"Clean" vs "Dirty" Ammunition

[zobster]

Hi guys,

Could someone educate me the difference between clean and dirty ammunition please.

In another section of the forum in one of my post a reply commented that fiocchi was a "dirtier" ammunition therefore causes my chamber to be fouled.

I was just wondering, how to you tell apart clean and dirty ammunition? By brands? By trial and error?
What does the "dirty" in dirty ammunition imply anyways? The powder not burning cleanly? Humidity affecting my ammunition? It cannot be external dirt because I always wipe my cartridges with a slightly oiled rag before loading. My ammunition is always stored together with Damp Rid.

[AusTac]

Pretty much the bi product of burning whatever powder chemicals happen to be loaded in the case, and as every brand uses different powders some will burn cleaner and more wholy than others just like an engine, i personally only shoot factory at the moment but just through trial and error you get the know the dirty ammo which is usually cheaper but not always the case

Those that re load will probably be able to chime in with alot more technical data

[Wm.Traynor]

I always wipe my cartridges with a slightly oiled rag before loading. .

Please don't do that mate. Your cartridges will not be able to grip the walls of the chamber and the backthrust against the locking lugs will be increased. I don't know what the long term consequences of that would be but it is completely unnecessary and potentially harmful to your rifle.

[Oldbloke]

Trail and error and what AusTac said.

[pomemax]

I think you may be referring to a comment i made, on a post about cases getting stuck or something like that . easy way to check the burning of any case is look inside the empty case after firing if it has burnt clean case is clean if its a dirty burn the case is dirty when its dirty the gasses go around into the chamber and deposit particles on the walls and bolt and your rifle / pistol gets dirty quicker .
I was shooting 9mm a a range one day forget the name of the rounds but the smoke coming from the Beretta the range office came in and asked what powder I had in them they thought I may have loaded them with blackpowder by mistake but they were factory I was cleaning the pistol for about 1 hour just to get it clean a lot of crud from the rounds
Yes its just try it and see i have seen 2 pistols shot with the same ammo one was clean after 100 rounds the other the guy cleaned to dirty after 50 same ammo same brand of pistol and they we're burning different in the chamber you could see inside the spent cases on dark grey the other shinny brass looking

[zobster]

I think I understand what you are saying.

One brand of ammunition sometime might burn differently between different rifles which results in good/bad burn which is essentially a clean/dirty burn.

Might have to start handloading as I've yet to find a brand of ammo that my 223 likes. Perhaps the powder might burn cleaner compared to the powder in factory ammunition.

[Oldbloke]

"Might have to start handloading as I've yet to find a brand of ammo that my 223 likes. Perhaps the powder might burn cleaner compared to the powder in factory ammunition."

I purchased 100 rounds of S&B ( cheap at the time) for my 223 when I picked it up. Shot very dirty indeed. Grouped like a 12g as well.
Now reloading with AR2208 and much cleaner and very happy with the 0.6 moa.

[Norton]

Please don't do that mate. Your cartridges will not be able to grip the walls of the chamber and the backthrust against the locking lugs will be increased. I don't know what the long term consequences of that would be but it is completely unnecessary and potentially harmful to your rifle.

If I recall correctly that .338 blowup which hospitalised a guy at Little River in Victoria a while was was (in part) attributed to lubed hot loads.

Consequence was the lugs let go and he copped the bolt in the face.

[Norton]

One brand of ammunition sometime might burn differently between different rifles which results in good/bad burn which is essentially a clean/dirty burn.

Yep.

Just like burning two different fuels, one may have a little more residue/waste left over.

Comes into plan on a rifle because instead of it puffing out into the atmo it's building up in your barrel.

[BBJ]

You can see / smell it easily enough on some ammo.

PPU is decent ammo as far as putting a bullet in a target but dirty as, distinct smell when shooting and noticeably more gaseous debris.

[Manimal]

I was just wondering, how to you tell apart clean and dirty ammunition? By brands? By trial and error?

More fouling in the barrel after less shots.

And usually it's as obvious as a bit more, bit darker smoke when fired than cleaner burning ammo.

[happyhunter]

.

[southeast varmiter]

From my experience the difference is that dirty ammo is where the propellant byproduct is corrosive. Cheap Chinese ammo is notorious for this.
So when you use dirty ammo you need to clean your firearm as soon as possible after firing.

[zobster]

So far have never found a factory load that burns as clean as my hand loads using ADI powders.

Been running OSA 223 for the last 2 trips, I think they are loaded using ADI powder as well. There's significantly less "black" stuff when I scrub out the bore using the bronze brush but the bolt seems "dirtier" when compared to when I was running PPU. But nonetheless, the gun doesn't run ppu now so it's just OSA now.

[ebr love]

I'm not 100% on this but on a few observations of ammo with primer and projectile sealant that seems to add a little smoke as well.

[Wm.Traynor]

Australian military ammo that used the 7.62mm 144gn bullet was "sealed" (to make it waterproof?) and the Fullbore blokes needed a fancy mixture to make their barrels competitive against the Canadians. I do not know if this applies to all military ammo.

[Wobble]

Sealants were generally used to protect against moisture, yes.