Lubricating My AR

Status
Not open for further replies.
A properly-built AR-15 will run for a very, very long time when lubed with 2 drops of CLP/FP-10 on the gas rings, 2 drops on the cam pin, and 1/2 drop per "corner" of the bolt carrier group.
 
+1 Zak.

For the OP, FWIW, I also have an M&P15, which usually gets well cleaned between 200 round shooting sessions. I generally lube bolt and carrier very lightly with CLP before reassembling; the rifle has never had a stoppage.
 
If the gun is new stick to oil. I tried grease on a new gun and it slowed the bolt down. I cleaned the grease and applied oil, it then ran fine.
Grease may work fine on a gun that is well broken in. I now stick to oil.
 
I picked up a quart of so of MIL-L 46000 (GI CLP) and slop it on the BCG with abandon. Runs great, never a problem, and it really makes it easier to clean than if run drier or with some of my exotic/esoteric lubes. K.I.S.S. :cool:
 
one word GUNSLICK costs about a buck, you can get it at walmart, if you shoot autos, use gunslick, its a graphite suspension (kinda like a lil grease) oil heats up, throws off and burns off quick with autos, this slows the slide, leads to fire stoppages. gunslick sticks to the surfaces better, keeps the actions moving. a little dab will do ya, a tube will last many months. now,,its kinda messy, and should be cleaned off and reapplied after each range day, but you clean your weapon anyways. also for new guns it helps parts hone together instead of gaul. rem-oil with teflon on other moving parts, over time it seems the micro teflon builds up in the pores (especially in stainless weapons) and smooths things out nicely. try it, you'll like it
 
A friend of mine has a gun range where he rents out guns to shoot. The AR's he rents have several thousand rounds through them and he swears he does not clean anything until a malfunction....He takes the gun back after firing and uses Break Free clp (sometimes). I asked him when the last time he cleaned his AR's and he said, "He hadn't"! Yes I know shock and disbelief. Nevertheless I am using Break Free clp even though I clean my guns after going to the range. Have not noticed wearing of parts or drying out of lube. P.S. Don't shoot me I just passing it along!....P.S. talked to Larry the gunsmith/range/ccp/guru of these parts and asked him about the drying out part of break free and he said yes it does but it leaves a thin film of Teflon!!! Well I grabbed my can and sure enough it said thar be PTFE!!!!!!Ok all you desert dwellers go for it!!! wondered why my guns were not showing ware?? That's all I use but I ain't no expert only because I saw the abuse Larry's guns take and if that stuff works for him under those circumstances then it ought to be good enough for me the casual, usually clean my guns plinker/varmint terminator hero of the night hunt (in my mind anyway) blind old guy.....
 
Last edited:
one word GUNSLICK costs about a buck, you can get it at walmart, if you shoot autos, use gunslick, its a graphite suspension (kinda like a lil grease) oil heats up, throws off and burns off quick with autos, this slows the slide, leads to fire stoppages. gunslick sticks to the surfaces better, keeps the actions moving. a little dab will do ya, a tube will last many months. now,,its kinda messy, and should be cleaned off and reapplied after each range day, but you clean your weapon anyways. also for new guns it helps parts hone together instead of gaul. rem-oil with teflon on other moving parts, over time it seems the micro teflon builds up in the pores (especially in stainless weapons) and smooths things out nicely. try it, you'll like it
Don't ever use graphite based lubricants on an AR, though. Graphite promotes corrosion on aluminum in a humid environment, which is why graphite lubes are typically banned from aircraft use. The AR's receiver is made from aircraft-grade aluminum, so graphite is a no-no there as well.

A friend of mine has a gun range where he rents out guns to shoot. The AR's he rents have several thousand rounds through them and he swears he does not clean anything until a malfunction....He takes the gun back after firing and uses Break Free clp (sometimes). I asked him when the last time he cleaned his AR's and he said, "He hadn't"! Yes I know shock and disbelief. Nevertheless I am using Break Free clp even though I clean my guns after going to the range. Have not noticed wearing of parts or drying out of lube. P.S. Don't shoot me I just passing it along!
Sky, this is actually not all that surprising. Larry Vickers has pointed out that AR's aren't particularly bothered by carbon fouling as long as they are kept well lubricated. They can run dirty and wet, but not dirty and dry.

http://vickerstactical.com/tactical-tips/weapon-lubrication/

Any good lubricant will have a similar effect to CLP in this regard.
 
At the very minimum the gas rings like to be wet

Where to do people come up with this?

Oil on the gas rings???

Next time you go to the range, put whatever oil you think is required on the gas rings.

Fire a magazine.

Remove the bolt, and tell us how much oil is still on those gas rings.

Do you have any idea how hot those rings get?

Moreover, those rings are exposed to a tremendous amount of gas pressure.

Whatever lube is not BURNED off those rings within a few shots, will certainly be blasted off them by gas pressure.
 
hahahaheheheh Great if I ever shoot and not clean I won't feel guilty..Good point about the gas rings I was told wipe off the carbon if present and line the ring openings 120 degrees apart. Should be good to go?
 
