Ar-15 lubricant grease

[Sentryau2]

Looking for some new grease for my rifle. So what do you guys use? I am currently using mil-com tw25b but I'm thinking of switching over to MP silicone 33 grease is it GTG or could I run into some problems? If not I was thinking of going with a tube of royal purple lithium grease?


TW25b is amazing stuff but its kind of expensive. (My rifle was in a house that got around 5 F and it was still lubed up fine, no change in the thickness of the oil)

 

[Zerodefect]

STP and ATF mixed.

Add some grease as a thickener until it's as thick as you'd like. My Winter mix is thinner than summer.

 

[pippin53]

I'm getting some aeroshell 33ms from a website called skygeek. No graphite, molybdenum disulfide in it, high viscosity, low seize temperature, lithium based, milspec certified.

Do I have any idea what that means, or why those are good things? Nope. But people seem to hoard it on ar sites, so I assume its a good general purpose grease. Pretty cheap, and two tubes are enough to last a lifetime, after I cut them open and scrape them into some tupperware.

 

[Welding Rod]

Not grease, but I like Break Free CLP on an AR.

When I do use grease in firearms applications where grease is more suitable than oil, I like Tetra.

 

[MistWolf]

The AR is designed to use oil. Oil inside the BCG is where it needs lubrication the most and that's a bad place for grease

 

[Onmilo]

I use Tetra gun grease mixed 50/50 with M-Pro 7 gun oil on my ARs in my location.
Works fine for me & keeps fouling soft.

Not a fan of drenching the gun in CLP but I don't shoot full auto cyclic rates either...

 

[hardluk1]

I still had some of the orginal breakfree clp that worked very well and I see the current mil-spec clp is from G96 products.

One thing I have done now for 25 years. Soak the metal parts in clp and heat them to around 200 degrees for a few hours then leave over night before wiping down. The oil will soak into the pores of metal and stays there. Then use it under normal conditions. Keep the bolt well lubed.

For the last couple years I have grown fond of Pro-Shot Zero Friction for slides and bolt lugs and any heavy wear area. Pro-gold is good to have around for pistol lugs bot action lugs, very high stressed parts. All stay useable in very cold conditions.

CLP was designed for the m16 back in nam after cleaning problems and regular oil issues came up. Still good today just not as good with the breakfree clp label.

 

[carbine85]

No need for for special lubricants. Break Free CLP works fine or just use Mobile 1 5/20.

 

[TBH]

I used to grease, but had a few jams. I use Mobil1 and CLP. I do grease the bolt cam pin.

 

[taliv]

if you live at the north or south pole, i don't know what to tell you. but for most of north america, do not use grease. use oil. i still use slip2000 EWL and haven't found anything better. however, LSA, CLP, mobil1, and nearly any other OIL will work fine.

some, like "machine gunners lube" do an amazing job of lubricating, but a totally crappy job at rust prevention. others gun products like "sheath" or "eezox" are great at rust prevention but kinda sucky at lubricating. most everything else is somewhere in the middle.

 

[dfariswheel]

More and more Match shooters are using some grease in the AR.
They apply small amounts to the rear of the locking lugs, the bolt cam pin and the cam area of the carrier, the bolt carrier rails, and the front face of the hammer.

Some are applying a heavy coat of stiff grease to the inside of the lower trigger well.
The heavy grease catches and holds debris and blown primers and prevents trigger jams.

One well known Match AR shooter did an experiment.
He greased the rifle and shot it an entire season without cleaning the action, just the bore.
All he did was apply more fresh grease as it was pushed out of the moving parts.
He said that he had no stoppages all season.

 

[atomd]

The only grease I use in an AR is a little of the stuff Geissele gives you with a trigger...and only where they specify. Oil for the rest of it.

 

[nipprdog]

So what do you guys use?

We use oil.

 

[Rule3]

Perhaps read the Owners Manual of pretty much any AR 15 make/model.

