I have to drive a while to get to a good range (about 2 hours), so I can't bring hot soapy water up with me.

Have any of you been in a similar situation where you don't have access to hot water right away?

Cold soapy water works just fine. It's what I use.

BSW

Windex with ammonia, I use the commercial grade stuff. Works great on my black powder guns.

I did not know that, nevertheless after shooting my BP revolver I hose it down with the Windex and then run a brush and patch. It does not rust so there is something in there that kills the corrosion.

You are correct sir. That something is water. NEW

You can buy cleaning solution ammonia- comes in white bottles.  (supermarket, hardware store, or Wallyworld)
or other generic (dollar store) window cleaners that say ammonia.
Smell it to see it it contains ammonia.

You can dilute it down even further, say 4:1 with a couple drops of dishwaher soap in a spray bottle.  Spritz, wipey down, and UR done.

BALLISTOL mixed with water in a squeeze bottle.

FN in MT

hot water

Where do you guys get your Ballistol Lube from?

I would like to walk into a stor and p/u if possable.

Thank you,

I got mine here: http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=164428

It's kind of a specialty thing. I've never seen it in a local store outside of Germany. BSW

Use MPro 7 Gun Cleaner or Blue Wonder Gun Cleaner as your bore cleaner.

Your gun isn't going to rust on the 2 hour drive home. It will be fine, you can just wait till you get home.

I have been wanting to try some Ballistol, just haven't found any for sale locally. I just use warm water and clp.

Depends on the local humidity at the time. I've had rust spots started on the AK before I left the range. It WAS raining at the time. BSW

I am far too lazy to use hot, soapy water.  Like you, I prefer to clean at the range as soon as I'm done shooting.  We don't have running water, so hot water isn't a realistic option.  I've gotten away with using room-temperature water, mixed 50-50 with sudsy household ammonia, for years.  No rust.  The ammonia isn't strictly necessary, but together with the soap, the additional cleaning power doesn't hurt.

It may have to do with the climate.  It's so dry here year-round, you could probably leave corrosive residue for a week & not have any rust.  But I'm not going to try it - I always clean either at the range, or as soon as I get home, when I've been shooting corrosively-primed ammo.

Bore foam.. you can spray it when you leave and it'll be done before you get home... just run a couple patches to clean it out.

I think hot water is used because it evaporates quicker than cold water. No other advantage that I can think of. Cold soapy water followed by brake cleaner followed by Kroil. Works for me.

As stated in previous replys,Bore foam if you want or just wait till you get home,it can wait.
I'm in SW Florida and I don't do anything till I get home and no issues.

Windex/hot soapy water,Hoppes and Mobil 1 with some Slick 50,just clean and preen it's as easy as pie.

Ballistol /water mix.

Hot or cold water and Ballistol.
Get it from Brownells

Sorry guys, but that's one of the bigger myths with AK's I see on a regular basis.  I have a Bulgarian SLR-105 (with a lot of cash invested in it) and a Krinkov (with even more cash invested in it).  Both rifles have never seen anything other than corrossive mil-surp down the bore and they have thousands and thousands of rounds between them.  I have seen rust form later that day all of one time and that was because I was in a competition with the last two courses of fire suffered through such a torrential downpour I couldn't even see out my glasses.  

I've NEVER used water to clean any gun I own yet have never had a problem with rust.  Granted, I don't sit them in the gun cabinet for a week or two before I clean them.  Everything I shoot always gets cleaned the same day or the following day at the latest.  I've never seen rust form anywhere and I've never used water.  I use straight CLP/Break-Free and it serves me just fine.  With a total of over $3K worth of AK's between my two 5.45's I wouldn't make this a practice if I believed there was a risk of damage.  And by the way, I know a thing or two about humidity: I live in a state surrounded by water on three sides and heat on all sides.

From the field, what you do is find a private location (perhaps the range's bathroom) and urinate down the barrel.  The chemicals found in your piss will stop the corrosion (perhaps some one should market their own brand).  That is what many soldiers say, if you do decide to do this I would have to strongly suggest you make sure it is unloaded, otherwise dying would be your better case scenario.  

The water?

If you got a ride from me, pissing in the barrel will result in being faced with a cruel choice: Walk home carrying the rifle or leave the rifle at the range.

The French cleaned there gas impingement MAS-49's with Gas and Motor oil. Yes salt is not oil soluble but it's infused with carbon get the carbon out and your fine.

I would run one patch of hoppes down the bore then finish cleaning it at home, &/or get some Desiccant Packs and put them in the gun bag. DONT put water in the gun unless your going to clean it quickly afterward's you'll cause much more rust then you'll prevent.

I cleaned my tantal with a Ballistol water mix and didn't follow up with a normal cleaning The next day there was a rust in the gas block which I was able to clean out but you don't want that.

Parson's Sudsy Ammonia can be found at any Wally World.

This

Water, (hot water preferably) CLP & grease is all I use.

If I didn't have acess to water, Hopes #9 would do.

I shot Yugo in my SKS two weeks ago. Cleaned with FP-10. Checked it today and no corrosion after 14 days sitting in the safe.

As long as everything's coated with oil, the salt residue can't absorb water and cause corrosion.  Urine is a field-expedient salt flusher.

Try gunzilla, worked great and no after rust. I used nothing but straight gunzilla and it seems to work fine. It does say on the bottle it will clean corrosive ammo.

If you want hot soapy water at the range, fill a black gallon jug (empty 8lb. powder jug) with the water before you leave home. Place on your dash board and park in the sun while you shoot, windows rolled up. It will be plenty hot when you need it.

