While talking to a gentleman who has been around guns a lot longer than myself, he was saying he uses a light dab of wheel bearing grease on the slides of semi auto pistol. Has anyone heard or dune this. Seems it could take the heat, but not sure how it would last.

I've heard of people using grease on semi-auto slide rails, but I don't know about wheel bearing grease, specifically. Not a car guy, but would that include white lithium grease? I've heard of that being used on guns.

Old saying: "If it slides, GREASE it. If it rotates, OIL it!"

I have heard of it. I have also heard of people packing the mechanism of revolvers with wheel bearing grease. Doesn't mean it's smart. Wheel bearing grease is IMHO more than a little bit too heavy for that use.

Moly grease is great for slide rails and a tube should last decades.

I'm probably a bigger fan of grease than most here. Lots of gun folks still stick with WD40, 3-in-1, and CLP over all else.

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Psalm 27:2

I use grease on gun slides, especially in our 100 degree summer matches, but I've learned guns need a light grease that operates reliably and does not load up with firing residue. I'm convinced you can get by with warm cat **** as lube for a shooting session, but a gun lube that protects against corrosion and keeps working when the gun gets dirty in a long match is more predictable and reliable.
BROWNELLS ACTION LUBE PLUS(R) | Brownells

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Science plus Art

Grease slows down moving parts.

I don't want to slow down moving parts.

I use light/medium oil.

(A bolt action can use grease).


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So very Politically Incorrect

Automotive grease sucks up any dirt and residue.... good way to lock a gun up in my opinion.....

YES, I have and do use Moly on my revolver internals. That said, IMO, it is important to fully "wipe" the Moly off. STOP, please do NOT misinterpret... The mere "wiping" does not actually remove all of the Moly... just the "extra" amount that could cause issues in the future. That itsi bitsi amount of Moly left still works wonders.

All said and done, I do not really consider Moly such an evil creature. Just my $0.02...

FWIW, I prefer oil. If you want to use grease, I'd suggest using one made for guns, as others have suggested.

CMD is the best I've found for firearms use.

CMD Lube & Oil – Chicago Manufacturing & Distribution Co., Inc.

OK, to each their own... Very much was learned in the proverbial "Dark Ages" without Internet, newspapers, telegraph, "Da-Pony Express...,

SO... I take a much more relaxed approach to this and,... who knows, something else may actually come up as an actual better/best solution... NEVER guaranteed, but who knows...?

I use grease where I can but I prefer to use the clear odorless Synco synthetic super grease. You can get a 3oz tube of it at Harbor Freight for around $7 and it will last you several years even if you shoot a lot.

I'm not sure what the point of your post was.

I only suggested gun grease because it'll probably be less risky than just getting any grease from an auto parts store. Could auto grease work? Sure, if you get the right one. Or you could just get a gun-specific grease and take the guesswork out.

Either way, the important thing is to just use a good lube, whether it's oil or grease, boutique gun lube or something from an auto parts store.

I wonder what the Chinese put in that....ground up bat guts ?

These days the question of which is best is a non-starter. In the old days it was important to be sure you wren't using some 'snake oil' garbage.

In today's hi tech world with instant research and communication ability, you can waste a lot of money and time experimenting to find the best, but hardly find a lick of difference between them. You'd have to search long and hard to find a popular product that is actually no good.

I go by two rules of thumb:

1. I use a product developed for my specific purpose - firearms. Gun products meet specific firearms design requirements: acidity, correct flow rate, weight (thickness), penetration, coating ability, etc.
Sure there's many great auto and other application products made today that will work, but no "magic pills".

2. I choose synthetics. Why? Most don't realize that the main difference and advantage of synthetics is its molecular size consistency. Natural products have little molecular size consistency; the molecule size is completely random in nature from tiny to huge.

Synthetic molecules are all exactly the same size; they can be made small, medium or large, the correct size for each and every task depending on the specific application required. That's the main reason for their superior coating, penetrating, adherence, etc., abilities.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

When I carried a 1911, I did indeed use pro-gold gun grease on the slide rails and locking lugs. The reason was that 1911s need serious lube to function, and I didn't want CLP running out on dress shirts and suit pants.

But if I wanted to shoot that gun, I'd clean out the grease and oil it.

Now that I pack a M&P9 I just put a small drop of CLP on each point.


The old "if it slides . . . " is myth. Sure, Lubriplate will grease up the bolt carrier group on your AR. but that grease will trap residue and turn into gray paste.

If Stoner and Sullivan wanted you to put grease on their gun, they'd have said so.

There are many good gun oils and lubes out there. Myself ? For the internals on a revolver (after a thorough cleaning) I use an automotive grade, full synthetic, high heat wheel bearing grease. Any trusted brand is fine, e.g. Mobil, Castrol, Valvoline, etc.

Also, would not hurt if just a light swipe on the slide rails of a semi automatic but I found the SuperLube Teflon Paste (in a sliver tube) much more user friendly and effective. I've been using it for semi-automatic lube (very light application) for over 25 years.