Download the PDF file of Colt or any one you want

Use a light oil (CLP) remove excess, none suggest using grease.

 

[HOOfan_1]

I'm getting some aeroshell 33ms from a website called skygeek. No graphite, molybdenum disulfide in it, high viscosity, low seize temperature, lithium based, milspec certified. Do I have any idea what that means, or why those are good things? Nope. But people seem to hoard it on ar sites, so I assume its a good general purpose grease.
.

It is used when screwing a barrel nut on to the upper receiver....never heard of using it as a GP lube

 

[Walkalong]

slip2000 EWL

Really good stuff, and I use it on ARs. Most anything will work though. Trick is to lube it with something. So many folks lube it once and then don't lube it again until they start having problems when it is all dry and gunked up. Gunked up and oily stands a good chance of working, but gunked up and dry is tough on the guns parts and will eventually choke.

I had a buddy run a .40 dry for so long I could barely get the slide off. Yea, he only brought it to me when it stopped working. Moving parts need lube.

 

[pippin53]

I was thinking about it as a general purpose grease, because of reading the swiss and how the waffenfet grease they use down their barrels, and for lubrication. People go to great lengths to get that stuff, but was mentioned on the k31 places that any good grease would work.
This stuff seems to be everything you want in a firearms grease, and not too expensive, so I felt like experimenting.

It is used when screwing a barrel nut on to the upper receiver....never heard of using it as a GP lube

 

[LeonCarr]

On the AR I use just Oil, or as some old schoolers say, Earl .

I like Mobil 1.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[Dr.Zubrato]

I hate to be that guy but I really like Froglube. It isn't perfect, but it does a pretty good job of dissolving carbon, lubing an AR, and preventing rust.
I don't believe the hype about micro pores in metals and marketing crap, but it just works, and scrubbing is minimal when I break down my AR I mostly just wipe down with a cloth and that's enough.
If I dont have the time to clean a gun, I'll apply froglube to a carbon build up area, and cycle the gun a bunch of times. When I come back in a few days the carbon usually just peels off like a scab, or it's dissolved into a tarry black paste.

Now the bad:
It will sometimes get tacky or sticky like elmers glue if you use too much, and leave it for more than 6-8 months at a time. This does not cause any problems, when it heats up or starts moving it slicks up just like fresh. In the beginning though it freaked me out.

It isn't as hardcore as grease, and if you run your gun hard, it will burn off. I don't know that this is a bad, as every oil you use or buy will eventually be blown out of, or burned away by the BCG.

Don't worry about the application process with the heat gun and what not, just apply and heat it up at the range. I did the process in the beginning, as did many people who used FL with no discernable difference. It may just be there to make you believe the micro-pore crap.
It's a dang fine product, and I trust it after lots of hard use and experience.

 

[Hacker15E]

I have a little squeeze bottle that I drain my bottles of Mobil 1 into after I change the oil in my car. If I wanted to get really sassy, I could go buy an entire quart for $7 or $8 and it would probably last me an entire lifetime of shooting ARs.

A significantly less expensive option than buying a specialized firearm grease or oil.

 

[Sapper771]

I use a modified version of "Eds Red" oil. Cheap and works great.

Also used Mobil 1 , corrosion X, frog lube, Tw25B, shooters choice red grease, CLP, Militec, SFL-0 grease, and Lubriplate. All of them worked, but oil is better than grease for ARs , IMO/IME.

 

[benEzra]

I use Tetra grease in the charging handle slots (seems to make charging a little smoother, especially when pulling it asymmetrically with the off hand), plenty of Mobil 1 everywhere else.

 

[Fishbed77]

Not grease, but I like Break Free CLP on an AR.

This.^

No need to use grease on an AR.

 

[GBExpat]

So what do you guys use?

We use oil.

There it is.

