i get an amonia smell when shooting cmp korean 30-06

[Duster42]

If the headstamp is KA it's corrosive.
I think the PS headstamp is non-corrosive.

[kywoodwrkr]

Is there a corresponding list for the Danish lots? ie AMA-xx etc.
Or was the Danish all good?
Thanks.
kywoodwrkr

[Alfred]

I was given a sack full of FNM (Portugese?) 7.62 NATO ammo years ago to pull the bullets and salvage the powder if possible, the cases were very corroded with verdigris.

After dumping the powder I noted that it had a very strong ammonia odor.
I put the powder in a steel IMR powder can and left it in a drawer for several months while out of state.
When I came back I found the lower half of the can had turned into a pile of fluffy dry rust powder, and every steel object in the drawer was heavily rusted and pitted.

I checked the pulled bullets and the gilding metal was peeling away from the steel jacket underneath.
The cases were bad anyway so I tossed the lot of it.

[Sunray]

"...a very strong ammonia odor..." Indicates deteriorating powder. Not exclusive to milsurp ammo either.
"...every steel object in the drawer..." Moisture got in there. Near a window left open?

[mousegun]

An ammonia odor on firing but not from the canistered powder is a characteristic of some triple-based powders using nitroguanidine. This chemical is used to suppress muzzle flash and reduce gas temperature without significantly sacrificing pressure. Typical use is with the spotting gun used to range recoilless rifles without giving away position.

A typical propellant that causes the ammonia odor is IMR7383. It probably isn't what's in the ammo here, but the ammonia effect is similar.

IMR7383 was was available a while ago for really cheap, but there's no loading data for it. Several folks have done some testing and found it can be used with the .30-06 effectively. Pressure can be spiky as h3ll.

Can't find much anymore. Jeff Bartlett has some, but the price is almost three times what I paid for it two and a half years ago.

[Terry_B]

i had some powder do that (start corroding metal). it's not a good sign(understatement). when i opened the metal can it was in you could see it fuming. powder should NOT have an ammonia smell. the correct smell is more like acetone. No way to confuse the two.

[rider]

Interesting thread. Some of the guys who are shooting the Centurion .223 ammo from AIM surplus are reporting that there's an ammonia smell when firing but otherwise it's GTG.