Make you some moose milk (water/ballistol mixed 10 to 1)....after shooting while the weapon is still hot, field strip and spray the mixture down the barrel from the chamber end.

I mean really soak it down, leave it barrel down for several minutes then run several patches thought it....reassemble and clean like normal
when you get home.

Flushes the corrosive salts out and makes cleaning easier as well. I also spray down the bolt,  gas piston and gas tube as well.

Thanks FlaDevmiester....I was starting to feel bad reading this thread. I also use CLP/Hoppes, bore brush, then thin coat of oil. Of course, I clean with 48 hours (usually same day) after a range trip. I have friends that use some chemistry set combinations (amonia, brake cleaners, ebola virus...etc) and poo-poo ANYTHING but their cleaning system. I was under the impression that anything that flushes or deactivates the salt in the bore is what's required. On other boards I post on I see the same things. I have put gobs of ammo thru 2 aks, an SKS, and several Mosin's....and I have no rust or darkening either. I have been told that YES Hoppes works and NO Hoppes won't work...but it works for me.

Jay

+1.  YMMV

Can you not carry with you a bottle of Hoppe's bore cleaner??? I read on the label that it handle the bad effects of corrosive ammo residu.

Impala

-Moose Milk,... black powder cleaner

1/3 Murphy's Oil Soap
1/3 hydrogen peroxide
1/3 rubbing alcohol

Yep,.........I realize that.

The Moose Milk works for corrosive ammo as well

Bargain glass cleaner from the $ store.

That seems to work well also,.....I do add am extra ounce of amonia

You hit the nail on the head ––––it's the water that does most of the job by dissolving the corrosive salt.
You can help it by adding a few drops of soap, just to add to the wetting action.
You can spray it down the bore or wet your brush & give it a few strokes, then follow up with a spray type bore blaster.
Dry by pulling a few patches through it & oil with a oil soaked patch, and then a few dry ones.
And your done, this is what I use and I have never had a rusty barrel.
All I shoot is military surplus ammo & 90% of that is corrosive.
Hint, if you are shooting an AK74 or any rifle with a large muzzle brake, you will need to remove it to clean the powder build-up from the inside & from the end of the barrel.

+1000000 Stop the insanity and clean it with your own 10 fingers and tools provided within any cleaning kit.

why doesn't anyone use WD-40 (Water Dispersing- 40) to run the water out after the soak down. Then you've not only dissolved the water soluable salts, but the metal is coated in oil until you can clean it. I know there's a lot of people who won't use WD on guns because it wasn't made for them, bet these are guns that were designed to be lubed with motor oil. Love my AK-74, but mostly because it's tolerant and I can use all kinds of crap on it to keep it running right

You shoulda stayed awake in chemistry class.

Black powder is made from charcol, sulfur and potassium nitrate.  When burnt it creates water, CO2 and potassium sulfide, which readily reacts in the presence of water to become potassium hydrosulfide - which is a SALT.

So, no...there is no sulfuric acid, but there is a salt in the form of potassium sulfide. Then of course you still have the potential for corrosive priming compounds used in sme brands of percussion cap  - the same iissue you have with corrosiveprimed ammunition.

Consequently, if a BP cleaner works on corrosive salts in a BP arm, it will sure as hell work on an AK.

––––––

I do on occasion clean muzzle loaders with hot water, but mostly becuase it is quick and it does a good job of quickly removing large amounts of powder residue.  However for BPCRs where I 'd prefer to keep water away from both mice wood andmore complex actions, I use a black powder rifle solvent and patches in a more normal cleaning procedue.  Birchwood Casey number 77 works fine.

That same approach works equally well on an AK after firing corrosive primed ammunition and it does not cause additonal problems due to excessive use.    

Another option here is a cleaner with amonia in it - thus the reference to windex, amonia cleaners, etc.   In truth, many "normal" bore clearners contain some amonia and those companies may claim it works fine on corrosive primer salts.  But it depends how much amonia is in the mix.  Most don't have enough.  Sweets 7.62 has 5% which is enough, and it works great for removing heavy copper fouling (its primary purpose), but most target shooters would shudder at the prospect of using that much ammonia as a cleaner on a regular basis as it causes problems of it's own.

––––––-

Primer compounds containing potassium chlorate are the issue of concern in terms of producing corrosive salts on firing. Of course what really cracks me up are the SHTF crowd who obsess about corrosive primers in their weapons but then want the ultimate in relaibility.

These geniuses of course never ask WHY the Soviets used pottassium chlorate in their primers long after the west stopped doing so.  They did not do it because they were ignorant, backward or cheap. The answer is two fold - Soviet doctrine always stressed spotless weapon cleaning procedures, and with good cleaning, corosive primers are a non issue and potassium chlorate based primers may be corrosive but they are extremly relaible even under very advers storage conditions.  So...that tuna can of corrosive soviet ammo will still go "bang" decades after the apolcalypse when most western ammo will be best known for misfires.

There's no free lunch.  

Even a cheap can of WD40 will wash some out and coat until you get home. I take a contact lens solution bottle, the large size, filled with soapy water and hose after im done and then hit with WD40 until i can get home to do a cleaning.

Ammonia removes salt. It's all we used in our naval reactors to remove any chlorides that make it past the distilling and purification plants. If a couple of bottles scavenges the salt out of thousands of gallons water a simple 50/50 solution will work in any rifle. If you're really antsy you can just pour it all over the rifle when you get outside, but in all actuality the salt wont attract too much moisture in a 2 hour period, especially if you put travel with it in a pelican case or a case with some desiccant inside.