Those of you using engine oil on your guns….

[Nathan]

Here are a couple things to read/ watch:

Brownell’s: LINK


Internet:
LINK

Looks like engine oil runs off and leaves us at risk or rust. What say the folks who have been running a few years like this?

 

[Jim Watson]

I use synthetic motor oil in blends for lubrication. My rust prevention is with a rag soaked with every lube I have ever used, or a brush with Oil, Lubricating and Preservative, Light from an Army surplus sale.

 

[Sharkbite]

I would agree with the guys from Brownells. Use it on moving parts to reduce friction, but not as a rust preventative.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

What's "a few years"? I've been using synthetic motor oil as a gun lube for at least twenty years, probably more. I haven't had any problems.

Anyone who thinks modern motor oils DON'T have rust preventive additives is on crack.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Here we go- The young guy at Brownell's is full of ...it.
And, so are most of the posters in the comments.

Here are my qualifications:
Steam and refrigeration engineer-45 years.
Custom gunsmith/engraver. Had FFL for 20+ years.
Trained jeweler.
Musician- professional bassist-55 years.
Cutler- I do museum-quality restorations on extremely expensive cutlery. I make knives. I design knives. I collect knives.
Of course, I collect guns.


I have used WD40 since at least 1972. I have never seen it "gum." At least 10 years ago, I sprayed some WD40 into a small applicator bottle. The carrier evaporated within months-even though there was a cap on the bottle. All that was/is left is a light mineral oil. I have posted pictures here several times.

As an engineer, I used WD40 as a handy lube/rust preventative/penetrating oil.
As a gunsmith, I used it for cleaning, lubrication, and rust prevention. I have guns with no finish at all that have been protected with WD40 for 30+ years.
As an engraver, I use it to lubricate my hand gravers, and to lube the stylus on my engraving machines.
As a jeweler, I use WD40 on my buffing wheels. It makes them cut smoother.
As a musician- I use it on my bass strings!
As a cutler, I use it on most everything-as a penetrant, lube, and rust preventer. I have a very extensive and expensive collection of knives that I keep rust free with WD40.
As a gun collector, I use WD40 all the time and have for 50+ years.

There are better lubricants, but WD40 leaves a coating of light mineral oil-the very same mineral oil that's in all the "magic" superior products.

So with all the things I have used the product for- someone tell me why I haven't seen any of these terrible qualities that the snot-nosed Brownell's brat speaks of?

 

[Bill DeShivs]

And that second link must have been written by 6th graders.

 

[Mike38]

I've used synthetic motor oil for around 20 years, no problems at all. The only reason I switched back to "gun oil" is because my daughter bought me an 8 ounce bottle of Pro Shot CLP for my birthday last year. When that's gone, I'll be back to using motor oil.

 

[zukiphile]

Is gun oil a very good rust inhibitor? Or would a grease or something with some wax in it work even better?

A lot of modern guns are made of polymer, aluminum and steel that's been through nitride treatment, so there may not be a lot to rust on them.

I began using motor oil on BCGs because I keep them very well oiled as a matter of clean-up after use. You'll see torture tests in which an over-gassed rifle is run dry for 1500 rounds to prove reliability, but the BCG looks like the surface of the moon. On the other hand, a BCG kept oiled just looks as if it is covered in dirty oil and wipes clean - no scraping involved.

Since then, I've also sometimes cleaned rimfire internals with motor oil. If I leave all the parts coated in oil for a day, coming back and wiping it all off with a paper towel works well.

 

[mehavey]

...a BCG kept oiled just looks as if it is covered in
dirty oil and wipes clean - no scraping involved.

^^^ +Mucho ^^^

 

[JohnKSa]

Is gun oil a very good rust inhibitor?

'Gun oil' is a term that isn't especially meaningful without more information provided. Just about any oil intended to lubricate metal is going to provide some level of rust inhibition if it is applied as a coating. The coating tends to prevent oxygen and water from getting to the metal as long as the coating remains intact and therefore prevents oxidation.

The base oil, which can be one of a number of actual types of oils, or perhaps a blend of oils, will have properties that will affect how well it forms and maintains a coating on the metal, but more importantly, oils intended for a specific application will usually have other ingredients added to tailor the oil for that application.

The additives can provide extra wear prevention, keep the oil from becoming too viscous in cold temperatures, prevent the oil from becoming too thin at high temperatures, provide extra corrosion protection, prevent the oil from oxidizing, help disperse contaminants so they don't clump together, make the oil adhere to metal better, help adjust/maintain the pH of the oil, prevent the oil from foaming, help dissolve contaminants, prevent the oil from forming an emulsion with water or help encourage it to form an emulsion with water, and so on.

A small amount of additive can dramatically alter the properties of the oil, just as a small addition of alloying material can dramatically alter a metal's properties.

