The Lube thread

***Cassius*** · Posted On: 12/19/2010 10:06pm

Lube. It's been brought up a few times in conversation lately. Gun lube. Gun cleaning products.

What do you use, and why?

I use Tetra gun spray and tetra gun grease. Why? Because they were on sale, and I always clean my weapons the same day I shoot them. The spray is great for my purposes. It cleans well and leaves a light, corrosion resistant coating behind. I like the grease, too. It seems to stay where I put it, and doesn't seem to attract dirt and carbon. When it warms up outside, I may do a full copper solvent / gun scrubber treatment on both my guns, and try out the Militec-1 "process." Or maybe I won't, since I'm perfectly satisfied with this stuff.

At any rate, other miscellaneous tools I use include plastic and brass brushes, a bore snake, a couple old cotton t-shirts, and my fiancee's stockpile of q-tips that I suspect will last well beyond judgement day. I don't use dental picks on my weapons.

Not the most scientific process, but it worked pretty well for my M4 at work. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother cleaning my Ruger MK3, since .22lr is an absolutely filthy round, yet I persist . . .

**3moose1** · Posted On: 12/19/2010 10:10pm

RE: militec,

I've had great results with this stuff. Its a bit of a chore doing it correctly, but when you do....Whoo.

Your gun is essentially dry, until you fire, then it gets lubed up. After it cools, it goes back to being "dry". Unlike oil lubes, the carbon doesn't "burn" onto the bolt, so you can basically get away with rubbing it off.

Thing is, once you go through the stripping, applying, heating, applying and re-heating, you can't go back to CLP or anything else. If you need more lube, just rub some more militec in. If you use CLP, it'll **** it all up and you'll have to re-do the whole process. (or stick to CLP)

***Cassius*** · Posted On: 12/19/2010 10:19pm

The lube I currently use also ensures that I never have to do more than wipe my weapon down to remove the carbon. I'm not entirely convinced it's worth the annoyance.

**3moose1** · Posted On: 12/19/2010 11:00pm

The Tetra stuff is that good? I may look into that, then. My armorer won't let me bring militec near "his" weapon.

**Knave** · Posted On: 12/20/2010 12:34am

Semi-useful reading: http://grantcunningham.com/lubricants101.html

Anyway, I personally don't use Militec as I don't use guns in anything even remotely similar to an arid, sandy, or dusty environment where a dry lube has an advantage.

I very strongly prefer CLP for a variety of reasons for lubing and rust prevention which I could get into if anyone gives a crap? I use both liquid and aerosol depending on the gun.

For cleaning, depending on the gun, I use liquid or aerosol Hoppes 9, soap and water, and your standard flare of bore snakes, bore brushes, patches, bore swabs, chamber brushes, pipe cleaners, q-tips, etc.

I've thought about trying out other cleaners, but since I've never had any trouble with the Hoppes I figure why bother? Unless someone knows something that just REALLLLY cuts down on cleaning time by comparison, not just anecdotally, but hard facts proven by some sort of testing or study?

**Robstafarian** · Posted On: 12/20/2010 2:04am

I have a bottle of Weapon Shield, which I bought for general cleaning, and a bottle of Gun Butter which I bought specifically for slide rails. I have neglected lubrication of my 1911, though, so I haven't used them yet. I really should get on that.

Other than that, this is my cleaning kit (model PS52). Yes, it does bother me that their webmaster doesn't know how to spell “tactical.”

**IMightBeWrong** · Posted On: 12/20/2010 3:41am

Depends on what I'm lubing. My stainless PPK somehow seems to magically hold the oil I apply to it for months while my others dry and it likes any oil I put on it, so I generally use whatever is closest on it. My Colt is it's polar opposite and dries fast, so I like to grease it. I also use grease exclusively on SIGs, though I no longer own one (for now). My referred grease is Slide Glide which was recommended to me by members of SIGforum and other SIG enthusiasts.

Some common advice is to oil any rotating parts like sears and hammers and grease any parts that slide.

**mad_malk** · Posted On: 12/20/2010 9:55am

Slip 2000 EWL lube for all my guns. there 725 degreaser and cleaner and there carbon killer are the ****.

Remove wood and rubber grips if needed. field strip weapon. spray weapon with 725 degreaser and wipe down. let soak in carbon killer for about 10-15 min. rinse off in sink. Dry off well with wife's blow-drier(since i don't have an air compressor yet.). Reapply slip 2000 EWL. Have clean gun

***Cassius*** · Posted On: 12/20/2010 11:35am

Originally Posted by 3moose1

The Tetra stuff is that good? I may look into that, then. My armorer won't let me bring militec near "his" weapon.

It works fine for my purposes. It's the best product I've used, but I can't speak to it being amazing. It just does what I want reasonably well, and it was cheap.

I like the spray on stuff for ease of application and coverage.

**Rock Ape** · Posted On: 12/20/2010 1:00pm

For us in the nanny state, it's a chargeable offence to use anything other than the lubricant issued to us on service weapons, despite the fact there's far better products available and people would be willing to purchase them off their own backs just to have something better.

One airman I know of was officially reprimanded for using a product called Cillit bang on his weapon's gas parts after a full day (sum 16 hours) of almost constant field firing. That product BTW is awesome for removing even the most stubborn of carbon deposits and just about everyone (unofficially) has a small spray bottle filled with it in their cleaning kit.

I too have a bore snake and use it but on ops last year an anal armourer (not attached to our unit) tried to be a dickface by lecturing us whilst we cleaned our weapons after a patrol. He was soon enough fucked off.