Bore pitting, corrosive ammo

[Ark]

Despite my best efforts to mitigate it, at least two of my surplus rifles have now developed pitting in the rifling grooves from shooting surplus ammo, along with one pistol. I bring a spray bottle of water to the range, flush the bores thoroughly before loading the car, and then flush them with water again at home before brushing with Hoppes, wiping clear with patches, and then smearing a film of oil up and down the bore. STILL got pitting.

I still have most of a tin of 54R left and a bunch of old 8mm ammo. I've got some bore polish on the way and I'm gonna hit everything with a brush and a power drill to knock all the rust crud out and hopefully stop further progression. I thought I was being pretty thorough on my prevention but apparently not. How do I stop dealing with this? Do I just have to trash all my surplus ammo and cough up for new ammo? How do all these other people shoot corrosive ammo all day long and not ruin their guns?

 

[Wolfhound]

Despite my best efforts to mitigate it, at least two of my surplus rifles have now developed pitting in the rifling grooves from shooting surplus ammo, along with one pistol. I bring a spray bottle of water to the range, flush the bores thoroughly before loading the car, and then flush them with water again at home before brushing with Hoppes, wiping clear with patches, and then smearing a film of oil up and down the bore. STILL got pitting.

I still have most of a tin of 54R left and a bunch of old 8mm ammo. I've got some bore polish on the way and I'm gonna hit everything with a brush and a power drill to knock all the rust crud out and hopefully stop further progression. I thought I was being pretty thorough on my prevention but apparently not. How do I stop dealing with this? Do I just have to trash all my surplus ammo and cough up for new ammo? How do all these other people shoot corrosive ammo all day long and not ruin their guns?

Your cleaning method doesn't sound flawed to me. Corrosive surplus ammo leaves a kind of salt in your bore after shooting. Water is used to flush out the salt and then clean as normal. Some say to use hot water. Some say use soapy water or ammonia in water. Just make sure you flush the barrel well and clean thoroughly.

 

[55fairlane]

You need ammonia.....you need to flush put your barrels/ actions/gas systems (m1 & sks) as soon as you get home, or better yet at the range........ammonia, ammonia then clean and oil......

As a note of interest..........I have seen plenty of these old surplus rifles with a barrel that looks like a sewer pipe and still shoot well........

Hoppes/oil/water/grease will not stop corrosion , as this is caused from a chemical compound / reaction.....not from exposure to moisture......

 

[SSE]

The bore will pit under a layer of oil if it is not neutralized.
If you would have used Windex with ammonia at the range to spray them you would not have a problem.
Hot water or hot soapy water works well but over the years I have gone to Windex.

 

[natdscott]

Use WipeOut foaming bore cleaner.

Done. With all of the above.

 

[Ark]

Thankfully I don't shoot corrosive through anything with a gas system. It's just the Mauser, the Mosins, and the Tok. All of them shoot fine, they're just more pitted than when I first bought them. Maybe I just need to be much more aggressive with the windex flushing?

 

[Wolfhound]

I find it is good practice to check the barrel 24-48 hours after cleaning to see if any corrosion is starting.

 

[natdscott]

Thankfully I don't shoot corrosive through anything with a gas system. It's just the Mauser, the Mosins, and the Tok. All of them shoot fine, they're just more pitted than when I first bought them. Maybe I just need to be much more aggressive with the windex flushing?

No, you need to use the correct cleaner.

WipeOut foam. Done. Copper, carbon, powder, salts, water....ALL removed.

 

[ghitch75]

i spray mine with windex with ammiona at the ranger when done shooting then clean it real good when i get home......no pitting or rust.....done it that way for years

 

[AmmoManAaron]

I think you aren't getting all of the corrosive material out when you are doing the Windex/water portion of your cleaning. Bore fouling is put down in layers. The layers of primer residue and metal fouling alternate and build up with each shot - to a certain point anyway. If you don't get all of the metal fouling out, you aren't getting all of the corrosive residue out either. When cleaning at home, I scrub with a bristle brush with the end of the muzzle in hot soapy water. The brush breaks up the fouling and the water makes sure all of the salts get dissolved and washed away. When cleaning a black powder cartridge rifle, such as an old rolling block, I will even change the water a time or two. As far as getting started at the range: the ammonia in Windex chemically attacks jacket fouling and makes later removal easier, but Windex is mostly water, so it also flushes out some of the salts too. If you're cheap and also want more chemical action, you can just mix some ammonia and water and put it in a spray bottle for use at the range. The water washes out some of the salts right away and the ammonia starts attacking the metal fouling while you are going home. Use a rag to wipe the muzzle clean and stuff a bit into the chamber to keep from making a mess in your rifle action and gun sleeve/case. After you are home, you need the scrubbing action with hot water. Dry with patches. After that, the bore should be pretty much clean and at that point I just go with Hoppe's No. 9 and a little brushing and patch action. Verify all metal fouling removed by looking at the muzzle area of the bore sideways-like with a bright light (not talking about looking through the bore, but rather at the portion you can see). Final dry patch and then a very light coat of oil.

