Cleaning and preserving old magazines

[wanneroo]

Hi,

I thought I would run this by the forum and see if more knowledgeable people have tips or tricks when it comes to cleaning up old surplus magazines and also if what I have done already sounds right. I'm no expert when it comes to working with metal or such things.

I've got some Finnish Army surplus Carl Gustav 36 round magazines of Lapua manufacture and from the research I have done are probably 1950's vintage and are stamped with the Finnish Army stamp. I bought these for the Suomi M31 I have.

The end game for me is:

1. I want them to be functional without oil and grit getting on the ammo and causing issues with the gun
2. I want to preserve or care for them enough they don't turn into useless rust buckets 2 years from now. They are definitely used and have a patina of army use, which fine, but I doubt these magazines made of metal stampings and welded were designed to still be around as they are. I just want to keep them alive and functional.

When I got them they were covered in oil/cosmoline so I used a hair dryer and using old t-shirts wiped all the gunk and oil off. Once clean, used patches and some nylon brushes to clean up around the seams, follower and feed lips. On cursory inspection all looked reasonably decent and I put them into use.

However, after being used it was obvious the internals had not been cleaned after being dropped in the sand and dirt all over Finland and then sprayed with oil. Use brought all this junk to the surface and also over time more oil/cosmoline has weeped out of all the welded stamped parts.

So today I started with one by taking the floorplate off and taking out the spring and follower and there is a nice coating of organic forest flakes, sand, dirt, carbon, mixed with oil and especially packed into all the nooks and crannies of the metal stampings that make up the magazine. I imagine in a wartime situation they would consider it usable but all this junk is going to end up on the ammo.

I sprayed the components with a diluted amount of Dawn detergent and started scrubbing with a nylon brush and sometimes a bore brush. Some of it I sprayed with Hoppe gun cleaner to try to break it up. I then sprayed everything with Ballistol and wiped it all dry and reassembled. All looked better, but even then after cleaning and assembly within 15 minutes more oil and sand granules leaked out. Nothing like before, but still...

So am I going about it in a right way where the metal will not be damaged or end up rusting? Is there is a better way of doing it? Maybe some sort of ultrasound cleaner? Any methods for storing or preserving these for the long term?

I've also got a bunch of German G3 magazines I'm working on. Most of these are in great shape all things considered, but some also have similar issues with sand and grit being in a few of the magazines. These are a bit easier to work on.

[tonyfac]

when I was doing some of my FAL and G3 mags, i bead blasted them and reparked them. Floor-plates and followers also. I cleaned the springs in a parts cleaner, sprayed them with rem oil and put everything back together.

[titleiiredneck]

If you can cerakote them I suggest that. Soak in acetone, blast, spray, bake reassemble.

[tonyfac]

If you can cerakote them I suggest that. Soak in acetone, blast, spray, bake reassemble.

not is you want to keep them factory looking.

[wanneroo]

One issue is that thanks to the finish on the Suomi mag well, the magazines are a tight fit into the magazine well to the point at first they were sticking and took some effort to remove. Now everything has worn enough I can get them in and out without too much of a major issue. So if I did anything to them that would have to be a consideration. From what I have seen of Cerakote it seems to be a pretty thick, rough finish.

[Joe Demko]

I'd do the same thing with surplus magazines that I've done with surplus guns. Start by pulling them apart and soaking everything in a tray of mineral spirits. Use brushes to scrub everything inside and out. Don't skimp on the brushing. After you get all the grit and outer layers of crap off, soak everything in fresh mineral spirits to soften cosmoline hiding in nooks and crannies. A can or two of brake cleaner might help speed things along. Brush some more.
I wipe all my guns, new and surplus alike, down with Ballistol but there are many products out there that will prevent corrosion of the clean metal. Lots of people on this board are Eezox fans.

[wanneroo]

I'd do the same thing with surplus magazines that I've done with surplus guns. Start by pulling them apart and soaking everything in a tray of mineral spirits. Use brushes to scrub everything inside and out. Don't skimp on the brushing. After you get all the grit and outer layers of crap off, soak everything in fresh mineral spirits to soften cosmoline hiding in nooks and crannies. A can or two of brake cleaner might help speed things along. Brush some more.
I wipe all my guns, new and surplus alike, down with Ballistol but there are many products out there that will prevent corrosion of the clean metal. Lots of people on this board are Eezox fans.

Sounds like a plan. I'll give that a try this week and see how it goes.

[39flathead]

Depending on how many you have, you might want to find someplace with an ultrasonic cleaner before spending a hundred dollars on time and supplies when 5 mins in a weapons cleaner will get the chore done quickly and efficiently.


As for oiling them, as long as you don't have oil running out of every crack and seam on the inside, you probably won't have any ammo misfire problems.
Light oiling is fine.

If you are going to keep the mags loaded, go even lighter.

Perhaps a Froglube treatment might be something to consider.

[wanneroo]

Depending on how many you have, you might want to find someplace with an ultrasonic cleaner before spending a hundred dollars on time and supplies when 5 mins in a weapons cleaner will get the chore done quickly and efficiently.

As for oiling them, as long as you don't have oil running out of every crack and seam on the inside, you probably won't have any ammo misfire problems.
Light oiling is fine.

If you are going to keep the mags loaded, go even lighter.

Perhaps a Froglube treatment might be something to consider.

I've heard about the ultrasonic cleaner but don't have any experience with them.

One thing for me is I pretty much have little bench space or much room at all for any equipment at all, so that is kind of a problem for doing any work.

What I did this week was get a can of mineral spirits and a metal tray. I've still got 4 mags completely soaked in oil and old cosmoline, so I'll rub all crap off best I can and use a hair dryer if I need to heat it up. Then I'll take em apart and do the same. What is left I'll soak in the mineral spirits for a while and then brush them as need be and soak again.

Hopefully that will do the trick and then I'll spray them down with Ballistol and wipe them down.

I think the issue with these magazines is that the internals were not cleaned that well, if at all, before storage 50 years ago, so it's not so much the oil, but all the sand and organic forest crap mixed in and I don't want that going in the gun.

[39flathead]

I've heard about the ultrasonic cleaner but don't have any experience with them.

One thing for me is I pretty much have little bench space or much room at all for any equipment at all, so that is kind of a problem for doing any work.

What I did this week was get a can of mineral spirits and a metal tray. I've still got 4 mags completely soaked in oil and old cosmoline, so I'll rub all crap off best I can and use a hair dryer if I need to heat it up. Then I'll take em apart and do the same. What is left I'll soak in the mineral spirits for a while and then brush them as need be and soak again.

Hopefully that will do the trick and then I'll spray them down with Ballistol and wipe them down.

I think the issue with these magazines is that the internals were not cleaned that well, if at all, before storage 50 years ago, so it's not so much the oil, but all the sand and organic forest crap mixed in and I don't want that going in the gun.

You can skip the hairdryer if you set them out in the sun in a box covered with a black garbage bag on a sunny day.

If you can find some MEK (I think Lowes still sells it in the paint dept) this should make cleaning them pretty easy, but it is highly flammable.


An ultrasonic cleaner is not something that everyone has, they make small ones for cleaning jewelry and a bit larger ones for cleaning reloading brass, the one I was talking about would be found at a quality gunsmith or industrial cleaning shop.