I bought 8 50 round boxes of Chilean 7mm ammo dated 1950/1955. Were they still using corrosive primers at that time? All rounds on stripper clips. Also what would be a fair price for this stuff? The deal already went down. I just wanted to know how I did.

I did not know they loaded 7mm ammo..............

lots of 7x57 was made back in the day but its not the same.
Any ammo at this time is a good deal............
Good shooting.

I don't think non corrosive ammo came out until the mid 50's, a lot of military ammo was still corrosive long after that. I would treat it as corrosive. If you got if for less than 50 cents a round, you did good.

When I see threads like this I always wonder, what is the difference if the ammo is "corrosive" or not?

Every single military surplus rifle from any country that was used before the end of the Korean War used that very ammo and somehow the bores are still serviceable. All you need to do is clean the barrel when you get home from the range and it won't matter if the primers are corrosive or not. Most times all that happens when you fire the ammo is you create nothing more than common table salt. Of course if you leave the salt in the barrel for any length of time it will do damage but you will have no problems at all if you clean the rifle as you probably do anyway after a range trip. (BTW, hot soapy water works best to get the salts out)

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I would guess -- and it is just a guess -- the ammo is corrosive. As noted, though, this is not a big deal as long as proper cleaning is done. The easiest-to-find solvent for the purpose of getting rid of the corrosive salts of the residue, and really the best, is plain old water. Most modern commercial bore solvents will not do the job as well as water, although the old GI bore solvent (not as easy to find today as it once was) and solvents formulated to clean blackpowder guns work well enough.

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As to the price, sgammo.com is selling new Privi for .70 a round in 20 rnd boxes.

If it's foreign military ammo, it's probably corrosive, and I would treat it as such. I'm not sure on the price, but finding any 7x57 is getting harder with each passing day.

More than likely it is corrosive Foreign Militarys hung on to using the corrosive primers long after the US phased out in 1952/53 ,if properly wet cleaned by soapy water followed by spray oil , I use WD 40 as it is cheap to wash out the water afterwards it is not a big deal in a bolt gun in a semi auto or MG it is far more of a pain , I keep and reload modern Non Corrosive when u only want to shoot a few rounds without cleaning the rifle if u want rid of the ammo I may be interested as I have a couple Rare low serial 1935 Chilean carbines and Vent ones The 7 mm in a carbine , Ventezuelan or Chilean 98 is one more sweet combination , just curious what are u shooting it out of ? 41 steve

I bought a 1912 Chilean and some FN headstamped 7x57 ammo from I think Samco back in the 90's and it was sold as non-corrosive . I would treat yours as corrosive and shoot it as such.

I shoot nothing but corrosive ammo in my milsurp rifles and do nothing special in the cleaning. Some CLP or Hopes and clean thoroughly and done

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Nothing wrong with shooting corrosive ammo, a lot of times it is very accurate. Just clean your gun well after shooting, and all will be well.

I treat all ammo as if it was corrosive. I clean every bore with wet patches of the orginal USGI rifle bore cleaner. Then wipe it out with two dry patches, then oil it up. I haven't lost a bore in 40 years.

I have shot a lot of Mauser rifles, chambered in all sorts of calibers. It may be that the ammo you have is not corrosive. Cool. It may be that the ammo you have is corrosive. Cool. Corrosive or non-corrosive is just not a big deal. Shoot the ammo in your rifle. If you can do so at the range, put a few drops of Windex on a patch and wipe out the barrel. Then follow with an oiled patch. Upon arriving home, put a pot of water on the stove to boil. Put a squirt of dishwashing liquid in the water. When it is boiling, put the pot of water on the floor. Put a cleaning patch on a jag and run it down the barrel to the muzzle. Place the muzzle in the hot water and "pump" it up the barrel. The patch will get wet and form and effective piston. The scalding hot water will completely eliminate any possible corrosive residue in the barrel. It will get the barrel and chamber so hot that when you are finished, the heat will completely dry the metal. If you need to deal with copper fouling, follow with something like Shooters Choice and a phosphor-bronze bore brush. Finish by running a oily patch through the chamber and bore. I've used this method to clean after shooting corrosive ammo in my rifles. I've not ever had a single problem with my rifles.

