metal surface which is moist but no trace of corrosion. Ballistol nicely neutralizes that crap.
 
I break my SKS down and pull the receiver/barrel out of the stock and anything that comes into contact with gases from firing gets put in the laundry sink and has hot water run over/through it straight from the tap. (My oil fired hot water heater is HOT.) Then I make sure everything is dry and use gun cleaner/oil to get any crud off that didn't come off with the water, spray a little aerosol oil inside the bolt to keep that from rusting, wipe the metal down with oil as well. I don't obsess over getting patches to come out of the bore clean - if it shoots fine and isn't rusting that's enough for me. If accuracy were to suffer or I was getting some failures I would ensure the bore and chamber were more clean.

Non corrosive gets a boresnake or pull through with oil and the metal wiped down.
 
My Dad told me that during the Winter War the Russians used to piss down their Mosin barrels to clean them. Don't know how true that is as he was always telling jokes. Sure do miss him though..
 
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.
Click to expand...

More military in-service smallarms are damaged from repeated cleaning and disassembly than from actual wear and tear from firing.
 
gunnarheim said:
My Dad told me that during the Winter War the Russians used to piss down their Mosin barrels to clean them. Don't know how true that is as he was always telling jokes. Sure do miss him though..
Click to expand...

Not joking. I've heard the same said about demonstrating Vickers medium machine guns to potential buyers. If you think chemically, there is a certain amount of ammonia in piss to counteract the salts.
 
maple_leaf_eh said:
More military in-service smallarms are damaged from repeated cleaning and disassembly than from actual wear and tear from firing.
Click to expand...

The US Army had stats that proved this from over-zealous cleaning at recruit training facilities. Many otherwise good Garand barrels were replaced for excessive muzzle wear caused by ham-handed recruits cleaning from the front end.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom