Gun Grease
- Thread starter waco
- Start date
Whatever I have handy?
I have simple lithium, a moly paste, and some red, tacky grease. I use them very sparingly so a pound can is like 14 lifetimes for me.
i use far more oil than grease. I buy an 8 ounce or so bottle of gun oil every 15 years or so. It mostly gets dispensed from needle oiler bottles from Brownells.
I have simple lithium, a moly paste, and some red, tacky grease. I use them very sparingly so a pound can is like 14 lifetimes for me.
i use far more oil than grease. I buy an 8 ounce or so bottle of gun oil every 15 years or so. It mostly gets dispensed from needle oiler bottles from Brownells.
358156 hp
At large, whereabouts unknown.
I generally use a mix of Mobil 1 tube grease and either Mobil 1 5W30 or Royal Purple 5W30 when I need gun grease. I use these products because I always have them around anyway. SIG seems to recommend using grease on the slide rails and I've found this does really smooth out slide travel. I seem to recall that Bill was using Mobil Aviation Grease 28 for his 1911s, and I think you'll get as many answers on grease as you would with any lubricant. It seems like we had some thread drift last year that took us down this particular rabbit hole, I'll see if I can find it again.
waco
Springfield, Oregon
General purpose.
RicinYakima
High Steppes of Eastern Washington
For grease, Lubriplate 1200-2 part # 10201, made for M1 Garand in 1938. For storage, RIG by Hoppe's if you can find it any more. For oil Ed's Red except for Mobil 1 5W20 instead of ATF because I have the bottoms of the containers from oil changes. FWIW
Maybe Ian will chime in here and refresh out memories. He mentioned earlier in a past thread about Mobil 1 having changed over the years, My 1 pound can of Mobil 1 bearing grease is easily older than the time they changed it, dunno what they are making now but I'll bet Ian does,
CZ93X62
Official forum enigma
I don't use a lot of "grease" on my war toys. The places getting high-stress/repetitious loads get RIG +P grease--pistol slide rails, Mini-14/M1A boltways and op rod pivots. RIG +P is advertised as a preventive for galling in stainless slide rail applications, and seems to have worked for that. I have never used the stuff anywhere it got really cold, so can't comment on its usage below 0* F.
Spindrift
Well-Known Member
Hunting season over here is often wet, and rust protection is an issue. I have used a mix of thin gun oil (spraycan) and chain saw lubricating oil, as it clings well without getting too sticky. Last year, I took a little rag that I saturated with lanolin. Kept it in a little plastic bag, so I could give the gun a quick wipe in the evening. Very practical.
Ian
Notorious member
Use whatever blows your skirt up.
The bottom line with oil is your guns don't need the surfacants, dispersants, pour-point depressants, over-base additives (to neutralize combustion acids), anti-oxidants (for the oil itself, at high temperature), and coiled-polymer viscosity modifiers that the vast majority of engine oils (synthetic ones included, for the most part) contain. Engine oil is engineered for temperatures your gun will never see, pressurized dynamic film lubrication your gun isn't capable of producing, flood lubrication that would't suit a firearm, a sump, and filtration. Engine oil is not designed to operate at 70 degrees, it is designed to operate at ~200 degrees. The only additives in engine oil that suit firearms are the anti-corrosion additives and EP additives which are becoming increasingly scarce as engines are produced now with fewer sliding surfaces and ever more additive-sensitive exhaust catalysts and sensors.
Straight non-detergent 30 wt conventional lawnmower oil is good. Straight, heavy, laxative mineral oil is also good. Lucas synthetic oil addtive is also good, because all it is is a group IIIA hydrocracked oil and some tackifier (polybutene) and none of the other stuff....which incidentally makes it a lousy engine oil additive because it dilutes the additive package in the balance of the oil used. I say the synthetic is what to use because it is far less sticky and viscous than the regular stuff.
Dexron III ATF is OK because it is a paraffin base and it does not build varnish. It's about an SAE 7-8 weight oil. As far as I know, there is no true "synthetic", group IV transmission fluid because all the syns are too slippery for wet clutches.
Grease. Well, that's a deep subject too. RIG grease is old but good, simple technology, akin to Alox and Cosmoline, and for the same reasons: It has a calcium soap thickener which is naturally very highly hydrophobic and it adheres well to metal. Any good marine grease, particularly boat trailer bearing grease, serves this purpose. So do many of the GP aircraft greases, even if they aren't calcium based, and you don't have to contend with calcium caking or the grease drying out.
