By L. S. Barrel

The term �corrosive ammunition� refers to the fact that the priming compound in the cartridge (when the gun is fired and then not cleaned) will cause the bore to rust and pit. Corrosive priming by itself is not necessarily a bad thing because if the ammunition is stored properly (in a cool, dry environment, out of direct sunlight) it will last virtually forever. You just have to thoroughly clean the gun after shooting it. The U.S. Army considers non-corrosive ammo to have a shelf life of thirty years, if stored properly. I�ve successfully fired corrosive ammunition that was loaded in 1913, prior to WWI.

If you cannot immediately clean the gun after shooting corrosive ammo at the range, try hosing the bolt, barrel, and gas system thoroughly with WD-40. this should give you a couple of days time to scrub the gun. WD-40 is a great solvent (being about 85% kerosene) but is a miserable gun lubricant and can be down-right dangerous if sprayed on any of your ammunition. Military-spec. ammo has been �waterproofed� by using sealers around the primer and the bullet at the case mouth. WD-40 dissolves those sealers and can contaminate both the primer and the gun powder inside the cartridge. At the best you may have a failure to fire (a dud) and at the worst you may have a hang-fire (a round that goes bang 10 to 15 seconds AFTER you pull the trigger).

What makes corrosive priming so damaging to the bore is the powdered residue it leaves behind after firing. They call these residues �salts�. It is an accurate name because these salts attract moisture from the air and immediately begin to attack the steel in your gun barrel. It will even eat through a chrome-plated bore in short order, as a friend of mine found out when he lost a chrome-plated Colt AR15 barrel in less than three weeks to shooting corrosive ammo. Which brings up another point: my friend was firing Chinese Norinco �non-corrosive� .223 in his AR15. what is non-corrosive by third- world standards MAY OR MAY NOT be non-corrosive by U.S. standards. IF IN DOUBT, CLEAN IT OUT!!!

The old traditional method of cleaning a gun after firing corrosive ammo was to thoroughly scrub the bolt, barrel, and gas system with HOT soapy water (just like black powder shooters), then dry it all out and administer a light coat of preservative oil to the clean gun. This method is extremely cheap, reliable, and effective.

From time to time at gun shows you can find the one quart containers of U.S. GI Rifle Bore Cleaner (RBC) for sale by the surplus dealers. If you pop the lid, take a sniff, and IF it smells sweet (like the old Hoppe�s NITRO #9 bore solvent) - BUY IT for cleaning up after shooting corrosive ammo. That �sweet� smell is Nitro-benzene and they stopped making bore cleaners with it in the 1970�s because it is carcinogenic. A one quart container or RBC, mixed with three quarts of mineral spirits (paint & hardware stores have it) makes one gallon of corrosive ammo bore solvent (which should last you quite a while). Clean the barrel, bolt, and the gas system like normal, wipe dry, and then put on a light coat of preservative lubricant.

ODDS & ENDS

AMMO STORAGE:
Keep your ammunition in a cool, dry place, out of direct sunlight and (if at all possible) try to prevent large, rapid swings in temperature. Gradual temperature swings do not seem to bother ammo; but large, rapid swings start the chemical breakdown of the gun powder. For instance, on an 80� F day: the inside of the trunk of your car may reach 130� F in the sun, but at night may only be 60� F ....NOT a good place to leave your ammo.

Did you know that Hillary wants to ban the future sale of ammunition cans by the U.S. military? Those cans are probably the best way to store or to carry your ammo and once the lid is locked down they�re waterproof, too! One .50 cal. can will hold up to 5,000 rounds of .22 1r in boxes, or over 1,000 rounds of loose 7.62x39mm ammo, or just about anything else you can think of!

I like to store ammo in .50 cal. cans but for easy carrying, I�ll move the ammo into .30 cal. size since they tend to be bulky, and when fully loaded, it may take two people to move them.

7.62x39mm Ammunition: This cartridge was one of the first successful modern military battle rifle cartridges in the world. It continued the .30 caliber trend in Russian bore diameter weapons (during WW II all of the Russian small arms used .30 cal. barrels, even their pistols. Think of the savings in barrel making equipment costs, not to mention the ammunition manufacturing savings). Based loosely on a German design of nearly the same time, the 7.62x39 was adopted in 1943 but not manufactured for a new rifle design until after WW II was concluded.

The SKS rifle was the first Russian issued weapon to use this cartridge. The early threaded barrel SKS rifles seem to be inherently more accurate than the later pressed and pinned barrel models that began showing up in the 1960�s production. the cartridge is capable of fine accuracy in a threaded barrel gun out to about 300 yards maximum while the pressed and pinned models accuracy seems to have a maximum accuracy range of about 250 yards (individual guns may be better or worse).

The follow-up design, the AK47, was designed as a full-automatic assault rifle ( a machine gun). As a result of the full-auto nature of the design, the accuracy of the semi-auto models is not much (if any) better than the pressed barrel SKS rifles and is probably worse. Most of the AK47s that I�ve fired, were not much good beyond 250 yards for shooting groups. The average SKS rifle would shoot rings around the average AK47 for accuracy.

Most of the available 7.62x39 ammo is corrosive and the accuracy varies quite a bit from lot to lot (Mf�g. lot, that is). If your rifle doesn�t group well with one batch, try another lot... it may shoot one hole groups with the next batch. It still is a very fine cartridge in the .30-30 power class with a usable range of up to 300 yards and a good deal cheaper than .30-30 ammo as well. Certainly no better deal can be had than the SKS rifle on today�s market for the money!!!

The rear-most sight setting on both the SKS and AK47 rifles is the battle setting for approximately 350 yards. Rather than make a lot of sight changes for the 100, 200 and 300 meter settings, I just set the rifle�s sight on the back setting and hold a little low (under) the target at distances up to 250 yards and then put the sights dead-on at targets from 250 out to 350 yards away. It seems to work well for me at any rate.

Both the SKS and the AK47 have extremely powerful extractors for positive case extraction and ejection in Arctic conditions. As a result, empty cases tend to be thrown quite a ways from the shooter and the AK47 tends to leave a crease in the shoulder of the casing, not a desirable thing if you were planning to reload that shell case. As long as imported ammunition stays below 30� to 35� a round, it will be difficult to justify the expense of reloading this caliber.