Corrosive ammo question

V

Venom1956

New member
Hey all, I was at the range this past week and i thought due to the sweat my frame on my .22 had rusted. Now I found out someone with us was shooting corrosive ammo out of his guns and now others i was with have had their guns rust. on places that didn't have any contact with hands or sweat such as the barrel on my friends AR. My 1911 i had used and fired and had placed back in the car prior to the user of corrosive ammo arriving is 100% only those that were out at the time have rust.

Has anyone else had this issue? Powder and gases from corrosive shots causing other guns exposed to it to rust?
 
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Corrosive ammunition is ammunition that is loaded with chlorate primers. This leaves a salt residue in the bore which attracts moisture and causes rust to form. Never heard of it affecting adjacent arms, nor of its causing an immediate effect. I don't believe even mecuric primers, long since unavailable, would have such an immediate effect.

My guess is that there was something else corrosive in the atmosphere.

Bob Wright
 
Huh... I was guessing it was from the back blast from his comp blowing it to the. Rear it was quite dirty and windy...

What kind of stuff in the air could do that?! Seems like every bit of steel freckled.
 
Is your range on an ocean beach bathed in salt water spray?

Sorry.....couldn't help it. Some other shooter's corrosive primers are not the problem.
 
I'm not so sure, but I think the other guy would have to have been doing a whole lot of shooting, like a .50 MG. The amount of potassium chlorate that is released from each primer is miniscule, but it is released and is both blown out of the barrel and pushed out by each following bullet. Still, it seems unlikely that there would be enough to do what was described.

Jim
 
I used to shoot corrosive Chinese 7.62x39. If you've ever have a chance to shoot this stuff, you would be surprised at how dirty it is. It blows soot (for lack of a better word) everywhere. It was all over my hands, arms, cloths and my AK.

However, it's not all that hard to wash off. I would think that if the other shooters cleaned their guns with ordinary solvent and then oiled them, there should be no problem. But, if all they did was wipe down their guns....yes, I can believe that some corrosive ammo could cause problems for them.
 
Thank you for the replies.

I was under the impression corrosive ammo only required attention to the weapon using it. But I've shot with this group numerous times @ the same range, conditions along with conditions worse such as rain and snow and we've never had rust issues before whatsoever.

The only new variable was the rifle shooting corrosive with a break (which was quite sooty) so that's all I really had to go on. Also the fact that places that were not touched at all rusted confused me as well and led me to believe that it could be ammo related.

It seems that whatever side was face up on the range table suffered the worst. Luckily most of it seems to be surface rust I get to spend today trying to clean them up. So I guess I'll see how much stuff has rusted.

Any suggestions what I should do with the soft cases that were out there? Not sure If they can be washed or let them air out? as a precaution?
 
I've washed the mags in water and tried to wash off the rest the best I can. Im hesitant to submerge my LLV or CZ slide because I can't take either all the way down. I've wiped down the exteriors where most the rust is with hot water so far. got most of the rust off with a bronze brush. :(

I lucked out that my CZ frame is nickeled and the upper on my custom mk2 is aluminum. *whew* so mainly the rust is all on the slide and frame respectively. Also the mags.

The bores look ok as far as I can see. I'ts hard to tell in the .22 seems if it was residue it mainly got on the side that was facing up.
 
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I was under the impression corrosive ammo only required attention to the weapon using it.
Click to expand...

That would have been my belief too until this thread.

Well, this site is a great place to learn things...even unpleasant things.

From now on I'll check my guns a little closer after shooting at the public ranges.
 
Since it was on the outside you should just need to clean the outside. Wipe it with a damp cloth. Dry it off, then wipe on some oil. The oil should displace the rust if you let it soak in for a little while. Then wipe it with a dry clean patch. Repeat with the oil to remove any rust left.
 
So I am still concerned about the fabric cases that I used to take the guns to the range. I am unsure if I should try and wash them or toss them out or what. Considering many cost quite a bit of cash to replace... and I'll have no cases for transportation...

Most have fabric insides with leatherish (not real) exteriors others are nylon. Will washing them cause the padding to break down or rot?

I honestly don't have enough information on this issue to make decisions i feel 100% about. It would be nightmarish to put another gun in the case that has no rust @ all only to find out later that it rusted up from the case.

20130814_113608_zps6e403276.jpg


These are four of the five cases from right to left they are Redhead (cotton?), Ace Case (soft foam?), Browning (wool like) and Kolpin (cotton?)
20130814_123816_zps9e9913c3.jpg

The last one is a fitted custom 1911 case looks like a felt like fabric. Called a tag bag.
 
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The four cases in the top photo should be washable with no problems.

Probably the better course of action, though, is to simply rinse them in warm water, then put them on a towel and squeeze out as much of the water as you can, and then put them in front of your dehumidifier or a fan so that they can dry quickly without mildewing.

The fitted case for the 1911, I simply don't know. The best course of action for that one may be to wipe it with a damp sponge, let it dry, then repeat several more times.
 
The effect of corrosive ammunition can occur on any metal that the powder gas touches. NOT just the barrel of the gun firing it.

Not much of an issue usually with bolt action rifles (where only the bore, and chamber are the exposed places), but in semi autos, its the entire action, and gas system that needs to be cleaned of the corrosive residue, because they all get exposed as the smoking case is ejected.

While I've never seen a case like you describe, it makes sense, if your guns were laying on a range table next to someone shooting corrosive ammo and using a muzzle brake. Think of it as salt spray. Because that's what it is. Just very, very fine.

As to the cases, if you are worried about washing them, consider this, eventually the salts will lose their potency. Damp wipe the cases, and let them dry (I'd leave them outside in the summer sun, but I live in a desert;))
and then put something not valuable in one and close it up for a while ( something that can rust), and then check it after some time has passed. If the problem is solved, fine. IF not, repeat until it is.

Generally, washing doesn't hurt things, its the way they dry that determines if there is damage.:D
 
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