For the most part (aside from thickeners) you have sticky grease and buttery grease and different thickness grades to choose from for your guns. Most guns don't like a sticky grease at all, so buttery is the way to go. Lithium or lithium complex is my choice, a #1 if I can get it or #2 (thicker, typical automotive and general industrial use grade) if that's what I have. In some rare instances I use a #3, sticky, EP, clay-based synthetic with organic moly EP compounds, but that is reserved for and applied sparingly to high-pressure bearing points that don't travel much like sear tips, hammer struts, and bolt lugs. Lubriplate MAG-1 is a #1 grease that is very suitable for guns. My M1A does not like #2 grease so I use a Mobillith SHC 220 which is NLGI #1.5, full-synthetic PAO base oil, and lithium thickened. It is buttery and adhesive but not sticky. My AR buffer springs also prefer a #1 or 1.5 grease as opposed to the usual #2. MAG-1 Lubriplate has a polymer additive similar to most electric motor bearing/bushing greases which is critical for ensuring an easy start from stop. Most automotive greases will sort of gel in place at rest and require some extra force to start the parts moving. At the end of the day hashing this out you'd be hard-pressed to beat the PAO clay-based Mobilgrease #28, or Aeroshell #7 (clay/ester) or Aeroshell #33 (lithium complex, PAO/ester blend), or the Mobillith SHC 220 lithium/PAO for your guns. Anything that is recommended for aircraft jackscrews is going to have all the properties, including not being too thick, that guns need. You won't have to worry about the stuff drying out, leaving the building, corroding, staining your clothes, or caking.
Hoppe's gun grease is crap. There's far better stuff than RIG. Mobil 1 bearing grease in a can is for disc brake wheel bearings, and today's not-really-synthetic version is not even very good for that. Most of the gillions of gun-specific, single-purpose products are pretty good. Engine oil, meh. Ed's Red as a cleaner, excellent (with reservations about adding lanolin, unless you live in hot, humid environments). Don't even get me started on how much I HATE CLP.
The bottom line with oil is your guns don't need the surfacants, dispersants, pour-point depressants, over-base additives (to neutralize combustion acids), anti-oxidants (for the oil itself, at high temperature), and coiled-polymer viscosity modifiers that the vast majority of engine oils (synthetic ones included, for the most part) contain. Engine oil is engineered for temperatures your gun will never see, pressurized dynamic film lubrication your gun isn't capable of producing, flood lubrication that would't suit a firearm, a sump, and filtration. Engine oil is not designed to operate at 70 degrees, it is designed to operate at ~200 degrees. The only additives in engine oil that suit firearms are the anti-corrosion additives and EP additives which are becoming increasingly scarce as engines are produced now with fewer sliding surfaces and ever more additive-sensitive exhaust catalysts and sensors.
Straight non-detergent 30 wt conventional lawnmower oil is good. Straight, heavy, laxative mineral oil is also good. Lucas synthetic oil addtive is also good, because all it is is a group IIIA hydrocracked oil and some tackifier (polybutene) and none of the other stuff....which incidentally makes it a lousy engine oil additive because it dilutes the additive package in the balance of the oil used. I say the synthetic is what to use because it is far less sticky and viscous than the regular stuff.
Dexron III ATF is OK because it is a paraffin base and it does not build varnish. It's about an SAE 7-8 weight oil. As far as I know, there is no true "synthetic", group IV transmission fluid because all the syns are too slippery for wet clutches.
Grease. Well, that's a deep subject too. RIG grease is old but good, simple technology, akin to Alox and Cosmoline, and for the same reasons: It has a calcium soap thickener which is naturally very highly hydrophobic and it adheres well to metal. Any good marine grease, particularly boat trailer bearing grease, serves this purpose. So do many of the GP aircraft greases, even if they aren't calcium based, and you don't have to contend with calcium caking or the grease drying out.
