The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

A year ago in a local gunshop I found some commercial 54r. It was.older ammo, im guessing from the 80s in a bright orange box and big NON CORROSIVE written on it. Two months ago I used. 40 rounds and put the rifles away..... well it was.corrosive, I noticed red on the crown of the rifles I shot during my move. No other rifle had any. Did a little.damage but theyre not ruined. No buying random ammo anymore.

How many times have I said it? Treat any ammo that is not US COMMERCIAL manufacture as corrosive no matter what the box, or anyone said about it. Now you know why I say it, I trust Winchester, Federal, Remington, to be non corrosive, all others are suspect and cleaned as if corrosive.

any trust for PPU?

Maybe its just me but even other guns... I clean ALL the Time. We went out shooting and as soon as we got home the mosin, the AR, the Bersa, and the Walther were all broken down and cleaned. and About every 2 months even if not shot I take them out clean and oil them again. But that's just how I was shown. Regardless of ammo i could never just shoot a gun and put it away .

I.wont say I have a method, dont wanna clean to much, over cleaning can be bad. I do.need to.reevaluate my.methods though

mitch5690 wrote:any trust for PPU?

Yes; PPU commercial ammo that is coming to the US market is quality, accurate, non-corrosive ammo at a reasonable price. So is Czech Sellier and Bellot.

The only thing I do for corrosive ammo cleanup that I skip for the commercial new ammo is a cup of boiling water dumped down the pipe before normal cleaning. An extra 3-5 minutes with a small electric teapot I keep just for the purpose. Trust PPU? To be good shooting ammo with great brass cases yes, to be 100% non corrosive....no. Paranoid? You betcha, but I have never had a rusty bore, and strive never to have such.

Okay I guess.ill clean everytime I shoot,

mitch5690 wrote:Okay I guess.ill clean everytime I shoot,

With surplus ammo, you have to. Also you have to follow a cleaning routine that will negate the effects and consequences of corrosive priming. Normal cleaning with just modern petroleum-based solvents won't guarantee that. Yes; I still trust current commercial PPU. I also routinely use the .303 British fired PPU casings for reloading. Great stuff. Thanks, Serbia.

Well I learned my lesson, sadly one.of.them.was a m39 with a zinc disk

You wouldn't happen to have a picture of the box the ammo was in or a headstamp of the ammo or both? Might help someone in the future. I know I'm curious.

I bet it will clean back up Mitch. I have been there. It used to be worse for me when I was young but fortunately I wasn't shooting milsurps back then and no corrosive ammo. My problem is that I like to take too many rifles to the range at once and then am usually so tired when I get home, so I have learned in my 53 years that taking a manageable number of guns to the range so I can maintain them is far better. I will say though that if you go and don't think you can clean them good after shooting at least give them a decent swabbing with water based something or Hoppes #9 and a external wipe down till you can do a thorough job.

YOU SHOOT IT, CLEAN IT! I've seen way to many guns ruined by the lack of basic care. Just spend a little time looking at the bores at any local gun shop or pawn shop, you'll see what I mean.

Ill see if I can find the.box, dunno if I still have it

Growing up my old man never cleaned his guns until they stopped functioning... And then it was lets say half-ass at best. I admit there are times I don't get to cleaning every single gun right after shooting, but it ain't very often. I especially clean every gun that shoots corrosive, or possibly corrosive. No exception.

You also want to remember the bolt face. That area where the primer meets the firing pin is right in the salt zone.

Don't trust anyone, I heard (altho' second-hand) that all the Wolf ammo is corrosive unless it was headstamped "Wolf", regardless of what the package says,

Climate matters also, in uber-rainy Seattle I had guns start rusting sitting in the safe if I missed oiling a spot, and of course shooting removes the oil from the bore.....

Sorry to hear your bad luck.

I've shot 100's of rounds of modern manufactured PPU with zero issues of possible corrosion. I typically clean those rifles when I get home or the next day, but there have been occasions when I only fired 20 rounds through it that I've waited until after the next time I go shooting, which could be a few weeks.

Other than PPU the only other factory loaded ammo I have or use is the common surplus, which we all know is corrosive. I had 2 rifles that didn't get cleaned or maybe not oiled enough that the next time I checked them (1 year later) had a small spot or 2 with rust. My guess is a previously pitted bore had salts stuck in them. This is why I check and re-oil every firearm once per year.

Cleaning weapons after firing them on a range has been beaten into my head by the Army. Just to be safe, I clean everything I fired within 24 hours of my return. The only exception might be shotguns. If I have to dispatch a varmit on my property with a round or two, I won't clean them.