I was looking on the net and came across some corrosive ammo. I've shot very little corrosive stuff in my time. Not that I'm opposed to it. I have some on hand but I don't want to open the spam can. Any way as I was looking at it a question came to me. When this stuff was being shot on the battlefields how did they keep their firearms from rusting? I know they weren't worried about resale value. lol But over time couldn't it have affected reliability? I don't know how long it takes to start rusting but if it takes a year maybe they had a new firearm by then. Did they keep a lot of cleaning stuff with them? I know this situation could depend on a lot of different scenarios like different wars and weapons. So you can respond with what war and weapon you know about or in general. Thanks Pontiacdm
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To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
industrial nations issued cleaning kits with oil to their soldiers. Germany was especially good at this during WW1 and WW2. Soldiers were rotated on and off the front lines and that gave time for some care to their guns.
However, that does not mean the effects of corrosive ammo did not take a toll on rifles and machineguns.
On the other side of the coin, especially in WW1, some of the less advanced nations did not provide much in the way of marksmanship training relying on massed groups of soldiers to fire their weapons.
In this scenario the condition of an individual weapon was not seen as of great importance. It was only important that it could fire.
With the British Army, basic cleaning & oiling of the 303 rifles was carried out using the pull-through, patches & oil bottle which was kept in the stock. Behind lines cleaning was done by 'Boiling through", i.e. pouring boiling water down the bore. There was a special armouror's cranked funnel just for this. More modern rifles using non-corrosive ammo (as in my day) normally just got the pull through with patches then oiled; gas pistons (SLR-L1A1) just got the dry patch & elbow grease. (ya got your a$$ in a sling if they caught you with scotchbrite). If you wanted to do it a bit quicker you borrowed the gunner's cleaning kit for the Bren L4.
I friend of mine is mentoring me in my entrance to the world of MN. He takes a (dedicated) thermos of HOT water with a tiny amount of ammonia to the range. When done shooting, he runs his cleaning rod through the receiver to the muzzle and attached a patch. He then dips the end of the barrel into a cup of said fluid. Pulling the patch creates a vacuum, filling the barrel with water. When the rod/patch comes out of the breech, the vacuum is lost, the water drains.
Another patch to blot the moisture, and a good cleaning at home.
