Bore cleaning question

...the recommendation regarding Windex was with regard to guns in which cartridges with corrosive primers were used, FWIW. He was shooting an M1-carbine with corrosive-primed ammo.
I've heard of it's being used for cleaning black powder firearms, and I suppose that it would work as well for corrosive primers. The active ingredient in that case is mainly water which dissolves the corrosive salts left in the bore, and the detergent in the formula doesn't hurt.

Again, I'd make sure it was thoroughly dried once it was completely clean and then get some oil on it immediately after that.
 
ImpalaCustom - I could swear that I bought some corrosive-primer .30 Carbine ball ammo in the 1960s that had a Belgian headstamp. FN? Not positive, though - it's been too long.
 
Florida Veteran, no all M1 Carbine ammo even foreign was non-corrosive, except the Chicom. I had to go look again but it is LC52 not 53. The bogus LC52 ammo was "copied" from the ammo the Chinese picked up during the Korean War... along with the M1/2 carbines that could fire it. It's normally packaged in spam cans and tan cardboard sleeves marked LC52 in blue ink with a brass colored primer. The real LC52 has a nickel colored primer, the big problem with corrosive ammo on the M1 Carbine is that the gas piston nut is staked in place on most M1's and most people never clean it but once in a while, well it rust them and makes a mess then.
 
Windex-Thats some strong stuff. Howa actually recomends it in there cleaning steps. As stated - If you use it -no longer than a few minutes and clean it out good,
 
...the big problem with corrosive ammo on the M1 Carbine is that the gas piston nut is staked in place on most M1's and most people never clean it but once in a while, well it rust them and makes a mess then.
I was focused on the Windex and didn't notice which gun was mentioned. You're right, firing corrosive ammo in an M1 Carbine is a bad idea, and it's also not a great idea to clean the bore with anything containing water unless you can guarantee none of it gets in the gas system.
 
Great information - thanks, impalacustom and JohnKSa. It sounds like my buddy most likely was shooting non-corrosive and didn't know it. As for the old FN ammo, the corrosive caution was a story told to me by someone young like me, maybe the seller, back in the early '60s - I'm glad it turns out to have been inaccurate.
 
I have to wonder why the bash against segmented cleaning rods. They are everywhere, and the military standard for the past hundred years or so.

True, they are not as good as a solid rod, but I have always felt that is it better to be able to clean the bore when needed with a rod that is handy then wait (days? weeks?) to get to that solid rod that got left back at home.

Boresnakes do solve that problem, being very easy to pack, but there can be times when a rod, any rod, is needed, and a segmented rod takes up a lot less space than a solid one.

Coated rods are nice, just make sure they don't get grit embedded in the coating(same thing for aluminium/brass rods), other wise, any rod/barrel contact can act like valve grinding compound. A minor issue, but one that should not be totally ignored.
 
My problem with segmented rods is that I've never used one (aluminum or steel) that didn't eventually break at the point where one of the segments joined another.

I guess they're not a horrible choice for light duty or as a field expedient, but I no longer use them unless there is no other choice.
 
Boresnakes do solve that problem, being very easy to pack, but there can be times when a rod,
any rod, is needed, and a segmented rod takes up a lot less space than a solid one.
Agreed... but carry the steel segmented rod akin to military issue.
Where one actually needs a rod, aluminum is a disaster.
Honest. :eek:
 
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