M1 Garand bore problems

[ATAShooter]

I have had my Garand for 11 years. Always shot handloads out of it, keep it immaculate inside and out. A year ago, I had the misfortune of shooting Korean corrosive ammo out of it (unknowingly). After 6 enbloc clips, the guy next to me told me that it was corrosive. I ceased fire immediately and took it home and jerked her down. Bore cleaner, and scrubbed on it, swabbed her dry, and oiled the bore. Never had this problem before the crap ammo. I keep getting re-occuring rust in the bore now. I keep re-cleaning it, even with a heafty brush, and oiling the bore. Keeps coming back. I tried putting 200 rounds thru it of good stuff and re-cleaning, same thing.... HELP !!

 

[dfariswheel]

Corrosive ammo has a salt compound in it.
The only way to get rid of it is to flush the bore with water.

A good method is to use a squirt bottle to spray hot, soapy water down the bore, then wipe with a wetted patch.
Only water can dissolve the salts and flush them out.

After the water flush, clean as normal with bore solvent.

Also use wet patches to wipe off the metal anywhere the corrosive fumes may be.
The gas system is stainless, but I'd flush and wipe it out also.

Often what looks like rust is really fouling that remains after normal cleaning.
After the water flush and a normal solvent brushing, run a few patches wet with a good SAFE bore solvent like Hoppe's #9, then let the bore soak a few hours.
After soaking, run another wet patch all the way through and look for green or blue stains, which are indications of copper fouling.
If you pump a patch up and down the bore, the patch will get steel stains and may look like rust.

 

[10X]

Strange as it seems firing rounds of non corrosive after the corrosive won't do anything to remove the salts from the barrel.

You may be seeing some copper jacket residue that looks like rust. The salts from the corrosive could also be trapped under the copper residue.

One trick I learned after having some bores that didn't want to clean up from USGI corrosive was to clean the bore with Hoppes, use a wet (water) patch to kill the salts, spray WD40 in the bore and put the rifle in a corner muzzle down to drain the WD 40. Use WD40 and patches for 3 days once in the morning and once in the evening. Use more Hoppes put the rifle in a corner again muzzle down. Next morning, run dry patches in the bore. If there is no green, its clean. If there is green, continue with Hoppes and muzzle down storage until the bore is clean.

It is a lot of work, but better than losing a barrel.

Also use a Hoppes wet patch in the gas cylinder and use Hoppes wet patches on the operating rod.

Good luck.

 

[Steve in PA]

A lot of people claim plain old windex will clean up your bore and anything else affected by the corrosive salts from the ammo.

 

[Avenger29]

Windex with ammonia is my drill for cleaning corrosive ammunition. Just don't forget to clean as normal after the windex cleaning and oil it.

Corrosive ammunition, if you clean up after it properly, will not harm your firearm.

Just don't use ammonia on aluminum. I have heard that it is not good for it.

There are also special solvents for cleaning bores that neutralize the corrosive salts.

 

[DMK]

A lot of people claim plain old windex will clean up your bore and anything else affected by the corrosive salts from the ammo.

Windex is basically soap and water which is what does the trick to dissolve and wash out the salts. It's just convenient because it's cheap and premixed in a handy bottle. I haven't seen it demonstrated that ammonia does anything to salt, although I can't see how it hurts either and it does attack the copper fouling.

I fill up a used spray bottle with water and a couple drops of dish soap then flush the barrel at the range while it's still warm. When I get home, I swab it a few times with a wet patch, dry patch and then clean like any other rifle.

 

[nbkky71]

I've got a couple cans of the old USGI milky bore cleaner that I use to clean after firing corrosive ammo. It was designed for cleaning rifles when corrosive ammo was the norm.

 

[Kurac]

+1 on windex or dilluted simple green. +10 if you do it at the range when the barrel is still hot, then use a nylon brush to loosen the crap and hit it again with some windex. I have never had a problem and shoot corrosive ammo all the time.

 

[Firehand]

For that matter, Ballistol diluted with water(ratio on the can) will clean it out.

Shooting the corrosive primed, as mentioned, will not of itself cause any harm so long as you clean it properly after. Counting 7.62x54r, .30-06 and .303, I've fired thousands with no harm to the firearms.