Gun grease...

The only firearms that I own that need to be greased are M1 Garands. I've been using a jar of Slip 2000 Extreme Weapons Grease on mine. Oil seems to work fine for everything else.

I use RIG for sliding lubrication, and for long-term storage. I am sure there are better products out there, but that is what I grew up using, and it has never given me a reason to change.

The rule is to use grease on anything that slides and oil on anything that rotates.

Don't know whose rule it is because they pack rotating trailer bearings with grease.

I've been meaning to get some Lubriplate. It gets good reviews, and some formulations are even food safe.

Grease is generally thought to be better for sliding parts and oil for rotating parts. There are some exceptions, though. You probably don't want grease in a firing pin or striker channel.

milemaker13 said:

I assume you use for both?

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I do. I am not saying it is the best product for the job(s), it has worked for me, but I don't shoot near as much as a lot of the people here.

kozak6 said:

I've been meaning to get some Lubriplate. It gets good reviews, and some formulations are even food safe.

Grease is generally thought to be better for sliding parts and oil for rotating parts. There are some exceptions, though. You probably don't want grease in a firing pin or striker channel.

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Lubriplate SFL-O. Here is a good read on lubes.
http://www.grantcunningham.com/2006/05/lubrication-101/

I use RIG grease on a piece of wool to wipe my guns down before they go into the gun cabinet. I use high pressure red bearing grease on the star of my revolvers and in the end of the ejector rod if they have a lock there. Most everything else gets CLP.

I have for a very long time, used TW-25 white synthetic grease on most of mine. It stays exactly where I put it, doesn't bleed or migrate like some products and seems to repel dirt/carbon very well. While I scrub my barrels after each session, I've found the lube point may only need cleaning and re-application each 600-800 rounds. I have used it for years in the Phoenix area (hotter than lightning!) on revolvers and semi-autos. The author of the aforementioned article points out that in a revolver, you may WANT the lubricant to migrate. For myself, I'll apply my lubricant to everywhere I want it knowing that it will stay there. I don't want to count on migration to move it to desired spots (as well as undesired spots). Another thing I like about TW-25 is that is comes in a syringe with a long thin applicator tube and you can get refills for much less than the original syringe tube.
That's my 2 cents!

I'm one of those "idiots" who uses a light coating of grease on my 1911s and ARs. Primarily during the warmer months. I always used the red "high heat" stuff but a few years back, on a whim, I tried the synthetic Green Grease when packing bearings,new ball joints, etc on my 89 Isuzu Trooper. I noticed how "slick" it was and it did very well. I now use it on firearms.

I would think any grease will work as long as you clean & lube your firearm after every use .

I agree with Ex, I use TW-25.

Gunslik is excellent for breaking in actions.

In the rather cold winters here in WI, I de-grease any guns that will be used outside for extended periods of time (hunting) and use powdered graphite.

Elkins45 said:

The rule is to use grease on anything that slides and oil on anything that rotates.

Don't know whose rule it is because they pack rotating trailer bearings with grease.

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I have a shake it rule. If you shake it and it rattles, use grease. If it don't, oil.


I use Mobil Synthetic Red wheel bearing grease and Hoppes gun oil for lubrication and MSI silicone spray for protection.

Redline assembly lube for me. I use it on all my guns after a good cleaning. Between cleanings a little oil here and there. I’ve been using benelli shotgun oil for 5-6 years because I have some. Used to use a lot of Wd40

Ballistol is also a , does it all cleaner an lube . Us it on all my firearms friction areas get alittle grease .

Grease is not needed, just a light coating of oil is all that is needed. Use 5W-30, it's cheap and it works.

Check out Superlube.

I had a light amount of grease on the slide of my P89. I took it to the gunsmith for some work. When I got the pistol back, I noticed he had cleaned all the grease off and had just used a little oil.

The only place I use grease on my guns is the hinges on my O/U shotguns. I wipe it off and regrease often. I use white grease from an aerosol can.....All of my other lubing and rust prevention is done with Eezoxx.

I use RIG for storage and red bearing grease for my Garands, LRB M14, and a couple of M1 carbines. Incidentally, the latter is what I was advised to use in the CMP Garand class as well. Someone over there went through the trouble of replacing the original grease in the yellow top grease pots with the red stuff, leaving no trace of the original grease. Kudos to them for recycling/reusing those grease pots. Lubriplate gets rave reviews because it was used by the military. A primary reason it ended up as the choice Uncle Sam went with was how well it adhered, as opposed to lubricity or rust prevention. And that makes sense to me. If you've ever sprayed Gun Blaster in the op rod channel of a Garand that's been lubed with Lubriplate and didn't first wipe it away with a rag, then you know just how well that stuff sticks. Gun Blaster will melt away RIG in a heartbeat and bearing grease is somewhere in the middle. There's no shortage of grease choices. I stopped using RIG as a lubricating grease because Alabama summers have a way of turning it into "rust inhibiting oil." Plus I was getting little specks of it splattered on my face with the action cycled but that had more to do with my applying too much vs. it melting. When it comes to grease all that's needed is enough that you can see its sheen. Get a pint each of red sticky bearing grease and RIG and you're set for life.

I have a little jar of Brownell's Action Plus- a moly lube. Again, more grease and oils than I can go through in a lifetime.

For the ultimate in rust protection, there's Brownell's Rust Veto- a modern iteration of Cosmoline- and it smells awesome, just like the original! I greased up a couple of USGI M14 mags years ago and put them in storage. After degreasing them not several months ago, there wasn't a spot of rust anywhere to be found. However, neither was there a spot of rust to be found on any of the ungreased mags that were in use over that time. And in actuality, the attempt of greasing and storing them wasn't any test of Rust Veto's rust preventative properties, but a poorly designed experiment on my part to see if RV would impart any greenish hue to the parkerization on the mags (a topic for a completely different thread by the way).

Now that I think of it, I also have a tub of green bearing grease. I wonder if you go into a gun store in New Mexico and ask for gun grease if they ask, "Red or green?"

Checking manufacturer's instructions for maintenance is always best. I know it's hard to believe, but it's even more accurate than forum advice.

Midway currently has 218 products under their "Lubricants and Solvents" section. Specialty gun oils and greases seem like such a racket. There are so many products that do almost the same thing... except that every package says they are the best.

On the "CLP" scale, we know that grease doesn't clean - so it's lubricating mainly with protection secondary.

I get that grease belongs on vintage semi-auto handguns and rifles - that is how they were designed. I would also put grease on the hinge of an O/U shotgun or similar break open rifle. By and large, modern firearms are neither designed for nor shipped with grease (There are minority exceptions where someone will inevitably quote this like Sig metal framed pistols - haha). Most polymer framed pistols have their 5-6 oil points with all the metal being nitrided. Even weekend operators doing mag dumps with their AR-15's at my local range run oil (not grease) on the BCG since it was designed for oil.

I get that grease has a place, but there is "nothing new under the sun" when it comes to lubricants and solvents for firearms use.

I used strictly Remoil for about 15 years and never had issues. I started using Eezox about 5 years ago, and again, no issues.

Just this past spring I decided to try out some grease and picked up a bottle of Go Juice. What prompted me is my LCP is probably about shot out; the slide to frame fitment is pretty loose. Granted it has about 1,500 rounds through it, but I started wondering if using grease on the slide would have helped.

I highly doubt it makes much of a difference on my other firearms, but I might as well use it since I got it.

The most important thing about a firearms lubricant is that some is always to be found on the gun.
I have used assorted gun specific, automotive, and industrial lubricants on my guns. They all seem to work, although some stay around better than others. I usually grease the rails of automatic pistols and oil the rest.