The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I frequently shoot corrosive surplus ammo through my Chinese 53. I was thinking about "mixing up a brew" of something I could just spray down my barrel to rinse it out instead of doing a full cleaning every time.

Would a mixture of water and ammonia be good? If so, how much water to ammonia? Any other suggestions would be welcomed...but I like to do things on the cheap

A kids lunch box thermos full of hot water will do it, then swap it with oil until you can clean it at home.

OK but I was hoping for some kind of "solution" that would work good enough to keep from having to do a cleaning after every time. I shoot the gun about twice a week and usually 20 rounds each time. Maybe that's not enough to worry about a thorough cleaning each time???

You have to do the hot water thing or you boar will be junk. I usually run boiling water and then blow it out with an air hose. Then it comes apart and oiled up. Your other option is to buy modern ammo and skip the water and just clean and oil.

RugerFan wrote:OK but I was hoping for some kind of "solution" that would work good enough to keep from having to do a cleaning after every time. I shoot the gun about twice a week and usually 20 rounds each time. Maybe that's not enough to worry about a thorough cleaning each time???

No magic " solutions" hot water is all that is required to wash away salts, the rest you can clean with Hoppes later. Copper and powder fouling will not rust your bore, the salt will. Make sure to oil your bore after using the water or it will flash rust fairly quickly.

I like to take a small 8 oz. pump spray bottle. The nozzle fits down the barrel nicely, and you can spray a few times, let it drain, spray x3, drain, spray x3 drain. Then pull a single dry patch down x3 with an Otis (OK, I use the shop box-o-rags), then a WD-40-soaked patch down x3 to avoid rust. Then bore-brush at home, if you like.

Actually, I think shooting with berdan primers makes the Mosin an "environmentally friendly" rifle: if I have the time, I do the full cleaning at the range, using water as the main solvent. Water is actually a good general solvent, but people clean rifles with petroleum solvents now to avoid rust. But if you're going to use an aqueous solution to flush the barrel anyways, then you might as well use it for most of the scrubbing too, and save the petro solvents for the end.

That's what I do now days. I wet a patch with hot water, run it through the bore and wait a couple minutes. Run another through and give it a couple more minutes. Then I run a brush through the barrel a few times then pour 1 liter of hot water down the bore. Then I run a couple patches of Hoppers9 and let that sit for a bit before giving it a few more scrubs them dumping another liter of water down the bore after that. Then I dry it off and hit any nooks and crannies like the rear sights with wd40 in case water got to it. Wipe off the Wd-40 then put a proper oil on the metal bits and it's good to go.

For most of the cleaning and scrubbing I use water. I still use Hoppes to get the stuff that doesn't wanna let go though.

Sure, I use 2 liters of water... It's just because I don't feel like a few squirts of water will do the trick. If I had scuba gear and a pool I'd probably do most of the salt removal underwater if I could.

I don't mind spending 20-30 minutes cleaning a rifle though. It's relaxing.

Hot water at the range? Are you all taking a thermos to the range, or are you talking about hot water when you're cleaning g at home? Will cold water followed by WD40 and or oil at the range work until you get home and can do a better de-salting/cleaning?

WD-40 is for squeaky doors. It is useless as a gun cleaner or oil. Buy some cheap window cleaner at the Dollar store and keep it in your range bag. A few squirts after shooting followed by a good cleaning at home.

Longcolt44 wrote:WD-40 is for squeaky doors. It is useless as a gun cleaner or oil. Buy some cheap window cleaner at the Dollar store and keep it in your range bag. A few squirts after shooting followed by a good cleaning at home.

The WD40 is for displacing the water used to flush the salts at the range to prevent flash rusting, it's not intended to be a cleaner or oil.

I'm not a fan of WD40 AKA Squirrel piss...

Rongo wrote:I'm not a fan of WD40 AKA Squirrel piss...

Jake and Elwood would just run some "rawhide" down the Mozin, followed by some cheap beer. Good cartoon.

Rongo wrote:I'm not a fan of WD40 AKA Squirrel piss...

It has its uses. Displacing water is one of them. I use windex, followed by a dry patch, followed by WD, followed by a regular cleaning with Hoppes9, and finish with Rem-oil. No rust issues.

Wd40 also removes cosmoline. That's because it's mostly mineral spirits. Doesn't dry out as fast as straight mineral spirits either. But, hot water, or any water is best for cleaning corrosive powders. Ask people who shoot black powder. They will know.

cjsimoh wrote:Hot water at the range? Are you all taking a thermos to the range, or are you talking about hot water when you're cleaning g at home? Will cold water followed by WD40 and or oil at the range work until you get home and can do a better de-salting/cleaning?

