Corrosive Ammo Question

[basstracker89]

Almost-boiling water and WD-40 within a few days (of firing corrosive primered ammo) are my two friends

Friends......🤔How can I make a Roman Candle outda this??.........For the females trying to figure this out, this is how a guy's mind works.....

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

back when I shot corrosive military surplus ammo I put together an entirely separate cleaning kit --different scrubbing brushes, different wiping cloths, and of course different solvent.
All for the corrosive-primed gun cleaning jobs.

 

[House Tiger]

It's the potassium chlorate (or sodium perchlorate) in the primers that is the 'corrosive' element. If you happen to run across some pre 1900 U.S. military ammo for, say, the .30/40 Krag-Jorgensen, those had potassium chlorate added to the mercury fulminate used in those primers. That combo corroded even the cartridge brass over time. After 1900, the mercury fulminate was dropped, and regular potassium chlorate primers were used because they were easy to produce, especially before non-corrosive primers became viable. Both potassium chlorate and sodium perchlorate are hydroscopic: they are salts, and salts are attracted to water. As you shoot round after round, the chlorate salts can become embedded between layers of the powder residue.

I've always have used cheap white non-sudsing ammonia. After a range session, just run a patch soaked in ammonia down the bore and let it sit while you change patches. Then I'd dry the bore out and leave it dry until I got home. Then go through my usual cleaning ritual with regular bore cleaner, and after all the fouling residue is removed, only then do I run soapy water through the bore. You need to remove the fouling to make sure you can get to the chlorate residue that was left behind. If that sounds strange, think about it: if you want to dissolve salt in your kitchen - you use water, not cooking oil, not even Coca Cola.

I've been shooting corrosive primed surplus ammo since I was a kid in the early 1960s (those were the days !! ). Ammonia and soapy water have always worked, and I haven't lost a rifle bore yet !

 

[d_reynolds]

It should only be surface rust in your barrel if it's only been 2 months. So clean your barrel again, with a brass bore brush. Then with a bore mop with lots of CLP on it.

I'd be more concerned about the bolt on your Mauser, make sure it's been cleaned thoroughly and given a good coat of CLP. I think the primers are your worst enemy, and will rust parts of your bolt that are difficult to clean, much less see.

Surplus ammo isn't the super bargain that it used to be. To avoid the headaches that come with shooting old ammo, I'd just buy a few boxes of new non crossive ammo for your range days.

I have sense began to go with commercial ammo. Most of the time a PPU round or whatever brand I am buying is only 10-20 cents more expensive than whatever the surplus for sale is.

 

[Bypass]

I've never shot using corrosive ammunition. Was always apprehensive about it. Non-corrosive is cheap enough.

 

[basstracker89]

I've never shot using corrosive ammunition. Was always apprehensive about it. Non-corrosive is cheap enough.

I have, it's no big deal. Just clean your gun, that's all

 

[Bobby Hudson]

Hello, what House Tiger said is true about ammonia. In WW1 US soldiers used to piss down the barrel of there rifle. Because you have ammonia in pee. I believe I remember reading that somewhere before. About the US soldiers doing that. I use soapy water & older brand GI military bore cleaner in the cans myself. Never had any problems.