A huge +1 for what Wolfhound said about checking a few days after cleaning, just to make sure you got it all. I check periodically over the course of a week because I'm paranoid and I do have one Mosin that likes to rust. It's bore was pretty pitted when I got it and that makes it harder to remove all the nasty stuff - gotta get those pits cleaned out!

That's my on how I do it, hope you have a rust free future!

 

[Tactically Fat]

You do not need to use Windex or ammonia. Or even Windex with ammonia.

Regular Windex is like 95-97% water. The rest is just a bit of detergents and surfactants. It's essentially very expensive water.

You do not need to us ammonia because the corrosive salts formed are not soluble in ammonia. Using ammonia will only physically wash things out. It will not dissolve the corrosive salt deposits. Will. Not. Work. And since this is the case, and the fact that these salts ARE soluble in WATER - then just use water. Water, water, water.

HOT water will work more betterer. SUPER hot water will work even more more betterer - because once you heat the metal up, it'll aid in drying.

Water, water, water. Then dry, dry, dry. Then be SURE the things are dry. Then re-oil/lube as needed.

Quit perpetuating the myths that Windex and ammonia are needed/necessary. It's silly.

 

[BGDave]

The ammonia guys are talking about jacket fouling. Sweets 7.62 bore cleaner (and sinus remover) is really good for cleaning a neglected bore. I'm going to go with natdscott (see his sig line-----impressive) and AmmoManAaron. Aaron has probably forgotten more than I ever knew about ammo.

 

[Hop]

Use WipeOut foaming bore cleaner.

Done. With all of the above.

Thanks for the reminder. Ordered two more cans.

 

[DangerousDave]

I have always used hot water with Dawn dish soap, run a dry patch, and then use windex with ammonia, then another dry patch and last oil. That has always worked for me. Like the other fellow said, check again in a few days just to make sure.

 

[ghitch75]

You do not need to use Windex or ammonia. Or even Windex with ammonia.

Regular Windex is like 95-97% water. The rest is just a bit of detergents and surfactants. It's essentially very expensive water.

You do not need to us ammonia because the corrosive salts formed are not soluble in ammonia. Using ammonia will only physically wash things out. It will not dissolve the corrosive salt deposits. Will. Not. Work. And since this is the case, and the fact that these salts ARE soluble in WATER - then just use water. Water, water, water.

HOT water will work more betterer. SUPER hot water will work even more more betterer - because once you heat the metal up, it'll aid in drying.

Water, water, water. Then dry, dry, dry. Then be SURE the things are dry. Then re-oil/lube as needed.

Quit perpetuating the myths that Windex and ammonia are needed/necessary. It's silly.

not to "silly" to me as i have done how i said for over 35 years and never have had a rusty bore from corrosive ammo....

 

[Ark]

Bit of an update. I picked up some JB bore polish, chucked a .357 brush and cleaning rod up in my drill, and went to town on the bores. The Mosin is still a sewer pipe but the Mauser and the M38 cleaned out and brightened up. Pitting in those two is not severe.

I think I'm going to modify my corrosive ammo procedure as thus:

-Dump a bottle of water down the chamber and out the barrel at the range before packing up.

-Borebrush, soapy water, and hot water rinse in the sink at home, dry with patches.

-Hit the bore with WipeOut and leave over night.

-Push everything out the muzzle the next day, run patches until clean.

-Run a skim of oil down the bore if I don't anticipate shooting it for a while.

 

[TJ Kackowski]

Bit of an update. I picked up some JB bore polish, chucked a .357 brush and cleaning rod up in my drill, and went to town on the bores. The Mosin is still a sewer pipe but the Mauser and the M38 cleaned out and brightened up. Pitting in those two is not severe.

I think I'm going to modify my corrosive ammo procedure as thus:

-Dump a bottle of water down the chamber and out the barrel at the range before packing up.

-Borebrush, soapy water, and hot water rinse in the sink at home, dry with patches.

-Hit the bore with WipeOut and leave over night.

-Push everything out the muzzle the next day, run patches until clean.

-Run a skim of oil down the bore if I don't anticipate shooting it for a while.

Good grief! This is one hell of a process just to shoot some cheap ammo ... seems to me that it would be much easier and much less expensive to start reloading. But do with your time as you please ... maybe this cleaning process is therapeutic? Me? I find relaxation in the recoil therapy, not the clean up.

 

[Ark]

I do reload, I've just been working through my stash of surplus ammo. Once the 8mm surplus is all gone I'm definitely going to buy up some PPU and then develop an original-strength load. That rifle seems particularly vulnerable to bore pitting. I've got a lot more x54R left to burn, and by the time that's done the spam cans will probably cost more than new ammo. When I bought all this ammo I hadn't gotten into reloading yet.