Gun grease...

cougar1717 said:

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

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Who's "we"? The Swiss have been cleaning their rifles -- metal, wood, and leather -- with waffenfett for nearly forever.

For lubing the slide rails, I normally use oil, but lately I have been experimenting with grease:

-Weapon Sheild Grease
-Brian Enos' Slide Glide

I kind of like what I see so far.

Gooped up on gop

the best grease for guns is whatever the newest wonder lube is which is almost certainly re-packaged 10w30 or vegetable oil at a 10,000% markup.

Venom007 said:

the best grease for guns is whatever the newest wonder lube is which is almost certainly re-packaged 10w30 or vegetable oil at a 10,000% markup.

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So you're a Froglube fan?

Wow, I’ve been using CLP for about 5 years to clean with then wiping a thin coat all over everything that moves. So far no problems. Must be a fluke, I don’t have $100 in cleaning supplies.

I have a squeeze tube of Amsoil grease I use on the slide of my 1911. Works well on break action hinges too. tested it in the freezer against Lubriplate and it doesn't get as stiff but I still use Lubriplate for many things.

The only firearm I use grease on is a Garand. Then it's Mobil 1.

I really like LSA, lubricant semi fluid.

Sarco has old LSA for sale, I bought about a gallon and the cans that I open are good.New LSA is hideously expensive.



I http://www.e-sarcoinc.com/lsalubricant1quart.aspx

One of the characteristics of these semi fluid greases is that they stick well to surfaces. I have used over a quart on my 1911's, paying attention to the muzzle, slide, rails and hammer hooks. A drop down the hammer front to lube the hammer hooks. None of my firearms comes with an oil pump and oil sump, so whatever lubricant you apply will come off in time.

I use a lighter lube on my 22 lr pistols because I want less viscosity. CLP will work fine. I do use a lot of 10W-30 automotive lube, the stuff works great.



Anyone remember this 1968 version of Connie Rod?

Brings back memories.

I am very dissapointed in this thread... when I opened it I sware the title was "Grease Gun".

I have used TetraLube grease for 20 years now. I use it quite sparingly... after 20 years I think I am on my third tube.

I use synthetic oil in my vehicles but I prefer dino oil on my guns. Dino oil seems to cling better than synthetic oil.

I use grease is on the hinges of break open shotguns and cap and balls. That's about the extent of it for me.

Reminds me of the scene from Generation Kill....KY is clearly called for.

I use white lithium grease from auto zone on moving parts, especially high round count guns like AR's and Glocks. For exterior metal, I use whatever motor oil is the cheapest, also from auto zone. I put a little on a 1" paint brush, and paint it on.

cougar1717 said:

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.

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The military uses grease to clean the bores of their guns.

Barber-pole a greased patch over a bore brush and give the bore a scrub, then repeat twice more with additional greases patches on the brush.

See how clean the bore gets.


Marine Grease or "Red-N-Tacky" - is chalked full of detergents and corrosion inhibitors, and grease is a damper between contact surfaces even at film thickness.


For surfaces, wipe off the old grease film (and the crud on top of it) with a paper towel, re-apply a fresh grease film, and then wipe off excess with a paper towel.

Mil-spec for parkerized finishes is: Clean with solvent, wipe with grease, wipe with oil rag to remove excess grease.

Grease - is the original CLP.




GR

For gun grease I use a high speed wheel bearing grease for aircraft. When I shot for the Navy at China Lake that is what we used on match tuned M14's. So I figured it was good enough for my M1 Garand's. For oil I use FB10. My Smith 41 won't run on CLR but will on FB10. In the end all that matters is using grease where needed and oil where it is needed.

Garandimal said:

The military uses grease to clean the bores of their guns.

Barber-pole a greased patch over a bore brush and give the bore a scrub, then repeat twice more with additional greases patches on the brush.

See how clean the bore gets.


Marine Grease or "Red-N-Tacky" - is chalked full of detergents and corrosion inhibitors, and grease is a damper between contact surfaces even at film thickness.


For surfaces, wipe off the old grease film (and the crud on top of it) with a paper towel, re-apply a fresh grease film, and then wipe off excess with a paper towel.

Mil-spec for parkerized finishes is: Clean with solvent, wipe with grease, wipe with oil rag to remove excess grease.

Grease - is the original CLP.




GR

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What military are you taking about? Not the US military, unless it was well before VN or well after Desert Storm. Perhaps you worked at Annistion and stored them that way, but I can assure you that that is not how they were cleaned and relubed in my Arms Room. Nor at the Supply/Armorer School at Ft. Jackson, nor was any such method of cleaning mentioned in the coursework for 45B. Nor did I ever meet another Armorer who used grease for anything but the few spots on the M21 that need it.

Glocks come with something that looks like anti-seize in them. It looks like clear grease and copper dust.

Wondering what people think of Super Lube silicone grease. I bought an Mcarbo trigger kit, and it came with a little bit of Super Lube, so I bought a tube, thinking they might know something I didn't.

entropy said:

What military are you taking about?