I shoot on my own private range, or one that is 45 minutes away. The rifles will be fine for the 45 minute trip home, I don't do anything but case them up until I get home. If I was planning to eat or something that would delay me I have USGI WW2 bore cleaner to deal with the salts. This stuff is specially formulated for corrosive primer residue, it is not hoppes, or any other modern formulation. I use that according to the instructions found in the USGI M1 Garand manual and salt is no longer an issue. I rarely even have to use it.

I have used windex with ammonia D or whatever they are calling it these days. I tried ammonia and water back in the black powder days and although it works great it is awful hard on the finish of the gun if you get sloppy with it. I do not worship at the hot water alter as many insist on doing here but that is my choice. After about 30 years with Windex and regular cleaning at the shop afterward you will be hard pressed to make me change to something else from something that is so easy and works just fine. Bill

There are also cleaners formulated for black powder that will also work with corrosive primer residues. Black powder is 30 times the corrosive mess that surplus ammo makes, anything that cleans and neutralizes it would work with any fouling.

Junk Yard Dog wrote:

cjsimoh wrote:Hot water at the range? Are you all taking a thermos to the range, or are you talking about hot water when you're cleaning g at home? Will cold water followed by WD40 and or oil at the range work until you get home and can do a better de-salting/cleaning?

I shoot on my own private range, or one that is 45 minutes away. The rifles will be fine for the 45 minute trip home, I don't do anything but case them up until I get home. If I was planning to eat or something that would delay me I have USGI WW2 bore cleaner to deal with the salts. This stuff is specially formulated for corrosive primer residue, it is not hoppes, or any other modern formulation. I use that according to the instructions found in the USGI M1 Garand manual and salt is no longer an issue. I rarely even have to use it.

I was thinking about this issue (living about 2 hours from the only range available on any casual basis) but since it is an indoor one (and carpeted in the bays, at that) I doubt they would be happy with people spraying anything down their barrels lol

Then I also thought of just patching briefly...but if you have to bring all that in from the car in one go, as well as ammo, cleaning frame (got this knocked=together wooden frame), well...meh and you can't go back for anything after you enter the range, if you shoot alone. Not practical. And would it do anything really?

Decided I'd rather leave the whole damn thing until I get home to a funnel & jug of boiling water lol

If I'm understanding some of you correctly, the barrel can be damaged by the corrosive ammo in a very short time...like hours? I can't imagine the soldiers that actually used these guns doing a cleaning after each shooting...or did they?

I've been spraying Krud Kutter down my barrel, running a brush back and forth a few times, then spraying some Hoppes Powder Blast, followed by some water...but I often don't do it until the day after shooting. Again, I usually shot 20 rounds or less. Is this not a good procedure?

zhuk wrote:

Junk Yard Dog wrote:

cjsimoh wrote:Hot water at the range? Are you all taking a thermos to the range, or are you talking about hot water when you're cleaning g at home? Will cold water followed by WD40 and or oil at the range work until you get home and can do a better de-salting/cleaning?

I shoot on my own private range, or one that is 45 minutes away. The rifles will be fine for the 45 minute trip home, I don't do anything but case them up until I get home. If I was planning to eat or something that would delay me I have USGI WW2 bore cleaner to deal with the salts. This stuff is specially formulated for corrosive primer residue, it is not hoppes, or any other modern formulation. I use that according to the instructions found in the USGI M1 Garand manual and salt is no longer an issue. I rarely even have to use it.

I was thinking about this issue (living about 2 hours from the only range available on any casual basis) but since it is an indoor one (and carpeted in the bays, at that) I doubt they would be happy with people spraying anything down their barrels lol

Then I also thought of just patching briefly...but if you have to bring all that in from the car in one go, as well as ammo, cleaning frame (got this knocked=together wooden frame), well...meh and you can't go back for anything after you enter the range, if you shoot alone. Not practical. And would it do anything really?

Decided I'd rather leave the whole damn thing until I get home to a funnel & jug of boiling water lol

Unless you are shooting on a day when there is maximum humidity it's going to take more than a couple of hours for the rust to set in. However on a very drippy tropical summers day it can start in as little as 15 minutes. Salt gets it's rust causing moisture directly out of the air, the more moisture in the air the faster the rusting will start. I assume you are only shooting one rifle with corrosive ammo at a time at this indoor range, that makes it easier. Take a small Tupperware full of patches that you have soaked in oil, bring a cleaning rod, or you the one on the rifle to push one oil dripping patch down the bore. That will buy you some time until you can get home and clean, hours, not days of time. This way you are not spraying stuff around, it's only one patch, no mess.