Re: Shooting corrossive ammo and cleaning?
There are numerous different, but all effective, methods for cleaning a firearm after its had corrosive ammo run through it. Personally, I generally use hot (I MEAN HOOOOTTTT), soapy water for scrubbing all the salts/crap out. Others use Windex (yes...the window cleaning solution). There are also different varieties of commercially available "solvents"/"cleaners" meant to deal specifically with cleaning a firearm after shooting corrosive ammo, but like I said...really hot, soapy water has always work well for me. After the barrel/internals are clean and free from crap, I usually run plenty of patches down the bore until its dry, dry out the action, etc. Then, if necessary, you can clean the barrel with solvents, etc. to remove any carbon build-up/copper fouling, etc. Make sure you put a good coat of oil (whatever your particular brand of poison might be), including running an oiled patch down the tube, before stowing it away and a dry patch down the bore before shooting again.
As for how long it can take to effect your gun...like everything else...it depends. Some ammos are more corrosive than others, plus the environmental conditions play a role, plus the kind of firearm, etc., etc., etc. I wouldn't personally wait too long to clean any firearm that has been used with corrosive ammo (i.e. - the sooner...the better), and I sure as hell wouldn't be running that crap in any "precision" rifle I own. There are far too many cheap "practice" round alternatives on the market these days to waste time with most corrosive ammo.