thought experiment - corrosive ammo

sewktbk

sewktbk

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Alright so i know corrosive ammo is bad for your gun if you don't clean it right after use, but i don't know to what extent. And i want to educate myself.


So I will ask this : lets say i go to the range, go through 2 boxes of .45 acp corrosive ammo in my 1911. I go home, and put my gun back in the safe without cleaning it.

In what condition will i find my gun if i take it out of the safe after a week? a month? a year?

just curious.

cheers.

BTW, this is all hypothetical, i've never shot corrosive before.
 
Where do you live? Humidity has a huge effect on this. I am in southern Alberta and it is nearly a desert, so my guns need much less attention than someone who lives in a high humidity location like a coast or Ontario.

FWIW, I have shot corrosive surplus 8x57 through my M-48, left it for several days before cleaning and had nothing in the bore. Again, in a fairly dry location.


Mark
 
Mark is correct, humidity has a lot to do with it... I have seen an SKS that has sat for over a month in dry location after firing a few hundred rounds of corrosive ammo and no corrosion was evident... Not something I would want to take a chance on myself...
 
The material the barrel is made of will also make a difference. A chromium-coated barrel will resist corrosion better than, say, a normal steel barrel.

If you are thinking of corrosive-primed .45 ACP in particular - and somebody correct me if I'm wrong - but I don't think it's been made in North America since the 1950s.
 
ATOM said:
The material the barrel is made of will also make a difference. A chromium-coated barrel will resist corrosion better than, say, a normal steel barrel.

If you are thinking of corrosive-primed .45 ACP in particular - and somebody correct me if I'm wrong - but I don't think it's been made in North America since the 1950s.
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I was told That the 45 ACP commercial reloads from Wolf are corrosive? This is actually why i bring the question up, because i was debating if i should buy a box or two, or not...

I live in Montreal.
 
Let me relate a personal experience of mine. I have a series 1t P35 Inglis Hi Power. Back about 25 years ago, I loaned the pistol to a friend to use in a two gun service match that was being put on by his club. One of the rules of the match was that you couldn't compete if you didn't have both a rifle and pistol. The pistol type wasn't a problem, as long as it wasn't a commercial variant. It had to be a milsurp or in the case of the RCMP competitors, they were allowed to use their service revolvers.

To make a long story short, they were required to supply their own ammo. No big surprise.

My friend, being the cheap pr-ck he is, found some milsurp ammo at a yard sale and had saved it up for just an occasion as this. Because he's so cheap, he never bothered to buy a pistol. The ammo was 44 dated ex german stuff, with corrosive primers. This one time friend, was quite clueless when it came to ammunition, especially milsurp. He took the pistol to the match and put around 150 rounds through it. When he brought it back to BC from Alberta about 3 months later, I checked to see that he had cleaned the pistol properly.

To make a long story short, he just put it back in the box with the trigger lock and locked the box and it wasn't looked at again until I openened it. The bore was toast and there was a bit of rust around the ejection port. I told him he now needed to buy that pistol from me. He of course refused to part with any cash. I then went to visit him and told him he had to at least replace the barrel. He reluctantly did, under threat that his wife and kids would find out what a cheap bas--rd he was. LOL they already knew.

I found a replacement FN barrel similar to the units that were later purchased by the Canadian Forces and installed it.

That is the result of several weeks of storing a firearm that has been used with corrosive ammo and not cleaned properly.

I not only had a trashed barrel with a matching number but lost a friend(no big deal) in the process.
 
sewktbk said:
I was told That the 45 ACP commercial reloads from Wolf are corrosive? This is actually why i bring the question up, because i was debating if i should buy a box or two, or not...

I live in Montreal.
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Never used the stuff myself, but the boxes of .45 I've seen were marked as non-corrosive.
 
ATOM said:
Never used the stuff myself, but the boxes of .45 I've seen were marked as non-corrosive.
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Just to clarify, the boxes you're referring to are the Wolf ammo correct? I ask because i shot Wolf .45 ACP purchased from SFRC through my pistol and did not clean it after every use because i assumed it was non-corrosive.

Is it corrosive?

EDIT:

This is what i bought some time ago:

http://www.theammosource.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_33_39&products_id=269

It doesn't mention anything about it being corrosive. However, is it corrosive?
 
Donster 125 said:
Just to clarify, the boxes you're referring to are the Wolf ammo correct? I ask because i shot Wolf .45 ACP purchased from SFRC through my pistol and did not clean it after every use because i assumed it was non-corrosive.

Is it corrosive?
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As I said, I've never used Wolf. The boxes I have seen are marked Non-Corrosive.

Looking at their website now, that would seem to be the case for current production: http://www.wolfammo.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2&Itemid=13.

It's possible that they made or imported corrosive ammo in past, but so far as I know, it's N/C. Check the box before buying, I guess.
 
sewktbk said:
ATOM, thats not the same Wolf company.

We're talking about Wolf in Ontario, the commercial reloader who provides ammo for SFRC.

found here:

http://www.wolfbullets.com/

couldn't find any info on corrosive or not on their website though
Click to expand...

kk i emailed SFRC directly. I hope to god that i didn't fire corrosive ammo through my gun. I don't want to find out that i damaged or have to replace any parts in my USP

Though more likely than not, if it doesn't say whether or not it's corrosive, it more than likely isn't. At least that is my mentality
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EDIT:

SFRC emailed me back after their store hours within 20min of me sending my email (talk about great service!!)

They said that, "it is non corrosive".

I guess that clears that up and puts my mind at ease!
 
good to know!

thanks for looking into it donster.

I was still curious as to what would happen to a gun that was left uncleaned after shooting corrosive, but i guess i got pretty good answers on page one.

thanks a bunch fellaz.

cheers.
 
curtmg said:
Gun smoke sometimes leaves a taste in my mouth, but never so much I would describe it as "salty."
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Corrosive primes leave a salt compound behind. No it's not NaCl (table salt). It's not the salt itself that makes the gun rust, it's the water that the compound attracts.

In a dry climate it won't matter too much. In a humid climate it can turn a bore rusty overnight.
 
If I remember correctly the corrosive primers contain potassium hypochlorite and one of the products of the reaction is potassium chloride KCl. The latter is the culprit as it is hygroscopic, i.e. it strongly attracts water even from humidity in the air.

You can also smell the chlorine when you fire ammo with these corrosive primers. At least I can when I fire the Czech stuff in my SKS.

But I also thought nobody makes this stuff new anymore.
 
I shot my 858 with corrosive 7.62x39 and I didn't know anything about that ammo. I left my gun for well over a month with no problem. I am in the far North of the province though and winters are extremely dry here.
 
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