Corrosive Ammo-What to clean

[Erno86]

Using corrosive black powder in my muzzleloader: Use a muzzleloader style bristle brush in the pipe. Next... put the bottom part of the barrel --- with the nipple portion of the barrel submerged in a pail of warm soapy Simple Green and water. Cotton patch the bore while in the soapy water, thusly creating a suction. Dry patch out. Unscrew an remove the nipple. Clean out the nipple port using Q-Tips soaked with Simple Green. While using thick gloves & rags...grasp the barrel and pour a small pail of hot boiling water directly down the muzzle and let it exit out of the nipple hole. P.S. You're wife may not like it, if you do it over the kitchen sink, and/or you use one of her cooking pails for the warm soapy water; that you've plunged the bottom of the barrel in.

The boiling water opens up the pores in the metal of the bore. Dry patch out, an you'll see how much you've missed. Let the barrel dry an cool down. Lube it up, including grease on the threads of the nipple.

 

[DarthZed]

Water works fine to dissolve the corrosive salts in the primers. But if you're anal (like me), you can use a 90/10 mix of water/Ballistol. This is convenient when at the range since after the water evaporates, the Ballistol remains and protects the metal. Useful if you don't want to immediately clean the rifles after shooting.

 

[SCARCQB]

I just got done shooting my PSL..... Time to boil water for some hot tea and to wash my gun with.

 

[tomandjerry00]

Don't forget to wash/clean the crown and around the muzzle. Those salts are ejected everywher


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[toolness1]

Arrrghh ... will this never end?

First, clean everything metal! How to do that, however, depends on what you are shooting, and which parts were exposed to the gasses from the cartridges. Mosin barrel bands, for example, can just be wiped down carefully with an oiled cloth, as can most of the other external metal parts of the rifle. It's a different matter with the internals.

There are lots of opinions about this, and most are grounded in facts that go back to military cleaning methods that are many years old. Most all of these will work just fine, but here's a summary of why, and why not.

Russians peeing down the barrel: Hot liquid, mostly water, with some ammonia

- This works fine, so long as you don't splash.

What you are trying to accomplish is to flush out chemical salts and residue, neutralize the salts, and leave the metal dry other than a protective coat of oil.

The main ingredient is water. It flushes away most of the salts (left from the primer, not the powder).

Water with a bit of ammonia further helps to neutralize the salts. The cleaner made for U.S. military rifles back when all primers were corrosive contained ammonia ... you could sure smell it.

Windex was a good substitute, because it contained ammonia and was mostly water. Note the use of was, because Windex hasn't contained ammonia for a few years. Some generic brands of glass cleaner still do, though, and they are cheaper. You can also get a gallon of ammonia for a buck, or so, and mix it about one tsp to a quart of water. It will last you for years.

Water doesn't have to be hot to work, but hot water works better for two reasons:
-- Hot water dissolves soluble materials faster.
-- Hot water heats up the barrel, helping it to dry out faster, provided dry patches are run down the bore while it's still hot.

Any oil will work, but some is a little better than others. Ballistol will combine with moisture to some extent, helping it to evaporate while still coating the metal and protecting it. WD-40 is NOT a gun oil. Save it for the rusted stuff on your farm machinery.

As important as any of these other things is simply cleaning the firearm soon after shooting it. Even leaving it overnight can result in perceptible corrosion. I once let a young (but somewhat experienced) shooter use a Mosin while we were shooting several military firearms. He offered to clean it, and seemed to be very busily and carefully doing so while I worked on other stuff. I didn't check behind him, as I should have, and didn't realize that he didn't clean out the bore. The next weekend I looked down it before shooting it again, and it already had fuzzy corrosion showing. Fortunately, it still cleaned up pretty well, with no long-term damage, but several patches came out colored brown from the corrosion before it started looking decent again.

Had no idea Windex doesn't have ammonia in it anymore, but you're right.

It's basically water and isopropyl alcohol. The isopropyl alcohol being insoluble in salt solutions and wouldn't aid in dissolving the salts any better than straight water. The Ethelyne Glycol Monohexyl Ether is only .1% by weight of the solution and isn't going to make a difference either way IMO.

So, besides the alcohol helping the water in the windex evaporate more quickly, windex shouldn't have much of an advantage over straight (unheated) water. Hot water might do even better than windex.

Having said all that, it's worked great for me! I may try making my own ammonia solution and carry that in the "mosin shooting bag" from now on instead.

I prefer to do an initial wash and oiling while the barrel is still warm from shooting because I always have at least a 40 minute drive home after the range, and that's if I don't stop or go anywhere else.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Melnic]

Windex I have at home under the sink says Ammonia D. So that has no Ammonia in it?

I have a small bottle of I refill with cheap glass cleaner from dollar store with Ammonia in my Rifle Range bag. Hmm, I guess I'll make sure of what I'm using by buying some straight ammonia. Or maybe I'll Reduce/Recycle/Reuse my urine. I'll have to make sure I drink Vodka and eat potatos before to make the blend correct.

 

[highfructosecornsyrup]

i wonder how many 1960s cleaning sessions went wrong ...(peeing down the barrel...)

 

[toolness1]

Windex I have at home under the sink says Ammonia D. So that has no Ammonia in it?

I have a small bottle of I refill with cheap glass cleaner from dollar store with Ammonia in my Rifle Range bag. Hmm, I guess I'll make sure of what I'm using by buying some straight ammonia. Or maybe I'll Reduce/Recycle/Reuse my urine. I'll have to make sure I drink Vodka and eat potatos before to make the blend correct.

Correct, but "Ammonia D" is just a name they gave for their formulation. It contains no ammonia. I was surprised as well...and it didn't make much sense that they made up a name for their formula, called it "Ammonia D", and it contains no ammonia.


From the MSDS for Windex:

3. COMPOSITION/INFORMATION ON INGREDIENTS
Chemical Name CAS-No. Weight %

Water 7732-18-5 60.00 - 100.00
Isopropanol 67-63-0 1.00 - 5.00
Ethyleneglycol Monohexylether 112-25-4 0.10 - 1.00



Source:
http://www.aossmedicalsupply.com/doc/msds/glasscleaner.pdf