Those little oil bottles you get with your AK...

[Sebastian the Ibis]

Does anyone know how they are supposed to be used? I was thinking I ought to take a bottle of soapy water with me when I take my Mosin shooting next weekend at a new range where I'm not sure there is water nearby. Then it occurred to be that those red and white bottles that come with every communist rifle are probably designed for water,oil, solvent or something to quickly clean the corrosive primer salts out of a rifle.

Does anyone know what the Russkies actually put in those bottles? Or how you are supposed to rinse out a gun with them?

The best resource my google-fu could conjure is attached hereto

 

[dfariswheel]

The Soviets used an "alkali solution" to clean weapons.
Apparently this was made up once a week.
The formula is out there on the internet.

I suspect the AK "oil" bottles were really bottles for this cleaning solution.