My sks with corrosive ammo and VERY dirty. What to do ?
- Thread starter noea77
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Don't bother with hot water - takes too much time.
With all corrosive ammo I do the following in this exact sequence (the sequences allows enough time for the solvent to break down the powder residue on the various surfaces):
-Spray a big spray of Seafoam Deep Creep or CLP down the barrel to act as a solvent to remove powder residue,
-Wipe down every surface with a clean patch and DeepCreep or CLP (as a solvent) once, starting with anything along the gas system
-Pull through with barrel brush, soaked with DeepCreep/CLP (as a solvent) through the barrel with a scrubbing action
-Pull through with DeepCreep or CLP soaked swab through the barrel (as a solvent)
-Repeat
-Apply a light coat of DeepCreep/CLP EVERY metalic surface (and the barrel) as a protecting agent
Should take no more than 20 minutes to do this.
Let it sit overnight, and repeat for 3 days, leaving a not light, not heavy coating of oil on EVERY metallic part of the gun on the third day. Doing so will prevent it from rusting - even if you missed some powder residue here or there.
IIRC, this is pretty similar to the cleaning SOP's of the various Combloc countries most corrosive shooting guns originated in, only instead of CLP/DeepCreep, they use gasoline as a solvent and motor oil as a protecting agent.
Don't worry about the "white glove" test unless you have lots of spare time...
With all corrosive ammo I do the following in this exact sequence (the sequences allows enough time for the solvent to break down the powder residue on the various surfaces):
-Spray a big spray of Seafoam Deep Creep or CLP down the barrel to act as a solvent to remove powder residue,
-Wipe down every surface with a clean patch and DeepCreep or CLP (as a solvent) once, starting with anything along the gas system
-Pull through with barrel brush, soaked with DeepCreep/CLP (as a solvent) through the barrel with a scrubbing action
-Pull through with DeepCreep or CLP soaked swab through the barrel (as a solvent)
-Repeat
-Apply a light coat of DeepCreep/CLP EVERY metalic surface (and the barrel) as a protecting agent
Should take no more than 20 minutes to do this.
Let it sit overnight, and repeat for 3 days, leaving a not light, not heavy coating of oil on EVERY metallic part of the gun on the third day. Doing so will prevent it from rusting - even if you missed some powder residue here or there.
IIRC, this is pretty similar to the cleaning SOP's of the various Combloc countries most corrosive shooting guns originated in, only instead of CLP/DeepCreep, they use gasoline as a solvent and motor oil as a protecting agent.
Don't worry about the "white glove" test unless you have lots of spare time...
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I wonder how many guys in combat tore their sks's completely down and poured boiling water down the barrel ,followed by solvent , dry patches , and gun oil. I'm thinking none! Just pour some boiling water down the barrel, soak pretty much everything in soapy boiling water for a minute, let dry, and coat lightly in oil and reassemble. Its not rocket surgery, and its generally overkill. The whole thing only takes 15miniutes start to finish. + its kinda fun
+1 .boiling water dissolves salt. Who knew?
Lexthedestroyer
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In Soviet Russia SKS cleans you!
and you say hosing it down with boiling water takes too much time. For a crap gun like the sks, shoot it til its dirty, dump hot water down it two or three times, run a dry patch down the barrel, run an oily patch down the barrel, wipe the bolt face and your done. I dont even take the sks apart.
I shoot the heck out of my guns, SKS included.
Tear it down (takes about a minute), run very hot water through the barrel as well as a steel wool primed bore brush. The water neutralizes and flushes the salts. The steel wool loaded bore brush does a good on the powder residue. Dry everything (the very hot water wash helps with the drying) and oil like other guns. A wipe down and re oil once a day for the next couple days will prevent rust spotting from the 24/48 hour sweats.
Mine is an early 1951 Tula and as such is not a chrome bore. No rust.
Tear it down (takes about a minute), run very hot water through the barrel as well as a steel wool primed bore brush. The water neutralizes and flushes the salts. The steel wool loaded bore brush does a good on the powder residue. Dry everything (the very hot water wash helps with the drying) and oil like other guns. A wipe down and re oil once a day for the next couple days will prevent rust spotting from the 24/48 hour sweats.
Mine is an early 1951 Tula and as such is not a chrome bore. No rust.
I am start to wonder if it will be a good business to sell plain water with blue dye in a spray bottle as "SKS Cleaner"~~
Fantastic idea. If you need a business partner, give me a shout.