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The Swiss Military used waffenfett for cleaning metal, wood and leather up until the 1950s, when it was replaced by automatenfett ("grease for automatic").

Garandimal said:

The military uses grease to clean the bores of their guns.

Barber-pole a greased patch over a bore brush and give the bore a scrub, then repeat twice more with additional greases patches on the brush.

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Which branch does that? I never once even saw any kind of grease for firearms in the army. CLP for Berettas, CLP for M16s, CLP for 240s, CLP for 50 cals, CLP for 105mm, and CLP for 120mm. Those last two suck because you basically clean the bore like you do with a rifle- rod and brush, then swab with a patch- except it takes at least 4 guys to push and pull the cleaning rod. The "patch" was usually a t-shirt over the brush or a roll of toilet paper.

entropy said:

What military are you taking about? Not the US military, unless it was well before VN or well after Desert Storm. Perhaps you worked at Annistion and stored them that way, but I can assure you that that is not how they were cleaned and relubed in my Arms Room. Nor at the Supply/Armorer School at Ft. Jackson, nor was any such method of cleaning mentioned in the coursework for 45B. Nor did I ever meet another Armorer who used grease for anything but the few spots on the M21 that need it.

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And yet you do not know what a Gun is.

A barber-poled grease patch over a bore brush will clean and protect the bore, and leave it good to go for shooting.

Try it.

...or not.

Another advantage grease has over CLP for bores is - no TPFE (Teflon).

Teflon gets burnished into the bore on the first round, and then wears off during following rounds - all the while producing different velocities and trajectories. Takes quite a few rounds to sufficiently foul and stabilize the bore.




GR

Grease will pick up carbon that regular oil fails to dislodge. I cleaned a Glock barrel using my version of Ed's Red - which is 1/3 Kerosene, 1/3 Transmission Fluid and 1/3 heavy mineral oil, then I ran a patch down it with 0W20 motor oil. Then I ran dry patches through it and they came out clean. It looked clean when I eye-balled it. I pushed a plug of grease down the barrel with a wad of tissue paper and a plunger and picked up some more carbon. My second and third passes with a wad of tissue paper to get all of the grease out of the barrel revealed more carbon.

There are several different kinds of copper anti-sieze out there.

I'm guessing that because Glock is in Austria they are probably using the German Henkle, but I could be wrong.

The MSDS for the Henkle LOCTITE C5-A is right here:

http://hybris.cms.henkel.com/henkel/msdspdf?country=US&language=EN&matnr=566703

Some of the companies that make the stuff (like VersaChem) flat out say that it's not a lubricant. It is more commonly called an anti-seize compound or anti-seize assembly compound - sometimes called anti-seize thread lubricant. It is something that you put on an assembly that enables it to be taken back apart at some future date - hence the name "anti-seize" - as in keeping a bolt from seizing up. But not the same connotation as a lubricant that keeps moving parts from seizing up. Some call it a lubricant...

So here's my opinion on the copper anti-seize.

One thing that it does better than almost any other grease its that it doesn't separate, dry out or become tacky.

So we all know that there are people who, when they buy a gun, they don't clean it, they don't lube it, they go straight to the range and start blasting away.

I think Glock puts the copper anti-seize in their Glocks to mitigate against the situation where a Glock sits for a long while - either in transport or at distributors and then in a gun shop etc... and then an owner doesn't clean or lube but just fires it. The anti-seize will provide some lubrication and protection of the metal.

IMO the copper anti-seize is for a particular application: shipping it and trying to prepare for some knucklehead who is going to basically fire it right out of the box.

But I think it's completely useless for an owner to use the stuff. There are lubricants - oil and grease out there that are much better, and if an owner has his Glock in storage for a while he can always just clean and re-lube the pistol before firing. Are there that many situations where someone doesn't ever have an opportunity to do regular maintenance on their pistol - it just sits in storage, but they might need to shoot it at a moments notice?

Well if you really truly have that situation then maybe copper anti-seize is the right substance for that application.

Really though, the stuff is targeted for a particular application - to prevent bolts & fasters from welding with the materials they're holding together and to prevent them from corroding and for enabling bolts / fasteners to be backed out at some future time.

I have not been able to find NLGI ratings for most of the copper anti-seize compounds, but at least the Versachem I purchased seemed to be thicker than the Walmart Super Tech Extreme Pressure Multi-Duty Complex Hi-Temp grease - which is NLGI #2

It's gritty compared to other gun greases or even compared to general purpose packing grease.

The copper grease that came on my Glock was fairly thick, mostly came off after the third firing / cleaning. There is some trace of it left - which resembles copper fouling - which jibes with what another anti-seize manufacturer says about their product.

I was reading the tech sheet on Jet-Lube's copper anti-seize - and it states:

"will not separate, settle out, harden, or dry out in storage"

^ This IMO may be why Glock ships their pistols with copper anti-seize in them.