What are the signs of corrosive ammo?

J

Justin

New member
I recently shot a bunch of Chinese Milsurp 7.62x25mm ammo through a CZ-52.

As soon as I got home I cleaned the pistol. I assumed that the ammo was corrosive, so I boiled some water and poured a couple cups of hot water down the barrel to get rid of the corrosive salts.
From there I cleaned the weapon the same as any other piece.
I went through the bore with a brass bristle brush and used Hoppes-soaked patches to wipe down the interior of the frame and slide.
Then I sent a few cleaning patches through the bore to clean out all the stuff loosened up by the bristle brush.

The pistol seemed clean, and life was good.

My first indication that things were awry was when I looked at the jag used to push the cleaning patch through the bore of the pistol.
It was discolored green.
So I ran it under hot water and wiped it off with a paper towel.

Then today I took a look at the pistol again, and saw a greenish discoloration in the bore.
"Oh H*ll!" I though.
I pulled the pistol apart and pushed a dry cleaning patch through.
It came out with spots of bright green on it.

How can that be?!
I just cleaned the thing 4 days ago.

Is this green crud the fabled evil corrosive stuff that kills bores?
Should I be worried?

How come it's still there after I cleaned the pistol?

Could this be some sort of super-corrosive ammo?
I've never had this sort of problem before with any of the Czech-made corrosive milsurp ammo.

ARRRGH!
Is it likely that the bore has been damaged by this stuff?

:eek:
 
Hmmmmm, corrosive ammo normally leaves one's bore with red streaks, like in rust, not grean.

When I've shot corrosive ammo and did not have any solvents meant for that type of ammo, I've used soapy water to clean out any corrosive salts. A friend sho shoots belt fed machine guns keeps a pint bottle of pre-mixed soapy water to wasb out his barrels with since he can't be sure if the ammo is corrosive or not. (There ain't no such thing as "mildly corrosive.")
 
Green is usually an indicator of copper, most likely a result of your scrub with Hoppes removing the FMJ copper streaked into your bore.
I usually get this on my patches after running copper-solvent through the bore.

Try giving it another cleaning and then lightly oil your bore.
 
Easy test for corrosive priming.

Take the bullet out of a cartridge and dump the powder. Fire the round against a piece of mild steel. Wait a day and if corrosive it will have started to rust.
 
It's pretty good practice to treat any foreign military ammo as corrosive and clean accordingly. That prevents any nasty surprises.

Oh, and don't believe the hype that some ammo is only mildly corrosive. Sure, it may only have a little bit of the stuff that causes rusting in it, but it still causes rusting, and the gun must be cleaned accordingly.
 
Just copper..not to worry.

And as stated previously, most likely the first real cleaning in a long time for your weapon. So long as the bore looks clean and not like someone ran a Hershey Bar through it you should be ok. But then I've seen "Hershey Bar" bores shoot better than pristine bores. Go figure.

Good Shooting
RED
 
whew...
Thanks for all the support guys, I appreciate the help.
I was under the impression that the corrosive salts in this kind of ammo resulted in a green-colored residue.

Basically, I scrubbed the bejeebers out of the bore. I would send a bristle brush through it 5 or 6 times, and then follow up with a CLP-soaked patch.
I probably did this 10 times, and each time the cleaning patch came out black with grime. (It was only green after the first time through with a cleaning patch. I didn't even need to run the bristle brush through the bore to loosen it.)

I kinda came to the conclusion that I could sit there and do the bristle-brush/cleaning patch alternation game all day before I finally got tired and decided to pack it up.
 
Caliban,

Nope, the corrosive salts (potassium chloride, which is formed when the primer is fired) are clear, like table salt.

Any green color would come from copper, and to the best of my knowledge, copper is not an element that's found in priming compounds.
 
The only other possible explanation could be that the corrosive substance was leeching out some of the copper from the surface of the barrel (steel). I had heard warnings about using some types of really "hot" bore cleaning solvents on some types of stainless barrels as they would leech out the copper over time.
 
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