To grease or not to grease, that is the question
- Thread starter Cheapshooter
- Start date
I don't use grease in place of oil, but use it where recommended. Frame rails on Sig Sauer pistols, for example, greatly reduces wear and protects the anodized finish. Great article on the subject on Grayguns.
For Glocks, I use a little grease where the trigger bar cams against the connector. For the rest of the Glock, I use oil on the rails and the barrel or anywhere I see friction wear---somewhat more than Glock recommends, though I try not to over do it.
For Glocks, I use a little grease where the trigger bar cams against the connector. For the rest of the Glock, I use oil on the rails and the barrel or anywhere I see friction wear---somewhat more than Glock recommends, though I try not to over do it.
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That must be a new prohibition. The old manuals just said to use good quality gun lubricants and the old armorer's manuals said something along the lines that too much oil or grease could cause problems.
Are they still shipping new Glocks with the copper-colored anti-seize grease applied to the slide or have they changed that too?
Cheapshooter
New member
Yep. Under "Cleaning the field stripped pistol"
"Note that copper colored lubricant found on portions of the slide of brand new Glock pistols should not be removed, as it will help to provide long-term lubrication of the slide"
It doesn't really wipe off, looks like maybe some sort of dry lube.
I may have miss spoken about the grease. I was just going by what I rembered reading, not actually quoting the book. It just says where to put oil, doesn't actually say no grease, but only mentions using oil. It does warn against over-lubricating because "large quantities of oil or grease will collect unburnt powder and other materials" That is the only place it mentions grease.
As a newbie to the dark side, I only asked about grease because my new Glock just seems to make a lot of metal to metal nasty sounds when I rack the slide. It functions fine, shoots great, and I haven't seen any scrapings, or signs of wear. It just sounds crappy. Of course so does my AK-47 when you think about it! I guess guns that are made to be thrown into ponds, sewers, pig slop, etc and still function perfectly are like that!
> I have no Glocks. I will have no Glocks. I have shot them, and I shoot them well. But I don't like them. Thus, I won't buy them. But, if it came down to it, I could defend myself using one, no problem.
> I regularly use a good quality grease on the rails of the semi-auto handguns that I own. I have had no problems doing so. None whatsoever.
Gun oil is fine. Good. I use good gun oils myself. But on surfaces that you know will rub against themselves as a matter of design, well, I'll go with a light application of high quality gun grease. I know that I can rely on grease. The lower volatility of a good gun grease means to me that it will work correctly when conditions deteriorate. It works when it is damp. It works when it is hot. If it is a good grease, it even works when it is cold (and here, it doesn't matter since it never gets so cold that grease doesn't work). It applies easily and it cleans fairly easily. Quality grease doesn't even dry all that much and thus it lasts.
> I regularly use a good quality grease on the rails of the semi-auto handguns that I own. I have had no problems doing so. None whatsoever.
Gun oil is fine. Good. I use good gun oils myself. But on surfaces that you know will rub against themselves as a matter of design, well, I'll go with a light application of high quality gun grease. I know that I can rely on grease. The lower volatility of a good gun grease means to me that it will work correctly when conditions deteriorate. It works when it is damp. It works when it is hot. If it is a good grease, it even works when it is cold (and here, it doesn't matter since it never gets so cold that grease doesn't work). It applies easily and it cleans fairly easily. Quality grease doesn't even dry all that much and thus it lasts.
Cheapshooter said:
I wonder what disadvantages there are to anti-seize greases, aside from issues that sometimes arise because the metal-based ones are electrically conductive. If there are none, then I wonder why they aren't more frequently used as general purpose lubricants, aside from price (the latter is apparently a non-issue in the firearm world).
Cheapshooter said:
That could happen, but I prefer grease because it stays in place better and sticks around for a long time, and I feel it's more dependable as a result. The keys to using it in most firearms, in my opinion, are to use a thin grease and very little of it (unless one's gun needs a lot, but then I would wonder about its reliability in general). My M&P can run without lubrication, much like Glocks, so after cleaning it I just put a thin film on the slide rail "tabs" on the frame, a tiny bit on the barrel wherever it meets the slide, and a touch on the barrel lugs, and that's it. I don't lube the lockwork in the frame at all. So far, everything has worked out fine with this regimen, and I imagine that it would for Glocks, too, but take it for what it's worth.
Cheapshooter said:
Yeah, there is often a lot of that metal-to-metal screeching. My M&P used to do that, too, and it was mostly because of the recoil spring scraping against the steel guide rod. I applied some Weapon Shield CLP to the guide rod about a year ago, shot the gun that way for a couple hundred rounds, wiped it dry, and haven't heard that awful sound since. I'm not sure exactly what Weapon Shield did, but it sure did something. Obviously Glocks come with plastic guide rods, so the issue is probably between different parts, but again take what I've said for whatever you think it's worth.
Why not both? I'd heard enough experienced shooters talking about mixing a little grease with oil and forming a slick "paste" that I tried it myself.
Works just fine. Mostly for rails--I still use oil for barrel, barrel hood, and internal trigger parts--EXCEPT on 1911 cone barrels where there isn't much to lube. An oil/grease at the front of the cone insures that the lube will stay there.
Miltec oil mixed with Miltech 1 grease is excellent, but I've used other combinations.
NOTE: I still strongly recommend a little bit of good 'ol grease where the trigger bar cams against the connector on Glocks. It stays there and keeps working. If that dries out, it will increase the trigger pull. Doesn't take much.
Personally, I don't mind my guns a little wet, since I can clean my carry gun often enough to avoid picking up dirt. If I were in a sandbox type military environment, then I'd use as little as possible to eliminate the dirt magnet syndrome.
Stevie-Ray
New member
I use a small amount of RIG +P on all my autos' rails.
The key with grease is to be very sparing in how you use it and in being careful to remove it completely and replace it each time you clean to keep it from collecting debris and hardening in place.
I use light grease on my Glocks, but it's not conventional grease, it's a grease I make myself using Breakfree CLP mixed with very fine molybdenum disulfide powder. It won't harden, it stays in place, and if the CLP migrates out of the mix or evaporates the moly remains as a dry lubricant. Moly is very slick and is about as good a steel-to-steel lubricant as you can get but it is black and sort of messy--another incentive to use it very sparingly. I use very little--typically I apply it with a tiny flat bit screwdriver to the slide rails, the connector "ramp" and the spot where the trigger bar interfaces with the firing pin lug.
I mixed up somewhere around a third to a quarter of an ounce of this stuff many years ago and still have about half of it left.
I use light grease on my Glocks, but it's not conventional grease, it's a grease I make myself using Breakfree CLP mixed with very fine molybdenum disulfide powder. It won't harden, it stays in place, and if the CLP migrates out of the mix or evaporates the moly remains as a dry lubricant. Moly is very slick and is about as good a steel-to-steel lubricant as you can get but it is black and sort of messy--another incentive to use it very sparingly. I use very little--typically I apply it with a tiny flat bit screwdriver to the slide rails, the connector "ramp" and the spot where the trigger bar interfaces with the firing pin lug.
I mixed up somewhere around a third to a quarter of an ounce of this stuff many years ago and still have about half of it left.
The reason Glock does not want the use of grease on the slide rails is that they are being mage with a little closer tolerances and also the amout of surface area on slide rails is so small that it only requires a small amout of good quality oil. CLP and FP-10 are what I use. I have owned and shot Glocks for a long time and trust me you do not want to use grease of any kind. Another reason for this is that Glocks where made to be run in hostile environments that can pose problems to alot of other weapons.