Shoot Corrosive? Must See Results

[Krippp]

I thought some of you that shoot alot of corrosive primed ammo might like to see what it actually does.  Now mind you that if you clean within a couple of hours after shooting, and clean properly, then you will never have to worry about seeing these results on your firearms.  This was done intentionally by me to show the affect that not cleaning corrosive salts can do to your guns. 

The 2 test guns were a Yugoslavian M24/47 Mauser and a M44 Mosin Nagant.  I shot about 50rnds of surplus 8mm and 7.62X54R respectively through these guns on Sunday.  They were then put away and untouched til today.  As you can see from the pics, a ring of rust has already formed on the boltfaces of these bolts exactly where the primer would be.  Hard to tell but even after only a little more than 3 days, the pitting is already starting to happen.  Now I did clean the barrels as soon as I finished shooting, cause surplus numbers matching barrels aren't as easy to come by as bolt heads.  But these 2 are still very serviceable and I will continue to use them, just not abuse them as I did for this little test.

It is no joke or old wives tale, Surplus ammo with corrosive primers WILL destroy your firearms if not properly neutralized.

[tommy20/69]

man that looks bad . none of my guns look like that so i guess i ain't useing corosive ammo.all i shoot is surplus but it says none corrosive .you should make this a sticky.

[Krippp]

man that looks bad . none of my guns look like that so i guess i ain't useing corosive ammo.all i shoot is surplus but it says none corrosive .you should make this a sticky.

what caliber are you shooting?  nearly 95% of ALL surplus ammo is corrosive whether the company you got it from said so or not.  They just sell the stuff and market it in the best way possible to sell it, too many times I have seen guys that are new to collecting and shooting milsurps get taken in by companies preying on their fears of corrosive ammo.  Some of the stuff is worse than others, particularly if the ammo is prone to blowing a little extra back through the primer.  There is nothing to be afraid of with the stuff as long as you put in the work after shooting, which isn't really that much work at all.

[tommy20/69]

i shoot surplus 762x39 and 5.56.  now i do clean the crap out of my guns after each shooting but i never ues water or soap i use hopps and powder blast then i oil them up really good. if i see any kinda gunk on it i break out the brass tooth brush. the ammo is mainly wolf i did have some brass cased 5.56 that i got at a gun show but it was in a big bag with 700 rounds in each bag i was told it was surplus ammo . and am out of that one and right now i just have a few cases of wolfblack box/brown bear/silver bear.

[Krippp]

Wolf isn't surplus in the Black box and it is non-corrosive.  Wolf did manufacture ammo for various countries but according to their press rep., they never used corrosive Berdan primers in any of their ammo.  Now the 5.56 you shoot, even if it is surplus it should never be corrosive as it will be Boxer primed ammo, I may be wrong on that one but I do welcome anyone that might know different, I don't use that caliber anymore since leaving the Army.  But in the end, it sounds as though you have a good cleaning regimen and adhere to it strictly, you can never go wrong that way no matter what you shoot.

[tommy20/69]

good to know that about the wolf ammo and the 5.56 maybe thats why i never had any problems with corrosion

[edub]

That's pretty amazing how quickly it can do that. Good to know! Thanks, Krippp!

[hancadam]

I shoot corrsive. I just make sure to clean it with windex and bore cleaner really good. The ammonia in the windex neutralizes the salts.

[Pathfinder]

I shoot corrsive. I just make sure to clean it with windex and bore cleaner really good. The ammonia in the windex neutralizes the salts.

Actually no, its the water in the Windex. But as long as you are using something water based, you should be fine.

[47_MasoN_47]

When I shot my 91/30 for the first time I didn't clean the bolt face and mine has a little bit of pitting on it   The barrel is still fine thank goodness.

[bluesboyk3]

I shoot corrsive. I just make sure to clean it with windex and bore cleaner really good. The ammonia in the windex neutralizes the salts.

Actually no, its the water in the Windex. But as long as you are using something water based, you should be fine.

i have read reports where some folks use balistol? instead of water and it works fine. Me, i use windex, dry it then WD40 at the range, then regular celaning at home.

[Evil Ernie]

Man, am I glad I live in a dry state. Colorado has nice low humidity, and even when the humidity is "high" it's still low due to the thinner air. Less air means less water vapor!!! WOO HOO!!! I still clean as soon as I can, but sometimes I have to wait a day or three. Haven't seen any corrosion whatsoever on any of my bolts, pins, springs, chambers, or bores.
When I do clean, I use Hoppes, and Breakfree CLP.

[rebel8ball]

i shoot the green spam can ammo in my m44, and as soon as i get home, we have an electric tea kettle type thing, heats water to hard boil pretty quick, i dump a whole thing of boiling water down her gullet and by the time i get back inside to the table its dry, then i go to work with hoppes and patches... finish it off with either machine oil or gun oil, which ever i have handy, and so far no problems.

[wickedwd5000]

damn dude, good to know

[slt87]

I never knew it did that.  Good thing I never trusted anything that said corrosive