Gun Lube

guy sajer said:

I work in a gun shop and usually grab whatever is handy for lube .

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And we have a winner.

There are no "miracle" lubricants.
WHAT you lubricate with is not important, it's that you DO lubricate with something.

A casual read of most any gun forum will show that one of the most popular subjects is what lubricants people like.
There is no consensus, and no lubricant stands out as "the best".
What you use depends on you're trying some lubes and just deciding that you prefer one or two of them.

With that said, most people will agree that CLP Breakfree is one of the best, both as a lubricant and as a protectant.
Personally, I use CLP Breakfree as a rust preventing coating in most guns and as a lubricant in the AR-15.

For customer pistols I used Super Lube oil and Super Lube grease.
The oil is a "thin grease-thick oil" in consistency and won't evaporate, dry out, run off, or sling off.
I use it on the internals of pistols, and the Super Lube grease on the hammer and trigger interfaces and on automatic pistol slide rails and barrels.
I liked it because I could lube a customer gun and 5 years or more later it was still present and working where most other lubes were gone and the action was dry.

May I ask a dumb question?

How do you all decide where oil is "better" than grease and vice versa?

I know that I'm supposed to use grease virtually everywhere (except the trigger group) on my M14-type rifle. Apparently no grease in a revolver. For a 1911 pistol, some guys use a light grease on the rails and others insist on oil.

What I'm trying to get at is there must be some physical attributes of a friction point which indicate grease or oil. I've read "if it slides, grease it. If it rolls, oil it." Does that make any sense?

Also, does it matter if we're talking about a steel-on-steel friction point versus a steel-on-aluminum friction point? I just turned up a post elsewhere which claimed you should grease a 1911's slide rails unless the frame is alloy, in which case you should use oil.

If it seems like I'm confused by all of the conflicting advice available out here in cyberspace, it's because I am confused.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Oh, and if someone can tell me where to find Super Lube grease I'd sure appreciate it.

TheTinMan said:

May I ask a dumb question?

How do you all decide where oil is "better" than grease and vice versa?

I know that I'm supposed to use grease virtually everywhere (except the trigger group) on my M14-type rifle. Apparently no grease in a revolver. For a 1911 pistol, some guys use a light grease on the rails and others insist on oil.

What I'm trying to get at is there must be some physical attributes of a friction point which indicate grease or oil. I've read "if it slides, grease it. If it rolls, oil it." Does that make any sense?

Also, does it matter if we're talking about a steel-on-steel friction point versus a steel-on-aluminum friction point? I just turned up a post elsewhere which claimed you should grease a 1911's slide rails unless the frame is alloy, in which case you should use oil.

If it seems like I'm confused by all of the conflicting advice available out here in cyberspace, it's because I am confused.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Oh, and if someone can tell me where to find Super Lube grease I'd sure appreciate it.

Click to expand...

Superlube can be found at Ace Hardware including handy pocket dispensers of the oil and a couple of sizes of the grease.

In some other lubricant applications, it's "grease the gears, oil the bearings". I guess that's a little bit like slide and roll.

I use grease on slides, but indeed opinions vary. Competition rifle shooters apparently prefer oil and plenty of it for the competition shoot to reduce residue and debris gumming from an already thick lubricant like grease, but that's a particular application.

In revolvers, I have pretty much used oil except for a dab of grease on the trigger sear point ( I believe a suggestion from dfariswheel), but that isn't because of any particularly good or bad experiences, just the need to have a plan.

I believe some of the "bad press" for grease (and even some oiling) comes from experiences with older lubricants that were more prone to hardening and gumming. Most modern lubricants are supposed to be better in thet regard.

You can buy Super Lube oil and grease in small oilers and tube at Midway:

MidwayUSA - Advanced Search

Since I used a lot of it, I bought it in bulk direct from Synco.
I bought the oil in 4 ounce bottles.

Grease | Oil | Synthetic Lubricants

For other applications they sell an "interesting" spray grease.
It comes out as a liquid, the carrier evaporates very quickly leaving a thin grease coating.
This is closer to the oil in consistency than the heavier grease.

As to where to use oils or greases, that's really up to you. You try different things and see how it works for you.
I've used grease on the internals of revolvers and automatics because it stays put and won't evaporate, run off, or otherwise disappear.
This is important on defense guns where the customer or user can't get inside to refresh the lube.

Grease works just as well on steel-aluminum as any oil, so I don't know where not using it on aluminum autos comes from.