[joecz858]

Hi Everybody,
Thanks for letting me be part of your community!  After lurking for a while, I've finally come up with a question I would like to post out to you guys.  Please forgive me if its in the wrong place,

Lately I have been having some severe problems caused by hygroscopic salts, resulting is severe corrosion of equipment.  Basically the equipment is small arms/rifles from the former soviet union.  The ammunition used in these firearms is what is known as 'corrosive ammo'.  The priming compound is often potassium chlorate or sodium petrochlorate, and upon burning residues of their salts remain in the firearm.  These salts are hygroscopic, and if left unmanaged, will rapidly cause rust to accumulate. 
My question is, as I have heard rumors of this method being used in the USSR...will a solution of ammonium carbonate neutralize these potentially harmful salts? 

I understand ammonium carbonate was used as a leavening agent in baking, so i cant see it being too harmful, but do you see any safety concerns with mixing a strong solution of ammonium carb. for cleaning purposes?

Thanks everybody!
Joe

[Borek]

As for safety - google for "ammonium carbonate MSDS". MSDS stands for Material Safety Data Sheet. Quite safe compound in general.

No idea if it will work as expected. I see why it can - from what I remember ammonium salts are definitely less hygroscopic than potassium salts, and ammonium carbonate decomposes turning into gases, so any residue left after the surface cleaning will be probably gone in a few weeks. Trick is, all three products of decomposition - water, ammonia and carbon dioxide - are corrosive, so they can do some damage before they are gone. No idea which effect is more pronounced.