 

[Saleen322]

I have been using ATF for years. While any light oil will work on guns, some are better than others. Here is a long explanation from Grant Cunningham:

Firearms encounter intermittent high loads, interspersed with long periods of inaction. This means that the primary lubrication need isn't hydrodynamic - it's boundary. What, then, should we be looking for?

Start with a very good boundary lubrication package - that translates to lots of EP/AW additives. We need superb corrosion resistance, along with resistance to oxidation (don't want those lubricants thickening up during non-use.) We could also use some water resistance and an ability to withstand mild acid and alkali exposure (think perspiration.) Low temperature performance would be icing on the cake, and for a grease we want something that won't easily separate under load.

We need our oils to migrate. No, I don't mean to fly south for the winter! Migration is the ability of the lubricant to spread to surrounding and adjacent areas. For instance, let's say we're lubricating the shaft on which a hammer pivots; a lubricant with poor migration would just sit where we applied it, and would never get into the space between the hammer hole and the pivot. The net result would be a poorly lubed mechanism. A lube with good migration will succumb to capillary action and snake its way down into that small space, lubricating everything it comes into contact with.

Sounds like migration is just the cat's meow, right? Not really - there is such a thing as too much. The migration that is so desirable on hammers and triggers isn't really good on autopistol slides; the lubricant tends to "run off", or migrates to the holster (or your clothes.) Ever wonder why your autoloader slide goes "dry" while in the holster? Lubricant migration at work. (What, you think it disappeared into thin air?)

What about greases - do we even need them? You bet! I use the General Rule of Lubrication: oil for rotating parts, grease for sliding parts that carry a load. In firearms, grease is most appropriate for any part interaction that has a scraping (aka "shear") type of action, and will be subjected to pressure or shock. What kinds of parts are we talking about? Slide rails, bolt carriers, and sears - especially double-action sears. (An example of a sliding part that should not be greased is the trigger bow of the 1911 pistol - it carries virtually no load, and is subject to almost no stress; it also is under very light tension, so little that a thickened lubricant could reduce its free movement.)

So what should you use:

Let's be clear: there are no "new", "revolutionary" lubricant products made for firearms. That's a flat statement, and it's intended to be. All of the lubricants, bases, and additives of suitable use are already well known to the lubricant industry. Specific combinations might be unique, but it's all been tried before - if not necessarily on guns.

Cut to the chase! What should I use?
Let's start with oil. Most people use oils that are way too heavy; thicker is not better! Use a relatively thin oil with the correct properties, and use it very sparingly - most "oil failures" I've seen have been from too much, rather than too little, oil.

Frankly, in terms of mechanical performance, most oils "work"; some are better than others, but everything will make parts move for a while. The weakest area of most oils is in corrosion resistance - and on a gun, corrosion is a bad thing! There have been lots of claims, but those people who have actually taken the time to run experiments to test corrosion on steel have found that the products with the greatest hype are often the worst at corrosion resistance. Not surprisingly, plain mineral oils, such as Rem Oil, score at the very bottom of the list.

If you’re of the persuasion that wants better than a plain mineral oil but still wants cheap and easy availability, there is one product that does pretty well in corrosion resistance (not great, but better than average.) It also has good migration, a fair boundary lubrication package, is the right weight (thickness) for general firearms use, doesn't oxidize over long periods of storage, and is compatible with a wide range of metals and plastics. In addition, it is recommended by at least one real degreed firearms engineer! Just what is this miracle elixir??

Dexron-type Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF). That's right, plain ol' ATF. The kind you get at every gas station, auto parts store, and even most convenience stores. Synthetic or regular, either will work just fine. ATF is not perfect, however; aside from the aforementioned deficiencies, it does have a slight odor to it, the red dye used to differentiate it from motor oil will stain, and it’s not non-toxic. (If you find those attributes objectionable, a decent alternative that is still readily available is "NyOil." Check your local auto parts store, in the aisle where they keep the miscellaneous lubricants and additives.)