corrosive?

[Pattern14]

...cheapest thing to do at the range is bring a bottle of Windex or similar cleaner

Actually buddyjaet,
The cheapest thing to use is water- at least until water is depleted on this planet.

[Swede]

How can you tell if you have corrosive ammo?

Treat all 7.62x54R as corrosive and you will be fine.

If you want to see if it is corrosive, Pull a bullet from a round and dump out the powder. Load the empty case into a rifle, hold the muzzle up to a piece of metal and pull the trigger. Put the piece of metal outside for a couple days. The piece of metal will rust instead of your barrel.

[TDH]

How can you tell if you have corrosive ammo?

If it doesn't say non corrisve on the packaging it is. But like the man says treat all 7.62 x54r and all the 5.45x39 as corrosive. It most probably is.

[gandog56]

I just use Windex, then Hoppes #9.

[concretus]

beerchug:

[jmoore]

It's Potassium Cloride(KCl) residue- It acts exactly like Sodium Cloride (NaCl) your regular old table salt.


Water w/soap(to lower surface tension) washes it out.


That's it. Nothing fancy. Don't worry!

Hot water (w/ soap optional) is even better.



-Old style Windex is fine- lots of water w/ soap, sometimes ammonia- don't use the vinegar(or other acid types like citrus) version!
-Ammonia(NH3) is OK- if you don't let it sit for too long! It's also mostly water, and the ammonia acts on the COPPER fouling fairly effectively.
-Petroluem based oils by and large do nothing to eliminate the salt, but they can coat the surfaces enough to form a barrier to water vapor, for a while. Sooner or later, depending on viscocity of the oil, temperature, hunidity, etc. the water vapor will get to the salt and the bad rust monster will visit.
-There are some colliodial water/oil mixes that may do for cleaning, but tend to be more expensive.

Some references shamelessly stolen off the internet:

Hygroscopy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Potassium chloride - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Percussion cap - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Don't make me go and get Edward Horton!


ETA some more, because I just can't let go..

The Ballistol oil and cleaning product recommends up to a 90% water/ 10% Ballistol emulsion for cleaning suspect firing residue.

If you must add something to the water rinse step, make sure its an alkaline substance rather than acidic.

If for some reason there's aluminum about keep the alkaline stuff away from it- it will tend to start corrosion there- its roughly the opposite of steel as far as corrosion tendencies go.

[Pattern14]

[QUOTE=
Don't make me go and get Edward Horton!
[/QUOTE]

Please no!

[jmoore]

I think he could do a very good job, actually!

[robertb6112]

If you can find some original GI bore cleaner it works great. You can find it once in awhile. i had a friend that gave me 2 cans of it. He bought a box a few years back.

[sigman2]

WWII GI bore cleaner is the only thing I've used for corrosive primers. Works great and I've never had a problem.

I just bought a case of 72 6oz. cans. Several lifetimes supply.