Dry or wet, how do you run them?

firesky101 said:

I typically well oil most of my guns, and then wipe down any excess, so I did not think much of it.

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This is what I do as well. A well oiled machine......
But not too much .

Raw metal on metal is seldom a good thing. From that I would hope that the description of " running dry" is simply a lower level of oiling and not that it's avoided.

All my guns get SOME oil. But I don't like to see them dripping the stuff.

All of my firearms are oiled, but not excessively so. I also carry lube in my range bag as well just in case a weapon seems to need a bit during the session. Some of my rifles get lubed with gun grease. They tend to need less attention during a range day than some of my other guns. BreakFree CLP works very well for me when using an oil and Tetra Gun Grease is my other lube. My HKs tend to require less lube than my older Walthers. It will vary gun to gun, manufacturer to manufacturer.

I don't own a gun that doesn't seem perfectly happy to run dry, as long as it's not dirty. Not from choice, I just got lucky.

I don't like my guns dripping, but they all seem to hold exactly as much CLP if I soak it on as if they get a light smear along the rails, so I just put a drop or two where it needs to go and rack it a dozen times.

Now if CLP didn't leak out half that drop into the serrations no matter what I do...

My handgun is a glock and they take just a touch of lube on four spots. My AR is NiB coated so it runs dry. My Sig runs wet.

I run all of mine just below the splatterthrash of a white shirt. If I shoot and the oils particulate matter suspended in the mass of the gas soils my shirt, then it is to much for me, the wife, or my gun. Seems to work for me and have only ruined 2 shirts so far this year! Anyone know a sneaky way of getting Breakfree CLP out of a white shirt?

I do not run mine as wet as some (for sure) and usually I can lay a gun down and not have it seep on whatever it is resting on yet I have not experienced unusual wear or FTF with any of my pea shooters. For a hunter like myself Breakfree has always worked on anything I have owned; for me it is good enough.

.It can depend on the product you use. I tend to use breakfreeclp for "oil" and pro-gold for high shear areas. I owned a witness match, Little breakfree clp on the rails and a touch of pro gold on high load area and its was fine. very accurate pistol too. I lube my kahrs the same way. Nothing wet just very lightly lubed. Glocks , darn near dry.

Everything gets oiled but I normally wipe off the excess oil then the frame rails and other contact points get swiped with an oil covered q-tip before reassembly.

I have guns that i have no doubt will run dry but i don't. Lubrication not only improves function but also reduces wear and tear. In fact, i run all my guns extra wet at the range. For carry too much lube can be a bad thing as it attracts and holds grime.

I run my Nylon 66 dry. Completely dry. Everything else gets lightly oiled and the rails greased.
RT

a small can of rem oil is in my range bag. and it gets used after 50 to 75 rounds in most all my guns. slide back, just a light spray under the rails and a drop on the top of the bbl.
gets offered to many others on the range if i see them having troubles...i'll ask if their guns have been oiled and offer. helps more often then not.

after a detailed clean i'll often wipe everything but the grips with Mil type lube.

I don't bother with CLP or oil on semi-auto pistols, it flings off after 100 rounds. The gun does not "absorb" the oil, the oil is running off or evaporating. If I can't visually see lubricant, it isn't there.

I grease slide rails and bolt parts. Oil whatever is needed. Dry metal wears out where oiled surfaces will last several lifetimes......no brainer here.....chris3

I have an old Springfield .22 rifle that ONLY runs if it is stripped and scrubbed completely bare of any and all elements.

The old metal is burnished so well, it's like glass. It really is about the slickest action that I own.

After a good many rounds, it'll begin to jam up and needs to be cleaned thoroughly again.

The design isn't too forgiving of much fouling.

Lube does nothing to improve its performance.

Whether a gun will "run" wet or dry is not the issue here. Running a gun "dry" is going to accelerate wear, especially when you mix some grit from fouling in the moving/sliding parts. Use oil. As far as CLP "flinging off" after a hundred rounds, I spent years shooting competition with 1911s in very hot summer weather and after 700 to 1000 rounds in a day there was still CLP on the barrel and on the rails at the end of the day. CLP does not fling off in a hundred rounds.

Red Tornado, I see what you did there.

dry vs wet

Heck, I thought you were talking about Suppressors......

Oil oil oil. For sure. I can't imagine it would ever hurt function.

My guns typically follow the rule of "If it rotates, it gets oil. If it slides, it gets grease." Because the oil goes on the tighter parts, it usually goes on relatively thin, but I always try to put a good bit of grease on rails and such. My Sig really likes to have a good amount of grease on it. And I always keep a syringe or two of grease with me when I'm at the range in case I need a bit more. A gallon of the stuff runs about $10, so even using it liberally it'll take me years to run through one bucket (I'm using wheel bearing grease from an autoparts store).

I just use a syringe to put on a line of grease on each rail, put the slide on, cycle it a few times and then just wipe off the excess that got pushed out. Everything else stays on and it seems to work really well.

I absolutely hate running guns dry. And it just seems wrong when its so easy to run them lubed, if not dripping wet.

Oil oil oil. For sure. I can't imagine it would ever hurt function.

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Ask the guys in Afghanastan and Iraq. Too much oil attracts sand, dirt and grit that gums things. In many situations guns run better as dry as possible.

In extremely cold conditions oil hardens and gums up the action. Guys going into extreme cold completly strip all oil and use dry graphite for a lubricant.

It depends on the gun. Glocks and most other plastic-framed pistols with little frame/slide contact only need a drop of oil on contact surfaces. Pistols with more frame/slide contact, especially aluminum, need more, preferably grease.

I disagree. Metals will absorb oil.

I try to run them properly lubed. Dry is not lubed .

You don't need to swim them in oil ,but friction surfaces should be oiled or greased .