Look, I am about as meticulous as any person on this planet when it comes to cleaning my guns.

I shoot AR's in competition, and I do everything within my power to make sure the gun does not go down in the middle of a match. I'm getting too old to waste a whole day of what's left of my life with a gun that fails because I failed to prevent it from failing.

When I clean my AR - that is, when I clean it like I really mean it - I take the bolt/carrier completely apart. The extractor is removed each time. I do NOT remove the ejector.

First I wipe-off everything that has crud on it.
Paper towels are great.

Next, I use a utility knife to scrape the carbon off the azz-end of the bolt. Some folks call it the "tail" of the bolt. Whatever. Any old scraping tool will do - even your granpa's pocket knife.

Next, I use a thin-tipped flat-tip screwdriver to dig the carbon out of the bolt carrier. You do NOT need one of those fancy, expensive tools from the fancy-expensive tools catalog. Just dig at it with the screwdriver from the dollar bin until you get most of the carbon out. (I'll even admit to having one of the fancy-expensive tools - and I think it sucks. The screwdriver does a way better job, and is faster.)

Next, I blast aerosol CLP through the gas key, so it fills up the carrier with foam. I use a paper towel wrapped around a chamber brush to swab the excess CLP out of the carrier.

Next, I give the bolt a similar treatment. Blast CLP into the firing pin channel until it makes a big mess, and then wipe it down with CLP. Blow compressed air (I use a canned keyboard duster) into the firing pin channel to remove excess CLP there. If you are real anal, you can even use Q-Tip swabs to clear out the channel even more. The Q-Tip trick requires a lot of finesse, so be prepared to figure out how to get a stuck Q-Tip out of the channel when that happens.

Make sure the boltface is wiped as clean as you can get it, and wipe each bolt lug to get any brass shavings or carbon off the lugs.

Wipe your cam pin, firing pin, extractor, and extractor pin with a paper towel soaked in CLP. You should have plenty of CLP-soaked paper towels already by now.

Reassemble the bolt/carrier assembly.

I won't get into details of cleaning the bore during this rant.
But, you need to also make sure the locking lugs on the barrel extension are as clean as the lugs on your bolt.

Everything is going to have a fine coat of CLP on it now.
INCLUDING THE GAS RINGS.

The gas rings will have lube on them merely as a consequence of you hosing CLP everywhere. The lube certainly won't hurt the gas rings. But, I don't believe for a second that the rings themselves require -or benefit from - lubrication. The rings get too hot, and they are under too much pressure during firing, for ANY lube to stay on them. With all due respect to the esteemed, and highly-qualified Mr. Rogers, it is truly everything EXCEPT THE GAS RINGS in the bolt/carrier assembly that requires lubrication.

If you doubt any of this, clean and lubricate your rifle as I have suggested. Then fire a magazine. Take the bolt/carrier out of the gun and inspect it. Everything will have lube on it except the gas rings, the azz-end of the bolt ("the tail") and the bottom-inside area of the carrier. The heat and gas pressure will have vaporized all the lubrication at those spots.

Some will ask, "What about the manual, that says put oil in the holes on the carrier?... Isn't that putting oil on the gas rings???"

No.
As a matter of fact it is not.

Pick up your rifle.
Look down into those holes.
Do you see anything?

You should see only darkness.

Now, retract your charging handle slowly.
You will see the gas rings pass by the holes.

OK.
So does putting oil in those holes lubricate the gas rings?

Of course it does!
And it lubricates everything else in there.
Most especially the oil travels in ALL directions, and very importantly, the oil travels in the direction of the cam pin and the locking lugs of the bolt.
When the rifle is fired, any oil that has migrated in the direction of the gas rings will be blown FORWARD - in the direction of the cam pin and bolt locking lugs.
Any oil that actually accumulates on the rings will be burned off almost instantly.

If you are still reading at this point, you may be asking, "Why does the COLT manual not say anything about putting oil on the locking lugs of the bolt?" That is a fair question indeed, and one that I have pondered. I suspect - and I am speculating here - that the reason COLT does not specifically direct the user to put oil on the bolt locking lugs, is because some percentage of the users would HOSE-DOWN the bolt lugs, and allow copious amounts of lube to enter the rifle chamber. I hope I don't need to tell anybody here that a whole bunch of oil in a rifle chamber is a really bad idea.

So, by regularly squirting oil in the holes in the bolt carrier, the oil MIGRATES to where it is most needed - which is everywhere FORWARD of the gas rings.

You will notice too, if you click the link in my prior post, and you look at the entire COLT manual, there is sparse direction about how to clean the gun. There certainly is no mention of drowning parts in CLP, or spraying parts with compressed air.

You can clean your own gun however you want. I'm sure some folks actually use Vagisil (with all due respect to Mr. Rogers' article) just for grins. There is for sure more than one way to skin a cat, or to clean an AR. What I have posted is simply how I do it. I hope it gives you something to think about, and I hope something I have said will be helpful to you.

It puts the lotion on...
 
