Oil em up.....

Most of the standard nontoxic lubricants, and the plant based lubes either have little to no smell or a pleasant smell.



Plant based lubes have some drawbacks.

Frog lube is plant based, any plant based oil that is liquid at room temp (especially in temps below that) is an unsaturated type... meaning it can and will spoil when exposed to light and air. So it can oxidize over time making it gum up and harden... And Frog lube (and others) will get thick and stiff in cold. Both situations can cause malfunctions

If you clean and relube often, this won't be a problem very much. Using smaller amounts of the lube for cold weather helps, just be sure you dont let it drip into parts where you can not wipe out excess. Though that is not always a guarantee, as it may flow due to gravity over time and collect in areas.
 
PSP - with the price of pork these days, I can't afford center cut bacon. I have had to resort to getting used grease from the fryers at the local restaurant - they are happy to give me a can once in a while - and it's plenty slick. :D:eek:
 
Cheapshooter said:
Some say gun oil is just repackaged motor oil. I choose to differ for a very logical reason. Gun oil might be the same base pruduct, but it would not make sense for them to include the detergents, viscosity modifiers, and other chemicals required for motor oil.
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It wouldn't? Why not?

What does multi-viscosity motor oil do? Why was it invented? So you can have an oil that's flowable (light viscosity) when cold but behaves like a heavier oil when hot. Doesn't a firearm present similar challenges to an engine? You take a gun out on a sub-freezing day. When the gun is cold, you want something that's light and thin enough that the gun will function. Once it heats up, you need a lubricant that'll stay where you put it and not drip out onto the snow -- or your nice, leather gloves.

A firearm [hopefully] starts out clean, but after some shooting there's a lot of carbon and "stuff" that builds up. Just like an automotive engine. The detergents help keep that sludge in suspension so it doesn't cause a stoppage.

For most gun lube needs I alternate between Gun Butter (brand name), and Castrol Syntec 15W50 motor oil mixed with some micro-fine molydenum disulphide powder. For the rails on 1911s I use Lubri-Plate.
 
Most of my guns like to be run 'wet', so I bring a spray can of rem oil to the range with me.

I have never heard a compelling enough reason to use more expensive oil, and as long as I touch it up before I shoot, it really doesn't need to be thick or have any special properties, other than just being lubricating oil. It's too thin to cause dragging problems in cold weather, you really can't over-apply it enough to cause a problem. (Unless it gets in your eye or in your ammo can or in some extreme examples, striker or firing pin.).
I spray it on quite generously, but not comically so.
Recommend an alternative, and if it makes sense, I'll try something new.
I take the 'do no harm' approach. Don't overthink it.
Just remember 99.382345% of all statistics are made up.
 
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Unless you've seen the results of testing conducted by others.

Fortunately, information exchange makes it possible for people to know things without having to conduct testing/experiments personally.
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Agreed.
 
Most gun lubes have unfortunately only been tested by the manufacturer or by someone paid by the manufacturer. Making the tests biased and should be looked at cautiously. Not that they are necessarily stretching the truth, but careful selection of testing criteria and method can swing results.

Sometimes you get competitors testing the product as a comparison to their own... and that is hardly unbiased either.


That is why I like products that have undergone independent testing. Slip2k lubes were tested by the military. The Marines use their products, at least at the armory level as I understand it.

Lubriplate food safe industrial oils had to be tested by independent labs to get their food safe certifications and prove their performance.
 
Well, depends on what yer using it for ;)

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I use grease on my slides and CLP on everything else. It's worked well on my pistols for years and will continue to do so for years to come. None of my weapons have had a failure due to poor lubricant. Come to think of it none of my HKs have had any failure at all. :D
 
marine6680 said:
Plant based lubes have some drawbacks.



If you clean and relube often, this won't be a problem very much. Using smaller amounts of the lube for cold weather helps, just be sure you dont let it drip into parts where you can not wipe out excess. Though that is not always a guarantee, as it may flow due to gravity over time and collect in areas.
Click to expand...


This happened to me with Frog Lube. On hammer fired pistols I usually put a thin layer of lube on the part of the slide that rides over the hammer. I repeated this process over a series of months, wiping off the excess when I did. Problem is this area is right next to the firing pin block. Unbeknownst to me over that time some Frog Lube went down the firing pin block and into the channel.

One day in the winter I went to go shooting. The pistol was an HK P2000 and was my bedside gun. Click, click, click. I couldn't get a primer to ignite for the life of me, even Gold Dots. The Frog Lube had congealed in the firing pin channel and essentially frozen the firing pin in place. I went home and sprayed the channel with Gun Scrubber.

I imagine I should have been more careful and I definitely should have tested the pistol more frequently. Still it turned me off Frog Lube and back towards thinner lubes. To me the supposed advantage of Frog Lube is long term staying power and I'm used to reapplying somewhat frequently so it really doesn't benefit me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I think this is much ado about little. I have guns from the 40s, 60s, 70s, 90's and 2000+. They all show very little wear and they all perform like new. They were made and used long before special oil was made for them and I suspect the early owners just used whatever was handy regardless of what it was. Like they say, oil is better than no oil and clean oil is better than dirty oil.

If you fall for the snake oil product ads, PT Barnum was right.
 
Been using Breakfree for thirty years which is a CLP lubricant never had a problem and it seems to work great.
Why is it not recommended?
 
Blondes, Brunettes or Redheads?

Just use an oil, or a grease. I tell people to pick one that has a pleasant scent to them, then stop worrying about it.
 
Recently tried Ballistol. Seems to work fine,but man the smell. After cleaning a few guns,even the dog wouldn't play with me:eek:
 
TunnelRat said:
This happened to me with Frog Lube. On hammer fired pistols I usually put a thin layer of lube on the part of the slide that rides over the hammer. I repeated this process over a series of months, wiping off the excess when I did. Problem is this area is right next to the firing pin block. Unbeknownst to me over that time some Frog Lube went down the firing pin block and into the channel.

One day in the winter I went to go shooting. The pistol was an HK P2000 and was my bedside gun. Click, click, click. I couldn't get a primer to ignite for the life of me, even Gold Dots. The Frog Lube had congealed in the firing pin channel and essentially frozen the firing pin in place. I went home and sprayed the channel with Gun Scrubber.

I imagine I should have been more careful and I definitely should have tested the pistol more frequently. Still it turned me off Frog Lube and back towards thinner lubes. To me the supposed advantage of Frog Lube is long term staying power and I'm used to reapplying somewhat frequently so it really doesn't benefit me.
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Thanks for the feedback. I do know they make an "arctic" version for cold weather, however living in Florida cold isn't an issue here. I'll make sure to do a deep clean periodically.
 
As I said, it's bio based, so it can spoil. A good thorough cleaning on occasion is a good idea. Get out the old, and get in some new.

I wouldn't use it for long term storage either.
 
Lunger - The smell sort of grows on you to where you like it. I began using it when I got into black powder guns. I even use it on the inside fiberglass on my boat. In Europe they use it on bodies in spas. However, I've not suggested its' use with the wife. Ha!

.02. David. :D
 
Dexron III automobile transmission fluid for lubrication (AR bolt carriers etc.)

Red Axle grease - M1 Garand, M1a rails, 1911 slides.

Ballistol for overall cleaning etc.
 
They do not recommend CLP.
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This can only be because they have some sort of corporate alliance with a competitor.

CLP works just fine on every semi-auto I've ever encountered. I still use grease on the slide rails, though.
 
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