So if the manufacturer of a particular gun oil thought that corrosion prevention was very important and designed the oil to have that property, that particular gun oil could have excellent rust inhibiting properties. Another gun oil manufacturer might feel like corrosion protection is not as important and tailor its additive package and base oil to emphasize that property less. It depends very heavily on what the manufacturer decided was important and how they designed the oil.

Then, is motor oil a good rust inhibitor? Same problem. The term "motor oil" covers a lot of ground. Manufacturers use different base oil/base oil blends and different additive packages.

If we want to talk as if the two terms: "gun oil" and "motor oil" are fully descriptive, the results can't help but be inaccurate. About all that is possible in that context is to make some pretty general statements.

With that in mind, the tests that I've seen seem to indicate that, IN GENERAL, gun oil manufacturers seem to give higher priority to corrosion protection than motor oil manufacturers. That doesn't mean that all motor oils are terrible at corrosion protection or that all gun oils do a wonderful job or that any gun oil, picked at random, is guaranteed to provide better corrosion protection than any motor oil picked at random. It just means that if you test a lot of motor oils and a lot of gun oils, the premium gun oils will tend to provide significantly better corrosion protection than any of the motor oils.

From a practical perspective, if a person keeps on top of maintenance (makes sure that the gun is frequently wiped down with oil to maintain a protective coating) and the gun isn't usually exposed to extreme conditions, probably nearly any oil will provide sufficient corrosion protection. In situations where it's hard to maintain a light coating of oil on the gun, or other factors make rusting more likely, an oil specially designed to provide good rust inhibition can really make a gun owner's life easier.

Here's a real-world example. I have one gun with a blued finish that I simply could not keep from rusting if I used it. Even with a wipedown after every use, the blued finish in the areas that were frequently touched slowly gathered a coating of very fine rust. I tried several different oils but still had trouble until I found an oil that was specifically designed to adhere to metal well and had excellent corrosion additives--it solved the problem. That particular gun oil, turned out to be a very good rust inhibitor, but that fact doesn't mean it's possible to make a blanket statement about the corrosion protection capability of all "gun oil" vs. all "motor oil" with any sort of accuracy.

So what about the video? It talks a lot about "gun oil" and "motor oil" as if using those terms tells you all you need to know about the two types of oil. The problem is that there is considerable variation in the ingredients/properties of both gun oils and motor oils. For example, it's not accurate to make the blanket statement that motor oils don't have corrosion prevention additives. Apparently most of them don't have dedicated corrosion prevention additives, but some do. And some of the common additives in motor oils that are intended to provide other properties also can help to some extent with corrosion prevention. And not all gun oils are really good at corrosion protection because there is no hard and fast rule about what they are made from and what additives they contain.

There are people who have done tests on the various properties of different oils and posted the results on the web. I wouldn't take any single one of them as gospel, but if you find a product that scores pretty well or pretty badly in tests from different sources, then that's probably some useful information.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Keep in mind that synthetic "motor oils" like Castrol Syntec and Mobil-1 sell for around $6 per quart, which is 18.75 cents per fluid ounce. And Brownells doesn't sell Castrol Syntec or Mobil-1.

But Brownells does sell "gun oil." For example, they sell Militec-1 for $8.99 per ounce in a one-ounce container, or $14.99 for a 4-ounce container ($3.75 per ounce.)

They sell the regular Lucas Gun Oil for $4.99 in a 2-ounce container. That's $2.50 per ounce.

Now I understand why Brownells would promote the use of "gun oil" rather than "motor oil." There's an old saying ==> "Follow the money."

 

[Mongo_Bongo]

I check my guns twice a year as I really don't hunt or shoot anymore. I use motor oil on a bore swab for the shotguns. No signs of rust so far.

 

[Jim Watson]

they sell Militec-1 for $8.99 per ounce in a one-ounce container, or $14.99 for a 4-ounce container ($3.75 per ounce.)

I bit on the Militec 1 gimmick. It did not show me much, then I read it was originally an industrial gear drive lube additive, so I added it to my can of Army surplus oil.

I think the Lucas is pretty good, I am working out of a free sample.

 

[JohnKSa]

Now I understand why Brownells would promote the use of "gun oil" rather than "motor oil." There's an old saying ==> "Follow the money."

Actually, the video didn't say to use gun oil RATHER than motor oil. In fact, it explicitly acknowledged that motor oil was a great lubricant and a good choice for that application.

The summation statement of the video was: "The motor oil works great as a lubricant, but for wiping down the outside you want something made for guns to protect it."

I think that the statement is too broad to be completely accurate, but it's also clearly not a statement that sets up an either or sort of decision between motor oil and gun oil. It's much closer to the truth to say that they seem to be saying that using BOTH would be a good idea.

