Yugo ammo - corrosive?

[Willie D]

I have 2 batches of Yugo 7.62x39 ammo marked 1983 and 87. Red primers. Any idea if these are corrosive? I've read that post 70's Yugo ammo is not corrosive AND that all Yugo ammo is corrosive. Which is it?

Incidentally, aside from the red color around the primers these rounds appear to be identical to the current production Privi Partisan.

 

[RockyMtnTactical]

All of the Yugo I am aware of is corrosive. When in doubt, assume that it is...

 

[CGSteve8718]

All of the Yugo I am aware of is corrosive. When in doubt, assume that it is...

One step up, all former Combloc military surplus rifle ammo is corrosive, and when in doubt, assume that it is.

And note, do not confuse milsurp with Wolf, different color Bears, Barnaul (same co.) etc., that is commercial, but still be cautious.

 

[thebaldguy]

It's probably a good idea to treat former eastern bloc ammo as corrosive. A few quick sprays of Windex should do the trick.

 

[MacGille]

Windex has absolutely no effect on potassium chloride salts. Just another urban legend. Use hot soapy water and dry thoroughly.

 

[animal]

how to find out ...

Clean and buff a 2" square mild steel plate until it is nice and shiny. Clean thoroughly, degrease and dry it. Pull a bullet from a cartridge. Dump out powder (it is extremely unlikely that the powder is corrosive but if you want to make sure clean both sides of steel plate put a tiny pile on one side of steel plate and light it). With Vise Grips, Hold empty case at a 60 degree angle to and making contact with the clean plate. Strike primer. Set plate in a moderately humid place for a few days. If you get a "spray pattern" of rust on the plate, primer is corrosive.

 

[Willie D]

Shot the "1983" ammo last week. Cleaned the SKS out with water, didn't touch the Saiga. Got some pitting in the gas tube of the Saiga.

Guess that answers that question. Looked up the headstamps online and the "nny" IS Privi Partisan. Hopefully the newer stuff isn't at all corrosive. I have a bunch of it in other calibers.


Animal: I wanted to try your test method but I couldn't find a way to strike the primer hard enough. I whacked it pretty good but only dented it.

 

[Antipasta]

I think the whole thing about Windex is that it comes in a handy spray bottle. The ammonia is not the active ingredient; it's the water. The ammonia helps with some of the copper, but water is your friend when it comes to dissolving the salts in commie ammo and it's easy to use at the range immediately after a range session. That having been said, hot soapy is even better and I use it when I get home.

 

[Manedwolf]

Prvi from Serbia, new commercial sort, is not corrosive.

 

[Mike Irwin]

"Windex has absolutely no effect on potassium chloride salts. Just another urban legend. Use hot soapy water and dry thoroughly."

That's actually incorrect. Windex can effectively remove both potassium chloride salts and black powder fouling.

Windex contains large amounts (better than 80%, IIRC) of straight water.

Water dissolves potassium chloride salts.

Windex also contains ammonia and detergents, which serve to remove any residual oil in the barrel that might hide potassium chloride salts.

Any product that contains large amounts of water by volume (such as common rubbing alcohol, Simple Green cleaner, old-style GI bore cleaner, etc.) will do at least a half ways decent job of removing potassium chloride salts left by corrosive priming.

That said, hot soapy water is probably still the best way of doing it because hot water does a better job of dissolving things.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Be VERY careful when you attempt to do the primer trick that Animal describes.

The primer CAN come flying out of the primer pocket at very high velocity if it's not crimped in place.

A primer cup to the eye? Not a good thing...

I gave up on trying to hit the primer to fire it.

I have a piece of 1/2" copper tubing with an end cap on it into which I've drilled a hole large enough to accept the tip of my electronics soldering gun...

See where I"m going with this?

I slip the case into the copper tubing and use a pair of channel locks or vice grips (what ever I have close at hand) to hold the copper tubing, which in turn supports the cartridge case as I hold it agains the piece of steel. Kind of hard to describe, I know.

But, once I have everything centered, I stick the hot soldering iron through the hole in the copper pipe cap. Normally the primer will cook off in anywhere from 5 to 15 seconds.