Corrosive ammo?

[cjgemm]

How can you tell if ammo is corrosive? I just purchased some Korean ammo in bando's, but I read here that KA head stampings are corrosive. I inspected all of the bullets, but I'm not sure what I should be looking for. I don't want to ruin my new baby!

[djskit]

Its the primers that make ammo corrosive or not.
Yes, the conventional wisdom is that the KA is corrosive. - It was not advertised as such initally, but some industrious types on another message board did some experiments.
Just be sure to clean the barrel and gas cyclinder IMMEDIATLY after firing.

[Sniper]

Do you remember what message board talked about the experimenting?

:sniper:

[mbott]

Sniper,

I'm not sure if this is the same board djskit is talking about, but Jouster's (http://www.jouster.com/cgi-bin/garand/garand.pl) has had several threads on the Korean ammo. I've never purchased it myself, so I haven't been paying that close attention to the whole thing.

--
Mike

[gossman]

I bought some korean ammo in the bandoleers with the rounds prepacked in garand clips. Shot it several weeks ago, was told it wasn't corrosive. Ran a snake thru the bore a couple of times with CLP and put it away. After reading this thread and looking at the Korean ammo on Fulton's website went to the safe to look at my rifle. Sure as sh*t, the bore was rusty. Stripped the rifle and found the bore, chamber, op rod, gas plug, et. al rusty. Spent the rest of the evening until past midnight trying to scrub away all the rust. Then I liberally oiled it and let it stripped. Took apart the bolt ( I hate that cause it so da***d difficult to put back together) found no rust. Never again for me. Don't care how cheap it is. If you have it, burn it but windex or wash the rifle clean with water extra well. The work isn't worth it to me. All ammo will be thought of as corossive unless it is new or from lake city. Just my .02 cents worth. :usa:

[CX4 Shooter]

I have bought quite a load of the Korean ammo and I have found most of it to be corrosive except for the boxed ammo. I have been cleaning my rifle every time I shoot with no effect to the finish or bore. You need to clean every time you shoot surplus ammo because the guy you buy it from is just there to make a buck not care for your guns. You can buy some at www.aimsurplus.com pretty cheap. If you get a chance give a look at my rifle at: My Garand (http://groups.msn.com/SecondAmendmentfriendswithguns-/mygarand.msnw)

:2guns:

[Lexington]

I have a similar horror story, despite lots of guys telling me you don't have to COMPLETELY take down and clean after using corrosive.

I fired about 40 rounds of Korean (KA) corrosive from the bandoliers. Afterwards, I washed the chamber, bore, boltface and inside the gas cylinder with Windex-soaked patches, then cleaned as usual.

Next time out, I fired 60 rounds of supposedly non-corrosive Korean stuff (PS) and cleaned the same way, just in case.

One night I'm sittin here looking at my M1 and I think I see a slight orange spot right where the barrel meets the gas cylinder. Naturally I freaked out and ripped her apart. You see, I know it's bad to remove the gas cylinder too often, so I was trusting that the corrosive stuff wouldn't do any damage so long as the bore and other areas I mentioned were wiped out.

Turns out there were nice, orange rust spots all around my gas port and some of the stainless (or is it chrome) parts weren't orange but had a strange not-black crud on them. I scrubbed all those parts with Hoppe's and wiped everything down. I scrubbed the bolt too, just in case.

So I figure, I don't mind cleaning my rifles one bit. But if I have to perform disassembly that is not recommended every time you shoot, I'm hurting the accuracy of the rifle to burn cheap ammo.

Corrosive in my bolt actions worries me not. But in the M1, I will try to avoid it if possible.

And as for M1 Carbines...

The Carbine's gas piston is not even serviceable- well, the Army says to only open it to replace the unit. If corrosive gunk got in there, you'd never know it. But the guys selling the Korean 1980s-made surplus .30 Carbine in the clips say it cannot be corrosive. I hope they are correct!

[CX4 Shooter]

I am glad you where able to save it before it got to bad. :2guns:

[Cornbread2]

I have found the KA ammo to be fairly decent stuff. It functions good and is accurate enough at closer ranges. I have not tried it on thr 600 yard line yet.

It is corrosive but if you know how to clean your rifle it will do no harm.

[M1911]

I've shot a fair amount of KA ammo and most of it was fine. For the price, it's hard to beat. I don't worry about it being corrosive because I always clean my M1's as soon as I come back from the range.

I believe it safe to assume that just about all foreign milsup ammo is corrosive to some degree (ditto US-made ammo mfg'd prior to about 1960) so I don't fret about that - I just make sure I clean my rifles as soon as possible after shooting, I clean them thoroughly, and I use something known to neutralize the corrrosive salts.

Hoppes #9 is great stuff, but I don't believe it will work here. I personally like CLP because it continues to penetrate the pores of the metal after you've finished cleaning.

Just my 2 cents.

[gaweidert]

After firing corrosive ammo in my Garand I run a few patched soaked with water down the barrel. The I use Hoppe's No. 9 Nitro Solvent to clean up after that. I have also used Tetra and Blue Wonder. After I am done I use EEZOX and I have never had a problem. Rem Oil also seems to work.

At the moment all the ammo I have for my Garand is listed as non-corrosive, but I still follow the same procedure. I sued krean at first becasue I needed clips and the bandoleers are handy too. Also, I alway check my rifles the next day just to be sure. Amonia, if left in your barrel can cause corrosion too.

[CX4 Shooter]

The Ammo in the boxes are not corosive but the ammo you bought is. It will not hut your rifle in any way if you give it a good cleaning when you get home. I have shot the same ammo through my Browning and my Garand. I have had good luck with it and I have found it is pretty accurate. I can get about a 3 inch group without any problems. If I use it in prone I can shrink it to 2 inches. With match ammo my rifle will shoot 1 inch so the old ball ammo from Korea works well.

rifleman308@prodigy.net



:2guns: