Which solvent for corrosive ammo?

[pmclaine]

I thought I read somewhere that Ballistol actually is formulated for removal of corrosive salts. I have not used it but if it performed as advertised it sounds ideal, like a CLP with properties to remove corrosives and they claim it is fine for all rifle finishes.

I have 400 +/- rounds of Korean KA headstamp corrosive I will be firing through my 1903. Each time I intended to shoot this ammo I have come up with an excuse to avoid my fears of corrosive salts in my nice 03 - too humid today, not enough time to immediatly clean, etc. I think when the dry fall weather comes along I will take this ammo a thermos of scalding hot water, a little dish soap and a funnel, put the muzzle into a cup of soapy water and using a bore swab liberally wash the bore down with the hot soapy water, than rinse some clean water through the breech out the bore to remove the soap. Than clean as normal. I hope this will take care of the corrosive issue.

[JustPassingThrough]

Water warm or cold
Preferably warm

Yup ball has it right.

Corrosive ammo comes from the primer not the powder and is the result of potassium chlorate decomposing into KCL (Potassium chloride) a salt.

The solubility of KCL is well known. I've included a chart of it below. (Bigger values are better)



You'll notice that plain old water is significantly better then anything else. The hotter the better. Boiling water is 2x as good as room temperature water at removing the salt.

So if your cleaner of choice is water then you're good to go. If it's any other chemical you're just pouring your money down the barrel and doing next to nothing or worse.

FYI: Windex is made from:

Isopropanal,
2-Butoxethanol,
Ethylene,
Water,
Ammonia

So the water component can remove KCL, but the solution as a whole is not as good as water by itself.

A final note to consider. KCL by itself does not cause rust. Its hygroscopic meaning it takes up water and holds it. That water reacts with the steel(iron) and very small electrical currents break the water into hydrogen and oxygen. The free oxygen goes after the iron producing rust. The KCL adds more ions to the solution which increases the current flow and the rust process.

[Johnny Peppers]

I use a mixture of Windex, hydrogen perioxide and Simple Green. A quart is made up with a sixteen ounce bottle of perioxide, a tablespoon of simple green and the rest windex.

That is almost the mixture we used for wetting the patches when loading our muzzle loaders for competition. 2 ounces hydrogen peroxide, 2 ounces 409, 2 ounces water soluble oil and enough water to make a quart. Mixed it was milky colored and called "Moose Milk". It wasn't good for cleaning the bore, but helped when you had to shoot a long string without cleaning. Hot water was used for clean up.
Remember that whatever you mix, the water is what dissolves the potassium chloride. A little soap acts as a wetting agent, getting the water into the cracks and crevices.