What's the oddest thing you've used for gun lube. ,

10W40 motor oil.

I figured the antioxidant package the manufacturer puts in motor oil might work the same magic on blue steel. I still use it on the part of the barrel under the handguard on my Mini-14 and Iver Johnson 5.7mm. It's thick so a thin coating stays put and despite an unintended and unanticipated twenty years of neglect, there was no rust anywhere on either rifle.

 

Motor oil from the underside of my 710 cap when out in the middle of nowhere

 

Three and One oil, and sewing machine oil when I was a kid. It was what we had. I've used WD-40 too.

Never had a problem with any of them.

I've used "Baitmait" fish attractant on a casting reel more than once though.

 

For case lube and on rails a time or two:

 

As a kid, 14 or 15 I had hunted pheasants with my
father and his friend "Big" George for three days.
On returning to my father's gas station George
removed the forearm from his A5 Browning,tipped
it upside down and took the hose from the high test
pump and flushed it out !! He said it washed all the
seeds and chaft out and it was ready for the next
time. This was the 60's, I can't imagine someone
standing at the pump with a shotgun with gas all
over the island in this day and age !!

 

Another one for spent automotive oil, but I've also used Zepreserve which might be considered an oddball, but I'll endorse it here.

Back to the waste oil though...

One of my employees brought in an heirloom; a dandy old, I mean OLD, little single shot .22lr rifle. He's no gunny like me, just wanted me to identify it. He likely will never shoot the thing, will probably just keep it in the back of a closet forever.

It was all dusty, dirty, had rust here and there, so I told him to leave it at my office for the day for me to look at. Once he was out, I ran it into the breakroom, took it all the way apart, and scrubbed it in the sink with an SOS soap pad and hot water.

Then I put her back together and went in the back to find some oil. I had some Zepreserve, but opted for some waste automotive oil that I'd hoarded in a bucket. A little dab rubbed in and on every metal surface of that rifle, and I was satisfied that it would live out the rest of its life in the back corner of a closet.

I tried to buy it from him, but it wasn't for sale. I would've loved to shoot that thing.

I really oughta keep a full cleaning kit at my office.

 

Automatic Transmission Fluid. I've read about people using it frequently on purpose so maybe it isn't that odd. Worked fine until I got some M-Pro 7.

 

I've done that more than a few times.

 

Sewing machine oil.

 

Astroglide?

 

Watched a guy disassembe and lube an AR with something called bladder balm he said he had alwayss used it

no, just no

 

Green synthetic tractor grease.

 

I think it just went bad......

KY Jelly?
(It's also handy for CCW while in the shower.....)

 

And then it went completely off track.

I have actually used good old fashioned spit.

 

My ex used a silicone based "adult lubricant" on her S&W 9mm pistol one weekend while out camping. It worked great, go figure. The metal was still slippery, even after rubbing all the lube off with a rag.