For the most part (aside from thickeners) you have sticky grease and buttery grease and different thickness grades to choose from for your guns. Most guns don't like a sticky grease at all, so buttery is the way to go. Lithium or lithium complex is my choice, a #1 if I can get it or #2 (thicker, typical automotive and general industrial use grade) if that's what I have. In some rare instances I use a #3, sticky, EP, clay-based synthetic with organic moly EP compounds, but that is reserved for and applied sparingly to high-pressure bearing points that don't travel much like sear tips, hammer struts, and bolt lugs. Lubriplate MAG-1 is a #1 grease that is very suitable for guns. My M1A does not like #2 grease so I use a Mobillith SHC 220 which is NLGI #1.5, full-synthetic PAO base oil, and lithium thickened. It is buttery and adhesive but not sticky. My AR buffer springs also prefer a #1 or 1.5 grease as opposed to the usual #2. MAG-1 Lubriplate has a polymer additive similar to most electric motor bearing/bushing greases which is critical for ensuring an easy start from stop. Most automotive greases will sort of gel in place at rest and require some extra force to start the parts moving. At the end of the day hashing this out you'd be hard-pressed to beat the PAO clay-based Mobilgrease #28, or Aeroshell #7 (clay/ester) or Aeroshell #33 (lithium complex, PAO/ester blend), or the Mobillith SHC 220 lithium/PAO for your guns. Anything that is recommended for aircraft jackscrews is going to have all the properties, including not being too thick, that guns need. You won't have to worry about the stuff drying out, leaving the building, corroding, staining your clothes, or caking.
Hoppe's gun grease is crap. There's far better stuff than RIG. Mobil 1 bearing grease in a can is for disc brake wheel bearings, and today's not-really-synthetic version is not even very good for that. Most of the gillions of gun-specific, single-purpose products are pretty good. Engine oil, meh. Ed's Red as a cleaner, excellent (with reservations about adding lanolin, unless you live in hot, humid environments). Don't even get me started on how much I HATE CLP.
RicinYakima
High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Ian, I very much appreciate you expertise but there are other considerations. Mobil 1 is used in my Hemi truck and Jeep, so it is free. It seems to work good as oil? I have a pound of Lubriplate that will last me my lifetime. But I am concerned about RIG! I live in the desert so rust prevention is not hard, but what do I use on the surface to keep fingerprints and hot breath from rusting?
Putting lanolin in Ed's Red turns it into wax on the gun here in the desert.
I hate CLP products too, as they pick up grit and allow rust even here in the desert unless you reapply every week.
Putting lanolin in Ed's Red turns it into wax on the gun here in the desert.
I hate CLP products too, as they pick up grit and allow rust even here in the desert unless you reapply every week.
RicinYakima
High Steppes of Eastern Washington
I'm using boat blue wheel bearing grease on my RCBS thru the grease zerk. That works great as I sold the boat three years ago.Oh great . . . Now I gotta buy a skirt.
CLP . . . It's what I use for the ram in the Rock Chucker.
Ian
Notorious member
Cerakote is pretty good at preventing rust without continual maintenance
A gun oil needs to just be a lubricating oil. It is better if it has anti-corrosion additives and a little bit of tackifier so it stays put and doesn't creep everywhere you don't want it. The only thing I can say about preventing rust is just keep it wiped off with oil, short of that you're asking for something an oil really can't do. Maybe there are those with much more GUN-related maintenance experience who can make a better recommendation.
Here's what I've settled on more or less permanently. I really like the convenience of the RP aerosol gun oil and have a can in every bag with a rag in a screw-top container, and a toothbrush. I don't use it in the bores.
The Armor Plate is for sears, struts, and lugs, and the Hoppes is only ever used for removing light copper fouling. The Mobil SHC 220 is for buffer springs and M1A bolts and operating rods. I do 98% of my cleaning and maintenance with ER and RP gun oil.
A gun oil needs to just be a lubricating oil. It is better if it has anti-corrosion additives and a little bit of tackifier so it stays put and doesn't creep everywhere you don't want it. The only thing I can say about preventing rust is just keep it wiped off with oil, short of that you're asking for something an oil really can't do. Maybe there are those with much more GUN-related maintenance experience who can make a better recommendation.
Here's what I've settled on more or less permanently. I really like the convenience of the RP aerosol gun oil and have a can in every bag with a rag in a screw-top container, and a toothbrush. I don't use it in the bores.
The Armor Plate is for sears, struts, and lugs, and the Hoppes is only ever used for removing light copper fouling. The Mobil SHC 220 is for buffer springs and M1A bolts and operating rods. I do 98% of my cleaning and maintenance with ER and RP gun oil.