cleaning old ammo

[jmoore]

Whilst not on subject, directly, Mr. Horton's link above to JP rifles and their AR10 variant, was rather amusing to me as the majority of 7.62x51 "surplus" ammo that I have fired in recent years all fall on the "bad" list. I've had no dramas with any of it, much of it has been VERY accurate, much more so than US M80 ball, and have had no reliablilty issues.

Excerpt below:

"Much surplus ammunition is not made to exact specifications. We have found that some of this ammunition has caused problems in our rifles due to the use of a tar-like sealant for waterproofing. When this ammunition is used in our rifles, this sealant melts and coats the chamber causing failures to extract and to chamber. Afterwards, any rifle in which this ammunition is used will have the same problem if the chamber and the bore are not cleaned thoroughly. We have found that surplus ammunition from the following countries/manufactures will cause these problems in our rifles:"

South African----------------------------------------[GREAT stuff! I've shot thousands and thousands of rounds!]
Venezuela Cavim ------------------------------------[maybe the worst on the list, but it's OK- esp for LMG use.]
Austrian Hirtenberger ---------------------------------[Very good quality]
Some lots of German----------------------------------[???]
British (underpowered—will not cycle action)---[Just bought a couple more cases recently- no problems]
Indian (overpowered)-----------------------------[Haven't shot much, but it chrono'd OK]
Winchester white boxes marked 7.62"-------------[reliable, accuracy not the best]
[Haven't shot the Wolf brand in this caliber, so i left it off- besides it's NOT surplus- it's commercial ammo made for profit...]

"[]" comments inside square thingies are mine.

Of course I never shot anything other than match ammo out of my AR10(T), but I sold it just because it was REALLY tough to remove stuck live rounds-which were my fault-, but the warning flag was heeded...

ANY of my other self-loading 7.62x51s are happy with any old thing...

BTW- PLEASE don't buy the sealed Portuguese 7.62x51 (FNM)- I want it all for myself!