Far too many people think corrosive ammo is a kiss of death!  Some primers contain salts which if left in a gun can attract moisture and cause corrosion.  The salts are not easily removed by petroleum based cleaners, but they ARE easily removed by hot soapy water, specialty cleaners such as used with black powder and ammonia.  Choose your own method....  Inspect the gun a day or two later for rust.  Corrosive ammo is a concern for the vast number of gun owners who do not clean their guns.  The rest of us enjoy the reliability and low price.

Corrosive primers are better than non-corrosive in low temperatures and for long term storage.  That is why some Eastern Bloc countries still use that chemistry.  Much of the 7.62x54R, 9mm, 8mm (and others)surplus ammo is corrosive.  Many of the old guns that used the stuff are still in good condition - 60 years later -  because they were CLEANED.  Solvents geared to the problem were available then, as now, and soldiers were trained to CLEAN their weapon properly to deal with the problem.  The development of non-corrosive chemistry has made us a bit lazy (me included) about cleaning after shooting.  I still shoot a lot of corrosive ammo and just clean those guns within a day or less.  Put about 3k rounds of Turk 8mm (very corrosive) through the 1919 last Sat.  Screwed the barrel out and stuck into a bucket of hot water and Dawn, ran a brush through from each end with the other in the water.  Looked at it twice this week and no corrosion even though it was another day before I oiled it!  Humidity here is about 95% right now too.  Advantage of HOT water is it will flash dry rather than lay there and rust.

Why did I shoot Turk when non-corrosive 30.06, .308 or even 8mm exist?

3000 x .05 = $ 150 (Turk 8mm).
3000 x .07 = $ 210 (Steel cased Romanian 8mm)  
3000 x .15 = $ 450 (.308).  
3000 x .25 = $ 750 (30.06)!!  

Granted .308 & 30.06 can be had a little cheaper but this is a decent estimate.