Hello All,

Has anyone had much experience shooting surplus corrosive 5.45mm through their AK-74 variants, or through AR 15s with 5.45 uppers? Accuracy aside, it's the clean-up I'm thinking about. I saw a video showing some rust and crud in an AK gas block, and around a non-chrome lined muzzle break, after shooting surplus ammo [there was no indication how long there was between cleaning, I'll grant you].
What do you think is going to happen to an AR when that corrosive primer dust gets blown all through the bolt, and down into the FCG? The reason I'm asking is I'm agonizing over buying an AK-74, 'cause the surplus ammo is dirt cheap if you buy 2K+ rounds in spam cans. If cleaning is a giant PITA, then I'll just stick to reloads with bulk projectiles for "blasting" in my ARs.

Cheers, Albatross.

depends how picky you are the gas block is the worst place otherwise not that bad , get a crome bore and chamber,and you will never get the muzzle brak off it you shoot one hundred rds and let it set for an hour use choke tube antisieze never any oil.and always unscrew the break after shooting. im not sure a steady diet of the surplus will be all that good in an ar
i have a friend that has a 5.45 full auto, ill have to call him
but other than the muzzle break i dont clean my 74 that much

i might be 100% wrong but i don't think that 5.45x39 ammo is corrosive

ive got 1 of the s&w m15's in 5.45x39...the only ammunition ive found for it has come from cope's in a tin carton of 1080 rds each... it's being sold as corrosive primed... i clean with brake cleaner after each shoot, remove the bolt and hose it down good, then spray thru with hoppe's #9 aresol....

the surplus bulgarian wasnt near as corrosive as russian, now the bear brand is not advertised as corrosive,,
buddy with ar dosnt really have much problem with corrosive ammo,
my take is if you dont clean the ar ever time you shoot it with non corrosive you are looking for the bolt to get sticky if you let it set around
so if you clean an ar all the time anyway it wont make much difference if your shooting corrosive or not.
i did have problems with bolt on ak being stuck closed after setting a couple weeks had to smack handle on bench to break it loose, and after about 2000 rds without good cleaning laquer from cases started building up in chamber causing stuck cases