Steel or Brass cased ammo?

[Guest]

Here's a thread I did on another forum. I cut and pasted it here FYI. A friend of mine reminded me of an experiment I did a while back. I live in Florida where it

[WILL]

Someone on another board suggested the AK would have fed the rusty rounds because it has looser tolerances and the polymer coating works better than laquer used in the first test. That sounded like a challenge to me. These are Brown Bear 7.62x39. They are polymer coated, which may make them more corrosion resistant. I guess we'll find out. Same test, new caliber and different gun ( Yugo RPK)...






Since we are getting into dry season here in Florida, I will regularly be splashing the rounds with water to simulate wet outdoor summer conditions.




Doesn't look like the polymer coating is helping deter rust...






Polymer coated Brown Bear 7.62x39 outdoors for 9 days-





After about a month outdoors, the polymer coated ammo rusted up pretty good....



I loaded them into the steel East German Magazine. They were difficult to load due to the rust, but functioned properly...



I would be firing them out of my Yugo RPK clone built by Century...



The first round would not seat. I had to use my boot on the charging handle to eject the rusty round...



Same process with the next bullet...



Due to safety issues and the possibility of equipment damage, the experiment ended here.

Conclusions-
Rusty ammo doesn't fit in the chamber of the weapons I tested. I suspect this principal is universal to all weapons chambers.

All steel cased ammo rusts. The polymer coating does not prohibit rust at all. Brass ammo is a far better choice for prolonged exposure wet environments.

I hope this information was a help to everyone.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

That is awesome stuff right there!!

[scoob]

great feild test, thank you for this thread good job.

[FAMILYMAN]

Awesome experiment! Thanks for taking the time and sharing. I've always favored brass ammunition.

[BioG8r]

Kind of figured that would be the end result, but didn't think it would be quite that fast! Thanks for doing the actual!
Was the brass in test one actually corroding or was it just residual from the Wolf?

[WILL]

It tarnished on its own.

[Lowdown3]

Good job. Fired a lot of rusty ammo but it didn't look that bad ;)

[RobertJ]

Not poo poo'ing the expierment... matter the fact thanks for doing the expierment I've wondered the same thing. My thoughts on it though is this, you put the ammo directly in the elements. The way I cary ammo is in magazines which are in pouches of various materials. Cotton canvas, nylon,cordura,etc. I use polomer (P-mags) as well as metal (aluminium,steel) In both my ARs/AKs/& FALs. I store my extra ammo in bandolears with the cardboard inserts. Will this Have a differing outcome if put to your test? Curious not Poo Poo'ing. Will the varing pouches hold the water or wick it away? will the magazines or springs rust?
I have a retired US Marine buddy who always harps on a clean weapon and ammo, and he was the first person I ever saw (when we were much younger) wipe off with a clean rag "every round" he stripped from a loaded magazine while cleaning a weapon (pistol/rifle/shotgun/etc) and clean the mag and reload. That was a lesson I learned early on from him especially while hunting in inclement weather. He also inspected every "new" round and wiped it down as well when loading magazines.

Some of the training classes I took was rain or shine dress accordingly...Being Central florida its poured on several classes... and wallering in the Florida sandy mud/grass also teaches you equipment problems in the inclement weather.Thats another subject.

Thank you again for the post... It suprised me how quick it rusted.

[jimmydiablo]

Why must brass cased 7.62 x .39 cost so much.

[eeyore]

Excellent article thanks for posting it.

[ComputerGuy]

Excellent article and post. Thank you very much

[thedreamers]

Thanks for the good review. But now the real test comes from what ricepaddy said....most all of us should be having our mags in our mag pouches. I know mine is water repelent, so any moisture would be from the air or if I went into a ditch or something of that nature. But knowing I'm putting my gun and ammo though the grinder first chance I'd be cleaning my ammo and gun.

[Spock]

this a good test. i saw another awhile back where the guy left a poly case, a lacquer case, and a zinc plated case outside for months. the zinc case faired the best.

i try to get lacquer when i can. i have brass cased yugo for shtf use.

[onebigelf]

The brass case in contact with the steel case corroded for the same reason that steel screws in an aluminum screen room rust like mad. There is an electrical reaction between the dissimilar metals that accelerates the oxidation process.

Great experiment. I can see all those people who said, "Oh, I'm going with an AK because they're soooo reliable..." finding out that after a few weeks in the Florida humidity their ammo won't chamber while my AR-10 just keeps rolling along....

John