corrosive ammo

[brucew44guns]

A few years ago, a friend came by and had some 30-06 ammo he wanted to burn through his Garand, and wanted me to join him in some serious blasting. We probably popped 300 rounds of this stuff, and it shot real nice. Afterwards, I ran several patches through the barrel with a good gun oil I use, and thought no more of it, but in honesty did not use Hoppes and/or a bore brush, just the oil and a few clean patches. Normally I would have cleaned the gun properly, but not this time.
Every few months, I usually re-oil and wipe off my guns, to make sure they are protected and won't rust. A day or 2 ago I looked in that Garand barrel with a bore light, and saw a moon-scape of dirty looking crud and what resembled an atomic blast site. I really figured the barrel would be ruined with serious corrosion and rust. Thankfully, with some diligent work with Hoppes Solvent and a new bore brush, I got all that crud out of there today, ands it's shiny as new, and seems to be ok. I see no pitting or damage, maybe I got lucky. I will shoot it soon to check out function and accuracy.
The only thing I can figure, is that the ammo was corrosive. My friend told me he had one of his 30-06 bolt guns do about the same thing, but had forgot to warn me to check mine. Any of you ever do this?, and how can you know in advance by just looking if ammo has corrosive primers? One man told me today that even one shot through a gun and then not clean that gun right away, with corrosive ammo, and rust will start almost immediately. The stuuf we shot was WWII Winchester surplus ammo.

[Terry Murbach]

YOU CAN FIGURE THAT EVERYTHING DATED BEFORE 1953 IS CORROSIVE. BUT--BUT!!!--SOME AFTERWARDS IS CORROSIVE TOO. IT IS NO BIG DEAL. YOU USE GI ISSUE BORECLEANER FROM THAT TIME OR PLAIN OL' SOAP AND WATER WHICH DISOLVES THE CORROSIVE PRIMER SALTS.
YOU SHOULD HAVE READ HATCHER'S NOTEBOOK BY NOW.

[Slick13]

The stuuf we shot was WWII Winchester surplus ammo.

Then it most certainly was corrosive. As Terry said, military .30-06 from before 1952 or 1953 will be corrosive (as will most other military surplus ammo).

Get the jacket fouling (that I'm sure is in there) out of your M1, and you'll probably find pitting underneath it.

~Michael

[Ysabel Kid]

Close call Bruce - glad you were able to clean that Garand up!!!