Helps to lubricate slide and internals with little or no adhesive qualities like a normal grease would pick up grit and burnt powder the Teflon lube doesn't seem to collect grit / dirt.

See: https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-vnqb...=2&imbypass=on

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ANTIQUESMITHS
LM1300 SWHF425

Grease is fine if you aren't shooting in temps below 40°. Tetra Gun Grease will seize a 1911 slide in cold temps. Probably the reason the military doesn't use grease on their small arms. CPL is military grade lube and is more like oil than anything else.

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That's just somebody talkin.

I use white lithium grease, but it is just the finest smear. I guess wheel bearing grease would work in a pinch, but I think it is a bit thick for firearms.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

I still have a couple tubes of Otters Gunslick grease and also a couple tin cans of 3in1 oil. I’m not saying it’s the best or that you should use it, the stuff is at least 55 years old but it does seem to work fine.

^^^^^^^^^
This
However, I do like and often use Mobil 1 for lubing guns.

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213th FBINA

I prefer oil as well - except when the Factory or Manual specifically reco's Grease. That said, Wheel Bearing Grease is mighty thick - in fact too thick IMO for Pistols. If you use grease at all - I'd stick to one such as RIG +P Grease which is specifically made for Pistols & is way less thick. Just my opinion and YMMV. Sometimes people use products not specifically made for their use and sometimes products are made for specific uses and are a little different that other general purpose products. Me - I like to use products made for what I am using them for. OK - yea I may be getting hosed a little on the price but it makes me feel better knowing that I am doing what the manufacturer recommends in the manual.

Perfect example:

Many use Brake Cleaner as a substitute for "Gun-scrubber". Some say it's the same and some say not - I personally do not know but would say it's similar but could contain slightly different chemicals - who knows! I DO use the real Gun-scrubber when ever I need to deep clean a gun and Brake Cleaner for my vehicles - but since they are both a rare occurrence the difference in the price is a non issue. I just use the right stuff and sleep better.

I'd rather see grease used as gun lube as WD-40 which is a water displacement that causes dry rot in stocks & turns into gook. I can't recall the number of guns brought into my shop that were boogered up w/ WD-40. There are plenty of good lubes for guns, use them. By the way plain old gun oil has worked for over 100 years...

I once read all 27 or so pages of the cleaner/lube wars in another forum focused on 1911s. (Hey, that conference call was VERY boring and read is an overstatement, I skimmed and only truly read what caught my attention).

My summary:
1. Lots of anything is bad. Use your products sparingly.
2. Are you cleaning and lubing regularly? Congrats, you've doing what you are supposed to. We are now chasing that last 2-3% of enhanced performance.
3. Special conditions (seaside in particular) require special care. I don't experience those, so I did not try to pick up that info.
4. There exists a perfect lube, but there does not exist a perfect way to test for it.
5. WD-40 is not a lube. Might be useful for cleaning, but then you need to use a lube.

Myself, I keep it simple, no grease or specialty oils. I like the idea of grease for rails, but I like the reality of simplicity more. I use Ballistol 90% of the time and then Hoppe's 9 and Hoppe's oil the other 10% or whenever I just want the classic smell. I clean every time I shoot, not because its required, but because I like the process.

the only grease I use is what is specc'd by colt, Aeroshell, and only where its spec'd, in barrel and ejector installation. Grease attracts filth the same way a toddler does.

I believe we are talking 2 different kinds of wheel bearing grease in the different replies? One is the moly which is quite a bit lighter, the other is thick and sticky and will stand up an inch if you put your finger in it!

Ed

I just use LSA55 light USG weapons oil. It has been tested enough

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

I honestly don’t understand the extent of the debate about gun lubrication. Why some people think WD40 is the worst, or RemOil is the best, or.... or use grease or oil. I shoot shotguns, AR’s, revolvers, 1911’s(sparsely lubed), Glocks,...and have used WD40, RemOil, Hornady Oneshot, 3in1, Ballistol, Hopes, Whatever I happened to have, but never grease. I have never had a lubrication based malfunction or mechanism failure. I think all the mainstream products will do the trick.

Well except for WD-40, I'm with ya.

However, until some have a bad experience with WD-40 they may not be believers that it's a poor gun product.

The problems with it:

It dries to a shellac like coating that actually gums up firearms. It's a good temporary penetrant, that's all, especially for rust, displacing water in electrical situations, or if a gun takes a dunking.

Many gunsmiths actually have to charge extra to clean a gun that has had WD-40 used on it to get it all off.

It has deactivated primers and has almost cost some law enforcement their lives.

It's a poor permanent lubricant especially for guns.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

I don’t question your experience, but I’ve never had a problem of any sort with WD-40 in the 45+ years I’ve been using it...

I guess any product can cause a problem if it’s not used correctly? ...like on primers...?

Sentury Solutions provides products that ended my search long term storage in vehicles, dust, wet, frost, the use they have topped all I have tried and that is a lot. Just follow the directions and you can't go wrong.

When is someone gonna discuss EEZOX,, ??

