Thread: HXP 303 ammo corrosive? found rust in my barrel

Originally Posted by No.3

The corrosive salts dissolve into the pores of the steel in the barrel. Hot water removes most of it, but not every last bit. You reactivate what is there on shooting even using modern ammo in old firearms, also primers even non corrosive still contain reactive products so in the right conditions any barrel will rust after shooting including stainless.

Boiling water out of a jug is the easiest way to strip salt from a barrel, then push through a patch to dewater and then clean as normal. Always chamber to muzzle if possible, push the crap out of the chamber not into it (not always possible). Use a guide for rods if you can, bronze brushes are good for stubborn fouling but use with powder solvent only as copper solvent will eat the brush and show as green on a patch. One piece rods, if coated wipe the rod every few passes to make sure it's decrapped.

Agreed
+1 for boiling water. That's all we used in my old 303 rifle club days. Every Saturday when getting home had to face up to cleaning. Parker Hale amongst their accessories used to make an angled funnel to go into the chamber. I made my own. And with boiling water it self dries to a point. This method has worked since the dinosaurs.
Boiling water was what I cleaned my muzzle loaders with as well but with them I used to take them out of their wood. Parker Hales were easy to do this.

Unfortunately there are times when a bronze brush needs to be used with a Cu solvent and yes they get eaten away. (A stiff nylon brush doesn't always give the agitation a CU solvent needs to do its job effectively.) As long as this is recognised and the false positive Cu indication doesn't mislead to more and more cleaning. Same with older cleaning rod tips - false positive for Cu.