Corrosive Primed Ammunition

[J.C. Bell, SASS #15217]

Little help, please.

 

My recollection is that all US  government arsenals manufacturing .30-06 ammunition had switched to non-corrosive primers by 1952.

 

Is it correct that any .30-06 GI ammo with a headstamp of "53" or later is non-corrosive primed?

 

Cordially,

 

J.C. Bell, SASS #15217

[Alpo]

No. Most, but not all. According to my list, the first safe 30-06 armor piercing by Winchester is WRA 55.

 

Summary of "Safe" Headstamps by Caliber:
.30-'06 Ball:
DAQ (Canadian) All non-corrosive
VC (Canadian) All non-corrosive
TW 51
FA 52
LC 52
RA 52
WCC 52
WRA 52
SL 53
.30-'06 AP:
FA 52
TW 53
LC 53
SL 53

WRA 55

[Alpo]

You asked about 06, but in case anyone is interested in other GI ammo of that time period, these are the SAFE head stamps.

 

.45 ACP Ball
WRA 52
WCC 53
RA 53
FCC 54
TW 54
FA 55
.30 Carbine:
All Non-corrosive
7.62 NATO:
All Non-corrosive (exception 1956
FA "International Match")

[J.C. Bell, SASS #15217]

Excellent information. Thank you. I'll save my corrosive to shoot when I have time to do a proper cleaning of my rifle. 

[Texas Joker]

If you hit it with a bit of old school windex and swab it the ammonia stops the reaction. It's not a replacement for a good cleaning but it'll keep it from corroding on the way home.

 

Most russian milsurp ammo is corrosive.

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

I had an old time match shooter tell me "just shoot a few non corrosive after, it'll flush out the corrosive stuff", don't know if that's true, but he claimed all the old timers did that.

[DeaconKC]

15 minutes ago, Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485 said:

I had an old time match shooter tell me "just shoot a few non corrosive after, it'll flush out the corrosive stuff", don't know if that's true, but he claimed all the old timers did that.

Nope, just use the Windex method. It is easy and works.

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

4 minutes ago, DeaconKC said:

Nope, just use the Windex method. It is easy and works.

they didn't know that 50 years ago

[DeaconKC]

18 minutes ago, Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485 said:

they didn't know that 50 years ago

True, they told them if they didn't have hot water handy to whiz down the barrel.

[Chantry]

Just because the powder is non-corrosive doesn't mean the primer is.  Korean 30 Carbine rusted up the barrel of my commercial M-1 carbine.  Greek surplus 30-06 also caused some rust in my Garand.

 

My rule is to treat ALL foreign surplus ammo as corrosive regardless of what the box says.

 

 

[Alpo]

3 hours ago, Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485 said:

I had an old time match shooter tell me "just shoot a few non corrosive after, it'll flush out the corrosive stuff", don't know if that's true, but he claimed all the old timers did that.

I've heard people say that if you shoot a few rounds of jacketed after shooting lead bullets, it will clear all the leading out.

 

I don't believe that one either.

[punxsutawneypete]

4 hours ago, Chantry said:

 

My rule is to treat ALL foreign surplus ammo as corrosive regardless of what the box says.

 

 

 

I remember some 20 years ago there was a lot of Egyptian 9mm Luger ammunition floating around.   Being an old black powder shooter and in an abundance of caution I'll only shoot it through my chromed Browning High Power because I figured that is the easiest gun to break down and really clean thoroughly.