Motor Oil For Lube. Which is Best?

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Dragline45

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After years of reading how well it works as a lubricant I want to give it a try, for those who do use motor oil which do you find works best?
 
Lubricant for what? Motor oil has all kinds of additives that really make it unsuitable for use with firearms. Even though that all the CF gave us, long ago, to clean everything. If you leave it on a firearm in cold weather, you're begging for stoppages too.
Mobil 1 is synthetic.
 
I started using Mobil 1 simply because it's what I had been using in one of my vehicles. Awhile back I bought a quart of another full synthetic, Pennzoil Ultra, because it was on sale. I can't see any difference between the two. Both seem to work as well in firearms as they do in vehicles.
 
I shoot almost exclusively 1911s. I use Castrol Syntec 5W50. I wanted the widest range of viscosity I could get, since I live in an area where it gets into negative temperatures in the winter and can reach the upper 90s in the summer. Mobil-1 is good stuff, but as far as I know the lightest multi-viscosity blend they offer that has 50 for the warm end is 15W50.

Just for grins and giggles, because it has worked very well for me in automotive gearboxes for over 25 years, I mix a small amount of micro-fine molybdenum disulphide into the oil. Over time, the moly has a modest plating action on the metal. It doesn't take much. I bought a set of three small, needle-tip oiler bottles from Brownells. I fill the bottle most of the way with new oil, then add a couple of small dippers of moly powder, cap it, and shake it up.

T. O'Heir said:
If you leave it on a firearm in cold weather, you're begging for stoppages too.
Mobil 1 is synthetic.
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Why is it begging for stoppages? One of the advantages of synthetic oils is that they don't get gummy over time, they stay oily. And the advantage of any multi-viscosity oil is that it can be thin enough to flow and provide lubrication in cold weather while retaining enough body to continue lubricating when hot.
 
As mentioned, those that do use Mobil 1. The reason usually given is cost. They don't like the price of little bottles of lubricants designed for use in firearms. Rather buy quarts of lubricants designed for internal combustion engines.
Since I don't use Remoil, or CLP in my truck, I don't use Mobil 1 on my guns!:D
The amount I use, even with the several guns I have, is so little I don't really see a cost advantage worth the hassle of putting motor oil in the size of containers I use for my guns.
 
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The amount I use, even with the several guns I have, is so little I don't really see a cost advantage worth the hassle of putting motor oil in the size of containers I use for my guns. Or having open motor oil cans sitting on my gun bench.
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Medical syringes work great for this purpose. LOL
 
For years I have used 3 in 1, Mobil 1, Hoppes gun oil, CLP, FP-10 and others, I am sure.

From the standpoint of lubrication, I cannot tell the difference. They all work good.

My Mobil 1 came from a local lube place. They gave me a barrel of "empty" mobil one bottles. I shook a few drops from each and wound up with about a pint of all different weights. It will probably last me the rest of my natural life.
 
As mentioned, those that do use Mobil 1. The reason usually given is cost. They don't like the price of little bottles of lubricants designed for use in firearms. Rather buy quarts of lubricants designed for internal combustion engines.
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Since I don't use Remoil, or CLP in my truck, I don't use Mobil 1 on my guns!
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Platitudes are not logical arguments.

"Designed" [SIC, "Formulated"].

In the early sixties, any milage over 80,000 miles was considered worn-out in a car. Nowadays, due to the advances in engine oils, cars are getting to 200,000 miles and 100,000 is not considered worn out. In short, the lubricating oils developed for them has gotten that good. Friction being friction, it follows then that those oils are just as good as the oils specifically made for guns, if not better...unless gun oils have likewise improved. Admittedly, to make a comparison, we would have to know the round-count of the sixtyish guns before they were worn out, and the round-count of the same guns using more modern formulated gun oils.

The only drawback I can see is if there is some problem with the additives in the automobile oil.
 
Automotive oil probably won't hurt, and possibly will work as well as gun lubricants. I just find the convenience of how gun specific oils are packaged along with the strong possibility that their formulation is superior for the intended purpose as a reason to use them.
 
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unless gun oils have likewise improved.
They have
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Prove it. The proof that auto oils have improved is the increased millage with modern oils. The increase in car mileage is about 40 times (80,000/200.000). Prove that gun oils have increase their lubrication properties by a factor of 40 times.

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"Designed" [SIC, "Formulated"]. Are you confused about the difference between the two? If so, just say so and I will help you. Hint: unless the chemical engineers used an irregular curves, T-Square and triangles, then it was "formulated", not "designed."


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The only drawback I can see is if there is some problem with the additives in the automobile oil.
Your own words.
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The keyword is "if". And even "if" there is some problem, (possible carcinogen), that does not mean that gun oils likewise will not be someday found to have carcinogenic components. I avoid that problem by just not licking my guns, no matter what lube I use.
 
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The amount I use, even with the several guns I have, is so little I don't really see a cost advantage worth the hassle of putting motor oil in the size of containers I use for my guns. Or having open motor oil cans sitting on my gun bench.
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You throw away a years supply every time you change the oil in your vehicles.

Stand those "empty" containers upside down for an hour and enough residual oil will drain out to lube your guns for a long time

Also, I know very few folks that don't have a partial qt of oil sitting around for mowers and such
 
Automotive oil probably won't hurt, and possibly will work as well as gun lubricants. I just find the convenience of how gun specific oils are packaged along with the strong possibility that their formulation is superior for the intended purpose as a reason to use them.
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What do you base your statement that there is a "...strong possibility that their formulation is superior for the intended purpose..."? Their advertising? Friction is still friction...is the friction in your gun likely to be greater/or less severe in an automobile?

You seem to have an unwarranted faith in gun oil companies. Evidently, you were not old enough to remember P.T. Barnum's statement that the reason for his success was that, "There is a sucker born every minute." Myself, I am going to buy a case of Mobile one and break it down in one-ounce bottles and sell it as the ultimate gun oil for the modest price of $20.00 per bottle. I will advertise that it is specially formulated for use on firearms. How many bottles can I put you down for?
 
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On another forum, someone who was doing very high-volume practice for IPSC competition remarked that they were using 1:1 Mobil 1:Marvel Mystery Oil. I've tried it, and it works fine, so far. I'm not shooting in the same volume as they were, though.
 
Started using Mobil 1 20W50 a couple years ago (same stuff I run in my Harley). Wished I'd started sooner.
Motor oil is designed to lubricate at high temps and very high loads. Sounds perfect for firearms. For those complaining about additives, unless someone can show evidence that the additives eat gun metal I doubt there are any negatives.

Jim
 
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