Hey All,

 I was wondering during a day at the range do you guys do any temporary cleaning with corrosive ammo till you get home to do a thorough cleaning .

Thanks  John

I will run a patch or two of hoppes down the bore while the gun is hot then pack up.

flush with windex w/ ammonia

 

Water works fine also to remove salts

Bring a bottled water with soap and send it down

Thanks guys , I never shot any of the corrosive stuff  in the 74 yet and just wanted to make sure .

I usually drive the half hour to hour and a half home and then clean with windex.

Windex, ammonia, all those other recipes people use is overkill.

 

Soapy water works great and it's close to free. All you need to do is flush the salts out of the areas.

bring a spray bottle of water and spray generously and then clean when home. 

I wait till I get home after shooting the surplus stuff, never had a problem. 

Windex, ammonia, all those other recipes people use is overkill.

 

Soapy water works great and it's close to free. All you need to do is flush the salts out of the areas.

 

Ammonia in a half gallon bottle approximates the cost of cheapo bottled water and doesn't even come close to "Poland Spring" or the equivalent.  A cap full in a quart of water is similar to your soapy water.

 

Regardless, all the recipes require is some means of diluting and erasing the corrosive salts.  The universal solvent generally takes care of most salts given enough volume ratio.

I clean at home after shooting; I've never cleaned at the range or in the field. 

 

I use hot plain water, then normal cleaning with Hoppe's or something similar. 

You don't need to bother at the range unless you are shooting in the swamps of LA or something.  Both world wars were fought with corrosive ammo, and I can promise you our men in the foxholes during the battle of the bulge wouldn't fire 5 rounds then be like oh noes!  I need ammonia and water and a full detail clean in the next hour!

The guns still worked.  You are fine for several hours/a few days if your safe is dry

I always clean at home.  I start with windex, then M-pro 7 and finally hoppes.  I am OCD when it comes to cleaning and found that combination works miracles. 

Dollar Store window cleaner. Spray the crap out of the barrel and bolt. Run a few patches through then pack up and clean at home.

 

Has worked for me for years and only takes a few minutes.

I wait until I get home,  its not like little pak men are eating away at your barrel,  just flush out with hot water, and clean as you would normally do.   The problem is when you leave it for a few days, without cleaning , then the trouble starts.

I have always cleaned at home

If you are shooting surplus 7.62x45 do a full strip down at the range and flush it with water completley. It is the most corrosive ammo i have ever seen.

 

Most likely though you dont have something chambered in that caliber though.

Salt does not become corrosive until mixed with water.

Windex, ammonia, all those other recipes people use is overkill.

 

Soapy water works great and it's close to free. All you need to do is flush the salts out of the areas.

This is correct. There is no magic in Windex or ammonia. Windex is mostly water and I don't think it contains ammonia anymore. BTW what most of us call ammonia is actually ammonium hydoxide or very simply ammonia (which is a gas) mixed with water. Household ammonia became known to clean guns because telling soldiers to keep their rifles dry then cleaning them with water seemed contradictory. Read the section on corrosive salts in Hatcher's Notebook. Testing proved nothing cleaned better than water.

 

There is an article on surplusrifle.com where they tested cleaners on corrosive salts. Nothing cleaned as good as water. Hot water works better as the heat helps to dissolve the salts. A bit of soap or detergent helps holds the salts in suspension.

 

If you don't have water, household ammonia or Hoppes #9 will work. Nothing is better than hot soapy water though.

Please don't forget the gas tube and piston.  You have no idea how many  SKS's I have seen with pitted gas tubes and pistons.

 

Sure the barrels had been cleaned but somebody forgot something.

 

I'm a Windex guy.

 

For Nick - hot water is your friend.  Tap water at 140*F drys pretty quickly but get the kettle and hold that barrel with a rag.  It gets hot!

You know .. I shot a bunch of corrosive ammo over the years in Mausers before that bug went away and I never used water on the barrel. I cleaned the barrel when I got home as you would clean any barrel. Salts are not magical, they don't hold on for dear life to the barrel. Solvent, patches, brushes, more patches, oil, and crap gets removed just fine. I think a lot of the flush with water thing comes from older military days when the guns were getting really gunked up in combat, plus I'm fairly certain most modern cleaners have various compounds in them to dissolve and remove the salts.

 

By all means, flush, and windex, and do whatever you wish, it won't hurt, but I'm not actually buying the need based on my experience.

I'm late to the Party, but I sorta have to agree with Nick to some extent:  Just treat it as you would a muzzleloader!  The one thing to NOT DO is to spray just water on it!  Corrosion takes place only with MOISTURE, so unless you're using a Black Powder Solvent, don't use anything water-based.  The best salt-scrubber solution is Butch's Black Powder Bore Shine.  Military uses it on revolving canon!  Foams-up to let you know it's working, removes salts, leaves behind a DRYING AGENT to get rid of rust-causing moisture.  Makes clean-up at home a SNAP with warm water.

 

If you keep the gun dry until you clean it back home with warm water and soap, then you can just do everything at home.  If you shoot the gun in high humidity, use the Black Powder Bore Shine.  Great to teach kids how to clean a gun too, since it's NON-TOXIC (unlike all of the petrol-based cleaners)!

 

Keep 'em in the black!

 

Dave