On the question about spacing the gaps in the gas rings, I'll answer by suggesting this:

Next time you go to the range with your AR, line up the gaps on the gas rings so they are all at the same spot, so as to MAXIMIZE blow-by of gas.

Let us know the result.

I already know the answer... but I want you to try it for yourself so you can find out.

I promise you it is safe to do this, and hopefully none of the targets will attack you or steal your lunch while you are performing this experiment.
 
Some will ask, "What about the manual, that says put oil in the holes on the carrier?... Isn't that putting oil on the gas rings???"

No.
As a matter of fact it is not.

Then what is that little flash of silver underneath those holes in this picture of an AR15 bolt carrier? Note that the bolt is extended in the unlocked position in that picture. If we assume that the bolt is in the locked position, then the gas rings will be right underneath the gas key.

So it seems like item #4 is pretty much saying "Put lube on the gas rings" - unless you are suggesting that lube inside the gas key serves some useful purpose besides channeling the lube right to the gas rings?

Another important thing to remember in your cleaning regimen is that while it doesn't take much (if any) cleaning to keep an AR running, you do need to clean any firearm that is going to be in storage for a long period of time. Even Pat Rogers mentions that one of his rifles that had been run without cleaning for months had some issues once it was taken out of the shooting rotation for a few months and just sat there.
 
i clean my ARs just like WEG, except I don't unassemble anything, or do any wiping and especially no scraping.

and instead of soaking paper towels in CLP, i just buy one of the slip2k squirt bottles and put a couple squirts of lube on the bolt if it looks less than wet.
 
So it seems like item #4 is pretty much saying "Put lube on the gas rings" - unless you are suggesting that lube inside the gas key serves some useful purpose besides channeling the lube right to the gas rings?

The purpose of me blasting CLP into the gas key is only to force rust-preventative into the areas that have the most carbon. It is definitely NOT for the purpose of providing lubrication to the gas rings.

Otherwise, maybe we are just debating semantics.

But, did you read my post, where I talked about where the oil that goes in those holes on the side of the bolt carrier NEEDS to go - versus the indisputable fact that some of it surely ends up on the gas rings?

I'm adamant that the rings do NOT require lubrication.

Any lubrication that gets on the rings is BURNED OFF after just a few shots.

I feel like I'm just repeating myself at this point.
You either get, or you don't.

...or you just simply disagree
 
Well, I understand your point and I don't necessarily disagree. I suppose I just look at it from the standpoint of "This is what I've been doing and it works" - whether it works because the lubrication goes from the gas rings to where it needs to go or because the gas rings need lube, I couldn't tell you; but typically follow the pattern Zak mentioned except I also put a drop on the ring around the bolt. Whether or not the gas rings NEED the lube, putting lube there seems to work.

I don't scrape any carbon anywhere. If it doesn't come off with some 725 degreaser and a t-shirt, then I don't worry about it (and actually I don't really use 725 but once in a blue moon, I usually just use SLIP 2000 or whatever CLP I have).
 
This would be easy to test. Lube the gas rings, shoot 5 shots (or whatever #), disassemble the gun and see if they are still wet with oil. Repeat with more shots or reduce the # of shots if necessary until you get an answer.

I'll probably test this next range trip, but I'm sure 10 of you will be dragging your AR's to the range before I next do so.

Oh, I don't do any carbon scraping. Since I clean every couple 100 rounds, which we've established is more often than needed, I never get a buildup. What little buildup I might see comes off easily with Hoppes Elite or Mirachem gun cleaner (both terrific carbon removers).
 
Pretty sure my gas rings stay lubed.

Usually have a nice film of oily slick goo in my piston chamber. The black carbon in there just adds to the lube.

Never had a failure with any of my rifles. Try a thicker lube and more of it. Shoot, you could take your carrier apart drop each part in a bucket of engine oil, shake each part twice and reassemble.

It's just oil, not sand or Aids or anything.
 
60 shots through the AR today.

Entire bolt was DROWNED in CLP before shooting.
Excess was blotted off.

At the end of the match, the bolt lugs were still damp from CLP.
Tail of the bolt, and gas rings, were dry as a bone.

Here are the rings after 60 shots.
(dry as a bone)
drybolt.jpg

Here is a paper towel on which I wiped the gas ring area, and tail of the bolt, when I removed
the bolt from the carrier.
(carbon only - otherwise dry as a bone)
carbon.jpg

Here is the carbon I scraped off the tail of the bolt and from the inside of the carrier.
(firing pin retaining pin for scale)
carbon2.jpg
 
The above stated 120 degree spacing on the rings as mentioned earlier is just a nice starting point before the gun goes back together..Also if they get in a habit of checking the rings they usually will not go 10,000 rounds with no attention all carboned up....Although I honestly believe I know a few who have???? This ain't your Daddy's AR...For non-chrome lined barrels it is probably a good idea to swab or snake the barrel due to certain chemicals in certain powders(vague enough) that can lead to pitting for a gun that isn't shot that much...The guns that get five hundred rounds a day through them prolly are self cleaning the powder build up in their barrels or at least rearranging it?? Now all this is just hear say and speculation but kinda makes you go "Hummmmm".
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top