Controversial opinion: RemOil is actually pretty good

Motor oil thinned with a little ATF. Never a problem. Use it to clean after shooting corrosive ammo. Not a speck of rust.

I’ll be picking up some full synthetic 0w16 motor oil for the wife’s new hybrid at Auto Zone tomorrow. When I’m done I’ll have half a quart left over. (I’d never heard of that weight until I cracked the hood and saw the oil rating sticker in the engine compartment today.)

That oil should be thin enough to flow, yet viscous enough to stay on slide and frame rails and bcg’s for a full session of shooting.

If it sucks, I’ll wipe it off when I’m cleaning them and then go back to using my usuals. If it’s great, I have 8 oz of gun oil to go through before I need more.

Stay safe.

daniel craig said:

I use it to clean and lube my rifles, shotguns and handguns (I’ve also used ballistol a lot). I carried a can during field training in the military and while on deployment. It got quite a few weapons, both individual and crew served, back online quickly.

Is it THE BEST? Probably not. Is it good enough? Absolutely.

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It's good when used properly. Like you said. Not the best. But definitely has a purpose.

I ran a PSA carbine hard for some time, lubing it only with RemOil and Birchwood Casey's gun oil. Any lube is better than none and that's what I had on hand. RemOil is a bit thinner than Birchwood Casey's. The oils evaporated faster than other oils, but they weren't as messy either. It was easy to keep a can of oil on hand when we went shooting. Just apply a few drops as needed at the start of the day and shoot. Same thing we'd been doing for decades. Then apply a few drops as needed throughout the day to keep our firearms running in tip top condition.

I don't use motor oil or ATF because both are bad for my skin, stain clothing and in general and are messier than the oil I use now.

I would say to those who say motor oil is messy, youre using way too much. You should only be using a couple of drops and you shouldnt see any excess on the gun.

I actually think thats a common problem, and the reason you often hear of things like gumming and varnish, ect, with things you shouldnt be hearing it from. People just put way too much on.

Glocks manual is a perfect example of what you need and what to do. It shows "1 drop" in a couple of key places, and thats it. And that applies to most other things as well.

Haven't seen a bad experience i.e. FTF so I'll share mine.

Duck hunt, a buddies Benelli Nova pump. Cold 1st of December weather but a 10 acre pond adjacent to managed wetlands wasn't froze. At the moment of truth, up goes the shotgun and, NO BANG. Only duck for that day didn't hang around. After hunting analysis, Rem oil gummed up the firing pin channel. That hunting buddy was METICULOUS in cleaning and SPOT ON in diagnosis & expertise. It was the product's fault.

For the less financially challenged amongst us, Krytox grease is pure teflon and it is not affected by heat. It is often used in spring air guns where the temperature at the transfer port reaches 2000 degrees for an instant, but long enough to ignite mineral based oils. With Krytox, that doesn't happen.
It costs about $50 for a 3 ounce tube if I properly recall.

For you folks using mobile 1 (or other motor oil)... what weight do you use? Or do you just grab whatever you have left over from your last oil change?

I like the synthetic oil I use, but I sometimes think it's a bit thin, and am thinking of trying something heavier.

Thanks.

I bought 10W30 Mobile One just to use for my guns.

I dont use it in my cars. If I did, Id probably just drain the empty bottles into a needle oiler, which is what I use, and go with that. A small needle oiler lasts a long time, at least a couple of months or more, and I use mine two or three times a week on a number of guns.

Gumming up or leaving varnish isn't a factor of how much...it's what the lubricant is made of or contains.

The difference with "too much" is you've actually applied enough to leave a significant amount of "gum" or "varnish" behind after the more volatile component is gone.

"Significant amount" in this case being "enough to notice" by feel, mechanical operation, etc.

Harriw said:

For you folks using mobile 1 (or other motor oil)... what weight do you use? Or do you just grab whatever you have left over from your last oil change?

I like the synthetic oil I use, but I sometimes think it's a bit thin, and am thinking of trying something heavier.

Thanks.

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I use 5W30, as this is what my car (and some of the others) use.

I'm not saying this is "the best weight", only that it happens to be what most of our cars use.

I seriously doubt that it makes that much difference, though. You're not putting 5 quarts of it in your gun to be pumped through engineered gaps at 65 psi with an oil pump. You are quite literally applying drops here and there at strategic locations for lubrication and/or corrosion prevention.

Use what you have and see if it works for you. Use a different weight if you choose.

Back before all the boutique gun stuff showed up, we used WD40 for decades, and never had the gumming or varnishing issues you hear so much on the internet. Its what we had, and it seemed to work OK. Didnt really use it as a "lube", but for wipe down rags and as an action flush, and as a water displacement for guns out in the weather or that went into the river. It was never left on or in the gun where it was obvious that it was there.

For lube, we usually used either a light oil, or Lubriplate for grease. I still use the latter when I feel it needs grease, like for M1's, M1A's, etc.

Ive always used any of what Ive used pretty sparingly, as opposed to hosing things down, or loading it up, like I have seen some people do. Ive shot other peoples guns, that were literally spraying me as I shot with whatever they used while I was shooting. Thats not right, or what you want, and where I think where the trouble starts, especially if they are put away "wet" like that and left to sit for a length of time.

Im sure some things are better than others for being a problem (Id avoid Frog Lube like a plague for that), but I think if whatever you use, you do use it sparingly, and/or follow the gun maker's recommendations, youll have a lot less trouble, than if you tend to go overboard and load it up.

I've used 20W-50 motorcycle Mobil1 for slides on semi-auto pistols, it seems to stay there a little better. I would imagine any weight would work well though.

I use Rem Oil and Hoppe's most often and still have a can of CRC 5-56 that I haven't used in quite a while, used to use it on my cap and ball revolvers. After getting multiple recommendations for Ballistol I finally ordered a can 6 months ago, have yet to use it, probably when the Rem Oil runs out.

wiscoaster said:

Aerosol RemOil has been my all-purpose "go-to" but unfortunately I can't find it anywhere in stock any more. Is it still being made?

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I bought some at Walmart today.

In my experience, it works great for short-term lubrication, but it dries out very quickly. It is great for oiling blued and parkerized finishes, though.

A good thicker synthetic oil lasts a lot longer on moving parts (I use Mobil 1), but makes *much* more of a mess if used externally. So IMO there is a place for both.

Harriw said:

For you folks using mobile 1 (or other motor oil)... what weight do you use? Or do you just grab whatever you have left over from your last oil change?

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I use 5W30 Extended Performance, because that’s what I was using in my vehicle when I filled my gun oil bottles. Seems to be a good fit.

Never used Remoil much. I Use Deep Creep

Harriw said:

For you folks using mobile 1 (or other motor oil)... what weight do you use? Or do you just grab whatever you have left over from your last oil change?

I like the synthetic oil I use, but I sometimes think it's a bit thin, and am thinking of trying something heavier.

Thanks.

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0w20 in the winter and a heavier for the summer.

daniel craig said:

I’ve got some two stroke bar and chain oil for the chain saw. I wonder if that would work

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You know that bar oil has got some kind of sticky stuff in it so it won't sling off as badly, might help lol.