View Single Post
Old October 14, 2012, 08:47 PM   #10
Jim Watson
Senior Member
 
Join Date: October 25, 2001
Location: Alabama
Posts: 18,541
Quote:
Wouldn't cleaning and oiling prevent the potassium salts from allowing the moisture to attack the bore? I would think so.
No.
The report that identified the cause of barrel corrosion, after years of off the wall theories about "acid gases" from smokeless powder "in the pores of the steel" was titled "Corrosion Under Oil Films."

Corrosive primers contain potassium chlorate. This "burns" to leave potassium chloride, which is somewhat more reactive than sodium chloride = table salt.
I worked in R&D on fertilizers which use a lot of potassium chloride as a cheap source of potash plant nutrient. We were constantly on guard against corrosion whereever we could not use stainless steel. All it takes is water. it doesn't have to be hot, it doesn't have to be soapy, it doesn't have to have secret ingredients. Look how easily salt dissolves in water. That is what you are doing, dissolving and washing out salts. There is about 50 milligrams (.77 grain) of priming compound in a typical primer, not all of that potassium chlorate. It doesn't take a lot to get it out.
Wash, dry and oil.

WW II era GI bore cleaner contained soluble oil and water. Water to dissolve the potassium chloride, oil to protect the bare steel.
Jim Watson is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.02720 seconds with 8 queries