Corrosive 30-06 - cleaning suggestions

[ron]

As I mentioned on this site, I purchased a very nice M1 Garand, made in 1943. It has a replacement 6 turn barrel and is glass bedded.

Most of the surplus Greek 30-06 ammo is gone. Everyone, it seems, has the PMC-Korean 30-06, in clips, and marked with a 'KA' for the factory designation.

The KA ammo is considered mildly corrosive (primer?). One internet site tested a batch and it wasn't corrosive, but still list it as mildly corrosive in their ads. Most others also list it as corrosive.

Should I use this ammo in my Garand? If I do, should I clean it with soap and water, as suggested on many sites, given that I can't take the rifle completely apart without destroying the bedding?

Thanks,
Ron

[TMan]

Ron, I would not shoot ammo in the M1 where there might even be a possibility of it being corrosive.

Actually, the only gun that I shoot corrosive ammo in is the Nagant Revolver, and I doubt if I will do it again because I have found new ammo for it. As I recall, I only spent around $100 for the gun.

Even on the Mil-surp rifles, if I shot corrosive, I'd worry that I didn't get all of it out of the bolt. Nope, with the effort I've spent on stocks, I want to keep my rifles in good condition. Oh, and I have enough grey hair, I don't need to be worrying about anything.

[5ontarget]

There are a few cleaners that will neutralize corrosive ammunition residue. Sweets 7.62, Blue Wonder, and RB-17 are a few that I know of. Other people use windex with ammonia, and spray it on the bolt, and run a couple patches down the bore, then clean with a traditional cleaner. You can use soap and water, a water ammonia mix, or one of the cleaners above.
My mil-surps get either sweets, or BW.


There are some that say you don't even need to do this, just use good ol Hoppe's....

I shoot quite a bit of corrosive ammo, and I would have no problems shooting it through a Garand, when I get one.

Have you checked with the CMP as to the availability of Greek 30-06, last I heard, they had a bunch still. I don't know about pricing/shipping, it may or may not be a good deal.

[ron]

Thanks for the tips!


CMP has Lake City 30-06. At $192 for 960 rounds, + $38 shipping, that's $230, or 83 cents a round.

The Korean is 18 cents a round.

I plan to clean the rifle after every shoot, regardless of the ammo. I would hope that using soap and water or ammonia solution wouldn't hurt the finish on the stock. I've heard of Blue Wonder and read about Sweets in Gun Tests, but the other cleaners mentioned are new to me.

Ron

[TMan]

Based on 5ontargets advice, I used Blue Wonder on my Nagant.

However, on a bolt action rifle I would not be satisfied unless I completely disassembled the bolt and cleaned it with something that would dissolve and neutralize the salts.

I don't want to invite trouble by trying to save a few dollars on ammo. Of course throwing money at problems is not always the best way: I bought a new, top of the line Stihl shredder/vacuum and finally cleaned up the back yard yesterday. There was a ton of leaves and twigs and the 14 to 1 reduction worked very well. In spite of using smaller bags I really wiped out my left arm, and am sitting here in pain. Oh, in case you haven't done the math. If you take a given size bag, fill it with material that has been reduced by 14, then the weight has increased by 14. I'm getting to old for this crap.

[5ontarget]

I've had some computer issues here the past hour or so. I think I have them straight now.

I found some RB-17 at a gun show a while back, it smelled a lot like blue wonder, and had the same gel type consistency. I learned that BW and RB-17 had the same chemist develop them. RB-17 has more ammonia in it than BW, though.

Sweets has more ammonia than the other two. If you've ever smelled it, you'd thought you'd opened a bottle of ammonia. I use sweets, but not as often as BW. I'll use it initially on some bad and dark bores, and occasionally if I get some really bad copper fouling. (It is kind of cool see blue patches come out of the barrel, except that means there was a bunch of copper in there.) Don't use a bronze brush with sweets, it will wear/eat it away fairly quickly.

The whole corrosive ammo cleanup is quite a hot button on the forums. Some say, just use bore cleaner/solvents only, some say swab with warm water then bore cleaner, others use ammonia solution of various sorts then bore cleaner, others say warm soapy water then bore cleaner.

So, I use a water based bore cleaner ( I believe BW is water based. It certainly doesn't seem oil based.) (salts dissolve in water), with a little (or a lot depending on the cleaner) ammonia in it (helps with copper fouling, and some say neutralizes the salts), followed by some oil. I’ve not seen any increased corrosion. Actually, some of the dark bores have gotten brighter, so I must be doing something not wrong.

If you are really worried about the corrosive ammo, don’t use it. Piece of mind is worth it. If you shoot corrosive ammo, and clean it afterwards, you should be fine. You can always recheck it again in a few days, or a week or two. If it does start to rust/corrode, you could then go back and clean it again. The gun won’t turn into a rust pile in that time.

I checked the CMP webpage, they still have non corrosive greek 30-06 on clips, in bandoleers. Comes out to $0.27/round. $168 + $38 / 768rds
www.odcmp.com/ammo.html
still not as cheap as the Korean ammo.

[ron]

Interesting that you hit on the Greek ammo. I did a search for 30-06 on the CMP site and all it gave me was the Lake City.
Thanks. I'll go back to the site.

Ron

[5ontarget]

Well, I remembered one other thing, with the Garand, and corrosive ammo, you'd also want to swab/clean out the gas system. Most of my old guns are all bolt action, no gas system to clean out.

[ron]

I believe that you are correct,5onTarget. Corrosives could get into the gas tube.

ALso, you were correct about the Greek ammo. Only the Lake City (good stuff) is available through the net, so that is what came up in my search. The Geek 30-06 is available at the CMP store. I hope that they will take phone orders for the Greek sourced ammo.

Thanks,
Ron

[5ontarget]

I just did a search on the e-store, it is listed under commercial ammo, rather than surplus. Do a search for commercial ammo, and you'll see it there. Why is it not listed under surplus?