Solvent For Cleaning Up After Corrosive Ammo?

[mark dye]

I have a crazy thing for rifles in 8mm Mauser. I just bought one of the Remington M700 Classics in that caliber, and already have a sporterized Mauser. Hell, I've even been contemplating building a Garand in 8mm. The reason for all this is that surplus ammo can be had for less that $60 per thousand. That is simply cheaper than ANY other 30.06 class rifle ammo. You can't even buy 7.62X39 for that! The stuff shoots about 2" from my rifles, and offers a hell of a lot of field shooting practice for almost no money. The problem is that it is old corrosive stuff. I've been cleaning up with soap and water, but am looking for a solvent made for this job. Is ther such an animal, and where can I get it?

Mark

[sinister]

Nope. Soap and really HOT water (Dawn dishwashing detergent is a good one) are the most effective in clearing off the corrosive salts, followed by your favorite petroleum-based cleaning solvent and lubricating/protective oil.

[George]

If it's corrosive primed, Simple Green cut with a little hot water, or neat. Let sit a bit, then scrub with bore brush and repeat as required until it swabs clean, then lube the heck outa' it!

[Vlad]

Yes there is. Well there are many, most solvents containing ammonia break down the salts from the primer residue (it is the salts that attract water). I shoot a LOT of 8mm myself and I use "Sweets 7.62" and so do most C&R shooters I know. I run a soaked patch through the barrel, let it sit for a couple of mins then run a second soaked patch but this time move it back and forth a few times. Then clean as normal. I've shot a few 1000's of 8mm in the last couple of years and never had a single hint of corossion.

A little warning about Sweets 7.62: that stuff STINKS. I can't begin to describe how badly it makes you gag, all because of its high ammonia content. As long as you dont get your nose above it you are good. And if you dont want your wife/girlfriend/mother/roommate/pet to kick you out the house you better do it while you are out on the range.

Edited November 7, 2005 by Vlad

[Patrick Sweeney]

Two things: You may be in for a real headache, making a Garand in 8mm Mauser. The gas system of the Garand is very sensitive. If you use the wrong powder you can have reliability problems, and some shooters have even bent op rods using slower-burning powders than the Garand is happy with. If you build and tne it with one batch of 8mm, it may not be so happy with the next batch of surplus.

As for cleaning corrosive residue, the best is the oldest: soap and water. Fill a bucket with hot (as hot as the tap delivers) water. Stick the muzzle in, insert a tight-fitting patch from the chamber, and pump. You'll push air out, then suck water in. Pump the bore and scrub with clean hot water. Then switch to a bucket of hot (same temp) soapy water and a clean dry patch. Repeat the pumping process. Then dump the first bucket, re-fill with clean hot and swab again, with another patch.

The barrel should be hot to the touch. The barrel will dry in a minute. You now have a bore clean of corrosive residue, but you'll still need to deal with powder and jacket residue, if any.

Doing this to a Garand is a royal hassle, but less hassle than any other method.

[wsimpso1]

The M-1 can be built to run in about any cartridge. Garand originally developed the rifle around a .276 cartridge and a ten round en-bloc, and I have M-1's in 30-06 and 308. The 308 will run fine with 147 through 168 grain bullets, and the 30-06 rifles will run fine with 147 through 180 grain bullets.

The difficulty is two fold:

Mil surp 7.92mm Mauser ammo out there was usually intended for bolt guns and they do not care about how the pressure curve is distributed. And so, some of it was loaded with slower powder that gives higher pressures when the bullet is near the muzzle, while others are loaded with faster powder that gives lower pressures at the muzzle. The M-1 does care how much pressure is available between the time that the bullet clears the gas port and the bullet leaves the barrel. You could easily have a gun that works with some ammo, short strokes with others, and will bend your operating rod on still other ammo;

The M-1 has more corrosion problems than bolt guns. Primer residue gets on not only the bore and chamber, but the gas cylinder and plug, the operating rod and piston, and somewhat on the breach area of the reciever. Now John Garand and Ordnance made the gas cylinder and plug and the piston part of the operating rod from stainless steel because they found out by painful history that the rifle needed it. But when you reassemble the rifle after cleaning it, you had better believe that your zero will have changed too.

For my money, I would just handload bullets and powders of the right types for the M-1, and shoot the cheap stuff in the bolt guns.

Billski

[Norske]

I've never tried it myself, but I have read of some people using good old fashioned Windex window cleaner.