New Smiths/lube

[Robert B]

Does Smith and Wesson lube internals under side plate before shipping their guns? Grease or oil lube?

 

[MrBorland]

Dunno for sure, but it seems every new one I've opened has been drier (and dirtier) than I think it ought to be. If you know what you're doing, an initial disassembly, cleaning & lubing wouldn't hurt, IMO.

 

[rbernie]

I've bought more than a handful of S&W revolvers over the last couple/three years, and they all shipped drier than a bone. I've actually made a point of taking the sideplate off and giving the insides a good grease on the bottom of the rebound slide and all pivot points, and a thin film of oil everywhere else.

 

[Robert B]

How to oil?

How can I oil the gun without taking the side plate off? It is a 640 Pro Series. Does Smith think that no lube is ok?

 

[MrBorland]

Don't tell anyone else, but the last time I lubed without removing the sideplate, I cocked the hammer, and squirted a good blob of TW-25B down into the action, then worked the action to spread it around. Not the best approach, but it did a decent job of lubing the innards without popping the sideplate.

 

[BYJO4]

You can remove the grips and spray lube into the action from the bottom and spray some at the top when hammer is pulled back. This should provide enough lubrication to take care of things.

 

[sgt127]

Truth is, most revolvers will run fine, and longer with just a tiny bit of oil on the studs and contact points. Lots of lube leads to a slurry of unburned powder and firing residue inside the gun.

The old Dallas PD method was to open up a revolver, blow all the gunk out and hose it down with silicone spray and the use compressed air to blow out the excess and leave it, for all practical purposes "dry".

 

[7mmstalker]

My experience was similar, the last one felt "gritty" in double action pull. I'm not enthused about disassembling a new revolver, but that one demanded some attention. I put some moly grease on just a couple of high friction points, light oil on every other moving part. After a couple hundred rounds I'll give it something like the treatment described by sgt127.

 

[just for fun]

This program has been working for over 30 yrs. You decide. Remove grips and cock hammer back. ANYWHERE there is an opening to the internals spray carb cleaner, follow up with compressed air. All these years I have disregarded ALL internet experts and followed this cleaning procedure with a couple shots of WD40! OH, NO!! And this was before the even was an internet.

 

[moxie]

And before anyone told you WD-40 was SO-O bad!