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Wow that's a lot of work. Bringing windex to the range? Boiling water at home? It takes me 5 min at home with some Hopes or CLP, whichever is closer at the time. A few passes with a brush, a few with patches and done. All my rifles are as clean as the day they were made and I shoot several different corrosive calibers.

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All good advice so far. I treat all offshore military ammo as corrosive even if were made yesterday. Had a friend ruin a nice vintage M1 Garand barrel by insisting his ammo was non corrosive and then left it sit uncleaned for awhile. I have shot a lot of corrosive ammo and used the hot water treatment as soon as possible after fireing and have had no problems. As for price I'm out of the loop as I stock piled years ago and am not up on current prices. At any rate, enjoy fireing that milsurp!

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Stay safe people!

Thank you to all for the comments and advice. The ammo came with a model 1895 w/ all matching numbers. Rifling is sharp and bore is shinny. Thanks again.

I examined this ammo much closer today and found I had 62 loose rounds marked FN 1952 and 1953. The boxed ammo (pictured) has head stamp markings "PS 1948" and are on 5 round stripper clips. Is there any collector interest in this stuff?

Attached Images

7x57 Chilean 001.jpg (156.0 KB, 28 views)

From my experience there is little collector interest in foreign military ammo of this era. Most US collectors seem to concentrate on domestic ammo either civilian or military, about the only foreign ammo that seems to get much interest is 22 rimfire. Someone who collects a particular round might be interested in a sample of the different headstamps but they usually only want one example of each. The primary market for this stuff is shooters.

Best way to determine if it is corrosive is to pull a bullet, dump the powder, and pop the
primer over a piece of mild steel. Place the steel someplace humid for a couple of days. If it is corrosive, it will rust.

I cut the case in half with a tubing cutter and pop the primer with a punch, wearing eye and ear protection and leather gloves.

I'd say your ammo is corrosive as I had some with the PS headstamp. When I pulled the bullets to reload into new cases, with new powder and primers all the bullets had green corrosion on all of the bullet bases.Pulled them anyway and tumbled them in a dillon case tumbler and shot them. The powder in my estimation was way past it's due date and was all clumped up and the inside of the cases were heavily corroded inside. The Russians used corrosive ammo for decades after we went to non corrosive primers just as an example. I had some Kynocch (british) 1933 made 7mm with steel jacket bullets. The base of the bullets were heavily corroded. Powder on these rounds looked like it was made yesterday. If your leery about shooting that ammo, go to grafs & sons as they usually have the PPU or Privi Partizan ammo in stock. Good ammo and good brass and save the empty's for when you start to reload. Frank

I use a similar process and have tested many types of import
ammo. Military ammo from the 50s, other than US, is almost
certainly corrosive. Nothing wrong with shooting it as long as
you clean properly and promptly. The Germans developed non
corrosive primers for ammo used in WW2 in the 30s although
most all surplus 8mm is corrosive primed. I have a few rounds
of 8mm ammo dated 1934 I believe, haven't looked lately,
with non corrosive primers.

Just to be clear, gunpowder is not corrosive, it is the primers (more specifically the residue they leave behind) that makes the ammo corrosive. What you ran into with the corrosion on bullets and inside cases is due to other factors. Most commonly powder breakdown and/or contamination are the culprits here. As a cartridge collector I have run into this quite a bit, often, when it is desired to conserve a specimen for a collection it is necessary to break it down, wash the case out and reassemble it empty to prevent further damage.

To a certain extent all powders retain water and acid residue from the manufacturing process. Over time this can cause the powder to break down chemically, powder lots vary, some have more contaminants than others. Exposure to heat, moisture can accelerate the process. Cases or bullets may show some internal corrosion from moisture even though the powder may not have actually broken down yet.

When I first got into surplus guns and ammo they focused on corrosive ammo so much I thought in my mind of dump truck loads of salt coming out when I cleaned them after shooting them. Oh it's just the primer. A good soaking of the orginal chrome eating off the trailer hitch ball USGI RIFLE BORE CLEANER should do it. Even used hoppes too.

Corrosion in the bore depends on what climate you live in too. I left a rifle unlearned for a year after shooting it and the bore still looked like new.
A high humid climate and the outcome would be different.