Non-Corrosive Military Surplus Ammo?

MOA_Shooter

MOA_Shooter

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Is there such a thing as non-corrosive military surplus ammo?

I have read reference to this several times on the net as well as the following quote on www.RugerForum.com .

"'Most' 7.62x39 'surplus' ammo is not corrosive. It is often a lot dirtier than good old U.S. made stuff...but dirty does not relate to corrosive. Dirty has to do with the binder in the smokeless powder... corrosive has to do with what type of primer they used. As far as I know, no russian or east german ammo was corrosive... the corrosive stuff was made in china."
 
Most 7.62x39 military surplus is usually corrosive. Russian Wolf brand is made for the commercial market and is non-corrosive, however Russian military surplus should be considered corrosive. I hear some Chinese yellow box is non-corrosive but silver box is corrosive not 100% sure though.

You are correct about the primers being the corrosive element, firing leaves salts in the rifle that attracts moisture. I have heard that there is some corrosive powder as well but not sure about that either. just to be safe I treat any surplus ammo as corrosive.
 
MOA_Shooter said:
Is there such a thing as non-corrosive military surplus ammo?
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Absolutely there is such a thing. The US military phased out corrosive primers during the second world war. The first batch of non-corrosive .30-06 they ever accepted actually came from Dominion Arsenals in Quebec. So Canadian/US military ammo has been non-corrosive for 60 years. Other western, first world nations were mostly non-corrosive by the 1960's. Other countries vary, but very few nations anywhere were loading corrosive primers by the time 1980 rolled around.

As for 7.62x39mm, be careful looking for advice on US boards. US law prohibits import of that calibre with a steel core, which is most of the milsurp, so the ammo they import is a mix of unusual loads and stuff that is newly produced specifically for their market. The result is that very little of the ammo available to them is corrosive, but that is not the case anywhere else.
 
Swiss military surplus 7.5x55 (GP 11) has always been non corrosive. This, along with good training and care, accounts for the great barrel condition of most K31.
 
As far as I can remember, most of the surplus ammo are corrosive until the 1990s, for example 7.62x39s were corrosive until 1991 when they changed the type of primer, the headstamp on the bullet showing 91 will be non-corrosive, but 73 would be corrsosive. The best suggestion I can come up with is: If you shoot surplus, treat/clean them as corrosive all the time.
 
The Russians still use corrosive primers in their military ammo. Any Norinco X39 ammo I have ever seen is NC, the Chinese mil in tins is corrosive.
 
US military ammo (rifle) has been non corrosive since mid to late 1950's--all us WW II date except 30 carbine should be considered to be corrosive. some lots of 30-06 match ammo used corrosive primers into the early 1960's though. Canadian loaded was non corrosive through WWII as was cdn loaded 30-06, us military M-1 carbine ammo is mostly if not all non corrosive.
 
"...US military phased out corrosive primers during the second world war..." Nope. About 1952 for .30-06. The .30 Carbine ammo, made Stateside, was never corrosively primed. French made ammo is though. So is LC 52 headstamped Chinese ammo. Mind you, there is U.S. made LC 52.
"...the primer makes more sense..." Salts in the priming compound. Never the bullet.
 
MosinNagantM44 said:
can we get confirmation on that ?
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What the hell is it about the "Nintendo" generation that can't do any research even with an internet equipped computer in front of them:rolleyes::runaway:

Yes GP11 is Non Corrosive:kickInTheNuts:

I've been shooting since 1982. I've never worried about "Corrosive" military ammunition.

And for all you people out there that shoot an SKS and the like, there's a reason the bore of your rifle is chrome lined.......the Russians don't worry about corrosive ammunition either.

Sticker
 
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