Polar molecules dissolve salts. Water is one you can use, alcohol is another, and yes ammonia is polar too so it does dissolve salts as well. Just because the water dissolves the salts leaving that slurry in your bore is a quicker way to rust it than just leaving it.
You all are over complicating things. You do not need to use water to clean the bore or windex.
Just use eds red. Patch out till it comes clean or relatively clean. Eds red contains polar molecules that flush out salts. It leaves a protective coat with the ATF it contains. No need to use oil or windex or soapy water. Eds red is a one stop shop. This is coming from a chemist (me). I cant vouch for other cleaners since I dont know the contents.
PS the eds red must contain the optional acetone.
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Personally, I like cleaning the gas tube, piston, bolt, and receiver (not just on the SKS) and frame on every moving part accessible from a field strip or every part that might get some powder residue on it.
That doesn't just apply to the SKS, but every gun that shoots 7.62x39 or 7.62x25 corrosive ammo.
Yeah, if you dont have the water hot enough, and your jag isnt tight with patches the moisture hides in the rifling. My cousins sks got some bad pitting from improperly using the water method. Most of the pitting was adjacent to the rifling on the grooves.
Thats 5 min too long in my books, but to each their own. I used to do the water thing always. I still do it if I shoot an unholy amount of rounds in one sitting (saves on eds red). But for the average shoot its not necessary as eds red has the same salt dissolving molecules in it and does the same if not a better job in cleaning the stuff out. What is my reasoning? Some corrosive salts may be layered under some carbon. The eds red penetrates and actively dissolves these salts while you clean the carbon off. The water only gets the surface salts since carbon is not water soluble (protects the salts underneath). Once you start your normal cleaning procedure (with no9, clp etc) more salts may get exposed, especially if you shot quite a bit at the range.
Thats 5 min too long in my books, but to each their own. I used to do the water thing always. I still do it if I shoot an unholy amount of rounds in one sitting (saves on eds red). But for the average shoot its not necessary as eds red has the same salt dissolving molecules in it and does the same if not a better job in cleaning the stuff out. What is my reasoning? Some corrosive salts may be layered under some carbon. The eds red penetrates and actively dissolves these salts while you clean the carbon off. The water only gets the surface salts since carbon is not water soluble (protects the salts underneath). Once you start your normal cleaning procedure (with no9, clp etc) more salts may get exposed, especially if you shot quite a bit at the range.
It takes me 1/2 the time to clean my Sks as it did to go through the 6 pages here.
I strip it down, run hot water down the bore and gas tube. Let the barrel sit in my sink while I wipe down and cleant the small parts. Then I run a dry patch down the bore, followed by a patch soaked with hoppes number 9 and then sone dry patches.
I've put a bazillions of rounds through my Sks and have yet to find a spot of rust anywhere!
That being said though my buddy bought an SKS and shot about 500 rounds through it over several weeks. After that he put it away dirty. Well let's just say his bore is quite rusted now.
I think as long as you neutralize the salts you're fine.
I strip it down, run hot water down the bore and gas tube. Let the barrel sit in my sink while I wipe down and cleant the small parts. Then I run a dry patch down the bore, followed by a patch soaked with hoppes number 9 and then sone dry patches.
I've put a bazillions of rounds through my Sks and have yet to find a spot of rust anywhere!
That being said though my buddy bought an SKS and shot about 500 rounds through it over several weeks. After that he put it away dirty. Well let's just say his bore is quite rusted now.
I think as long as you neutralize the salts you're fine.
Rust is caused by oxidation of water and iron.
Salt speeds the process up. One of the reasons I STOPPED doing the water trick, was because I wasn't confident I was getting all the water out (usually because I was usually rushing).
Thinking about it - if you have left over water (even if you've flushed the salt), you're asking for rust. If you have left over oil - you will never get any rust.
Ergo, I'd rather just put an excessive amount of oil on all metal (steel) parts than run the risk that I might miss a spot of water and end up with some rust.
Some words of wisdom I heard from James Wesley Rawles of survivalblog.com fame:
Metal with oil on it does not rust.
Salt speeds the process up. One of the reasons I STOPPED doing the water trick, was because I wasn't confident I was getting all the water out (usually because I was usually rushing).
Thinking about it - if you have left over water (even if you've flushed the salt), you're asking for rust. If you have left over oil - you will never get any rust.
Ergo, I'd rather just put an excessive amount of oil on all metal (steel) parts than run the risk that I might miss a spot of water and end up with some rust.
Some words of wisdom I heard from James Wesley Rawles of survivalblog.com fame:
Metal with oil on it does not rust.