I like to view situations like this as an opportunity to learn about a topic. Sometimes you find that the claims have no merit, sometimes they are completely accurate, sometimes the claims are too general/oversimplified to be completely accurate even though they provide some general truths. But in any of those cases, you leave the situation knowing more than you did before. On the other hand, immediately pigeonholing something so that it can be either accepted or dismissed in its entirety without having to put any thought in, and without getting to learn more about the topic by doing your own research leaves you no better off than you were before.

In this case, a person completely dismissing the video contents, as opposed to using them as a springboard to study the topic, would miss out on the fact that there are significant differences in oils, not just between gun oils and motor oils, but between different gun oils and different motor oils and on the opportunity to learn about those differences and what causes them. On the other hand, a person who completely accepts the video contents would likely be left with the inaccurate impression that all motor oils are better lubricants than any gun oil and that all gun oils are better corrosion protectors than any motor oils. Neither of which is true.

 

[zukiphile]

But Brownells does sell "gun oil." For example, they sell Militec-1 for $8.99 per ounce in a one-ounce container, or $14.99 for a 4-ounce container ($3.75 per ounce.)

They sell the regular Lucas Gun Oil for $4.99 in a 2-ounce container. That's $2.50 per ounce.

In addition to Mobil1 being less expensive, I've gallons of the stuff on hand for the cars, so I never need to shop for it.

The maddening thing about lubricants aside from some of the pricing is the marketing. If it "penetrates, lubricates, cleans and prevents and loosens rust" as my 25 year old bottle of Clenzoil claims, which does it really do? The answer for Clenzoil seems to be that it is a poor cleaner, and it doesn't feel like much of a lubricant, but it does a fair job at keeping my body chemistry from stripping the bluing off pistols.

I've never put wax paste on a firearm, but I've read that people use it as a rust preventative.

 

[JohnKSa]

If it "penetrates, lubricates, cleans and prevents and loosens rust" as my 25 year old bottle of Clenzoil claims, which does it really do?

It's possible for a product to do all those things. How well it does each of them depends on how it's formulated.

For example, some of the CLP products have additives that make them penetrate better and do pretty well as cleaners but that evaporate relatively quickly, leaving a good lubricant in place. BreakFree CLP, for example, used to be made from the same base oil as Mobil 1 synthetic--maybe it still is, I haven't looked at an MSDS for either oil lately. So it was a pretty good lubricant. It also seems to have a decent corrosion inhibitor in its additive package, based on results from several tests and, in my experience, it's a decent nitro solvent. The solvent/cleaner will evaporate over time after application so that particular property really has no effect on the long term ability of the oil to perform its other functions. It does its work and then gets out of the picture to leave the LP functions doing their job.

There are some properties that are mutually exclusive, like an excellent penetrating oil is not going to be high-viscosity, but it is certainly possible for an oil to do more than one thing well.

You mentioned Clenzoil. In my experience, having tried it within the last few years, Clenzoil's current formulation is a better than average CLP, however, oils don't last forever, and any oil that is marketed as having cleaning properties likely has a solvent additive that will evaporate over time, reducing or eliminating the cleaning ability of the product. Your 25 year old bottle may or may not be representative of the performance of a fresher product. And, of course, there's always the possibility that they've changed the formulation since your product was made--which could be good or bad, I suppose.

 

[44caliberkid]

I have perhaps a dozen bottles of gun specific lubricants sitting on the shelf, most little used. I used up a spray can of Break Free CLP over probably 10 years, but for 99% of my gun needs I’ve used Ballistol, since probably 1970.

 

[zukiphile]

Your 25 year old bottle may or may not be representative of the performance of a fresher product. And, of course, there's always the possibility that they've changed the formulation since your product was made--which could be good or bad, I suppose.

I don't doubt that it could have been reformulated since I bought a big bottle at a gun show; it's green/blue with a citrus odor. The fellow selling it said he used it on guns at shows because everyone handles everything and Clenzoil kept them looking clean and fingerprint free longer. He was right. The stuff keeps a blued surface looking just oiled and wiped even after some handling.

It is only the bottle that made the claims about cleaning. My evaluation method is as simple as it is unscientific. I look at the patches. A patch with Clenzoil never looked very dirty, even when the bottle was new, so I stopped using it to clean bores almost immediately. Mobil1 patches look very dirty on the way out, even dirtier than a patch with Hoppes 9, possibly because the greater viscosity of the motor oil allows my to leave a ticker coat on the barrel.

I don't know the degree to which detergent additives would invalidate my how dirty does the patch look method of evaluation.

If I don't have time to let things sit much, I still like the Hoppes in 32 ounce glass bottles for cleaning. I associate the odor with pleasant memories.

 

[JohnKSa]

it's green/blue with a citrus odor.

Interesting. The Clenzoil I have had experience with has a very strong odor reminiscent of camphor--nothing at all like citrus.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Manufactures of specialty oils occasionally send me samples to try.

I actually endorse Latama Quick Release oil for use on knives. I also use it to lube my carry pistol.