statjunk

Hi All,

I am trying to find a conclusive answer to this question. I have some military surplus ammo and I am trying to find out if it is corrosive.

I believe that the ammo is spanish. It comes in small brown box with the cartridges standing on point. The top of the box says Nato Espanol. The face of the box says Fabrica de Toledo. They were assembled 5 ABR 1975. When you look at the primers on the cartridge there is a little bit of green stuff all the way around the primer.

So are they corrosive?

Thanks
Tom

the Razorhead

doubt it

Pawildman

Pretty much doubt if they are corrosive---- the only thing that MAY be corrosive would be the primer I think, if a lot of mercury is used. I would have to guess the green color around the primer is a sealer of some sort. Wouldn't worry too much about it--- good cleaning should negate any effects, anyhow. I'd be shootin' them----

Charley

The only way to tell for sure, besides shooting them and neglecting to clean your rifle, is to pull a bullet, dump the powder, and discharge the primer onto a piece of bare steel. Check it over the next few days for signs of rust. I would assume ALL surplus ammunition is corrosively primed, unless it is US surplus produced from the 1960s and later.

Um, yeah, the residue from the primer is what is corrosive.

Mercuric primers are not corrosive, and have not been in general use for about 80 to 90 years. Mercuric primers damage the brass cartridge cases by blowing bits of free mercury into/onto the brass, which forms an amalgam with the mercury and weakens the brass.

Corrosive primers leave a deposit of potasium chlorate or potasium chloride when fired. Both are metalic salts. The salt residues are hygroscopic...that is, they absorb moisture from the air. The moisture sitting on the barrel steel is why rust begins after firing corrosively primed ammunition.

The best solution is to clean your gun appropriately after firing corrosive ammunition. The bore can be flushed with hot water, swabbed with surplusGI bore cleaner, or cleaned with an ammonia/water mix. Do one of those things first, then clean with your usual solvents, and it will not matter if the ammunition was corrosive.

statjunk

Charlie, that was text book! That was exactly the kind of explanation that I was looking for.

Thanks

Tom

Pawildman

Yeah, you're right---- I guess I must have confused the mercury in the primers with the mercury in the fish I had for dinner----Thanks---

eldeguello

Charley is right!

It is NOT the mercury in some primers that makes them corrosive, it is the potassium chlorate! In addition, it is ONLY the primer deposits in corrosive smokeless powder ammo that has ever been corrosive. Initially, the old boys thought it was the powder fouiling, hence such concotions as "Hoppe's No. 9 Nitro Powder Solvent". But it never was the powder fouling causing the problem-just the primer salts.

Mercuric primers are essentially noncorrosive, BUT the mercuryruins the brass of the case by causing the brass to lose resilience and fracture, thus rendering the cases unfit for reloading after the shot. Mercuric priming was pretty much abandoned by all countries except Switzerland early in the 20th Century-and the Germans had figured it out and developed non-corrosive priming[RWS Sinoxid] a number of years before we in the U.S. had even figured out what was really ruining our barrels! I guess we couldn't read German technical publications-not printed in English!!

The U.S. Army had changed over completely to the use of non-corrosive priming in .30 cal. M2 ball ammo by about 1956-the various arsenals changed over at different times, beginning in about 1952.

U.S. 7.62X51mm NATO ammo has always used noncorrosive primers, as has ALL U.S. .30Carbine ammo. BUT, it is diffficult enough to know exactly whether U.S. made M2 ball ammo fromthe 1950's is noncorrosive or not, and I doubt that toomany people can give you a definitive statement regarding ANY military ammo made in other countries.

To be safe, I'd treat that stuff as if it were corrosive, and clean your rifle with hot, soapy water after shooting that ammo. I am not aware of ANY solvent, other than water, that is guaranteed to remove corrosive primer salts. Old G.I. bore cleaner was formulated to do so, but we used to clean our M1's with hot water anyway, just to be sure, because there were reports of bores rusting AFTER they had allegedly been cleaned with G.I. solvent alone. Maybe troops didn't do a good job, who knows??