The dead primers from WD-40 or a penetrating fluid may be an old shooters tale.

The famed "Box 'O "Truth did a test where they put drops on various liquid gun products on primed cases, including WD-40 and Kroil, and let it soak months.
No primer failed to pop.......

The Box O' Truth #39 - Oil Vs. Primers - The Box O' Truth

The problem with the Box O' Truth testing and why it gave a false negative with WD40, and perhaps some of the other products tested.

It's a classic case of amateur testing and why we should not believe everything we read.

And here's a classic example of what Box O' Truth did wrong:

I'll be brief. There was an airline disaster because the prop on one engine went to the "feathering" or "flat" position when its engine malfunctioned which is supposed to be a safe position. One in which the plane can continue to fly and land safely. But it didn't; the engine self destructed throwing shrapnel thru the fuselage, control cables, and hydraulic lines. Everyone aboard died in the inevitable plane crash that ensued.

An exact same engine and prop were tested at an FFA facility using exact parameters, wind speed, rain water, throttle opening to the engine, etc.

The engine would not fail. The only cause they could imagine for the crash was pilot error. The head investigative engineer would not accept tests as valid unless the prop and engine was tested in actual flight! This was done with two volunteer test pilots. Again like on the plane that crashed, the prop began to fail contrary to design and the tests on the ground! A second crash was avoided due to precautions taken because of the anticipated prop failure occurring again.

The lesson is tests are not valid unless performed under actual use conditions. The cartridges standing nose down during the entire length of the test and only changed in position very briefly when loaded and fired is not actual field conditions! At no time except very briefly was gravity allowed to work on the WD-40 in a different direction. Only under actual conditions with ammo loaded in a gun and the gun changing positions from holster, to pointing down range, to lying on a bench, etc., with the subsequent changing directions of gravitational force, could a test for primer failure even be close to valid.

The truest statement of the Box O' Truth write up is this: "There is no need to court disaster."

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Jim
S&WCA #819

I am not a top competitor but coached steel pistol for teenagers. Glock and Smith sent real competitors to guest coach our teens, these were top guys who got paid to shoot. They nearly all had the names of gun lubricants on their shirts (they looked like NASCAR cars with all the sponsors names.) They mostly lubed their slides with synthetic motor oil. The urban legend was that "synthetic motor oil is designed for high temperatures" so it will be great on our guns - they get hot! As I said I am not a top competitor - those guys all shoot better than me! I have designed hot moving parts for aircraft and locomotive applications for many decades. Here are some lubrication truths: 1) Noone in the synthetic motor oil industry tested their products on gun slides, they were designing auto lubricants that could be cranked out cheaply that would not fail too much in cars. 2) "Fail too much" meant fail more than the other companies' products. The oil companies all scream about how high their quality is, but when a car has a lubrication failure the owner is always blamed. As long as their oil doesn't get a lot worse than the other brands they are safe. 3) Those great shooters would not use it if it didn't work well. So by some lucky chance the synthetic motor oil was obviously effective for guns in speed competition. Although these great shooters were not oil experts they were also not dumb. They found something that worked.

My take-away from that is "don't doubt the guy who shoots a lot." If he says a certain lube works for him (or her, there were plenty of females) then I believe it, even if there is no hard science. The person who shoots thousands of practice rounds a year is going to learn something.

I use wheel bearing grease in a few applications.
On SxS and O/U, it works well on the hinge pins, the action knuckle and the forend shoe. I also use a tiny amt on the forend latch

Not over applied so it squishes out all over the place. Just use what is needed and realize that it needs to be cleaned off and re-applied every so often.
Depends on how much shooting you do and in what environment.

I'll use it on some internal mechanisms and yes those auto pistol slide rails as well. All with the same light application and knowing that guns need to be re-cleaned and lubed every so often.

I use a light amt on stock bolt screw threads so they don't seize up or cross thread. Also the stock bolt screws on bolt actions get a small amt on the threads before assembly for the same reason.
I'm sure there's some specialty lube just for that purpose just like there is for everything else.
But HS grease works fine.

Quite a few of my old customers like Mobil 1 as a lube for their vintage and modern high dollar shotguns.

Hondo44....

You seem to be very aware of the difference between amateur testing and "Real World" testing.
A prime example are the various rust tests that turn up from time to time.
Even when done under near-laboratory conditions the results vary so wildly as to be almost useless.

How about you or someone else here volunteering to do a Real World test of various products on primers.
I'd tackle it but I'm not currently set up for something like this.
It would be interesting to see what actually happens.

As for grease on guns, there are the hazards listed above, but there's one place where grease excels, and that's in a carry gun that doesn't get shot much.
Liquid lubricants tend to dry out, run off, or evaporate, leaving a gun dry.
Grease stays right where you put it and never goes away.

In a carry gun that's a big benefit because even when worn or in another ready condition it will be ready to operate correctly even if left unserviced for years.

For many years I used Synco Super Lube synthetic lubricants with Teflon.
They offer a standard grease and an oil that's a thick oil/thin grease consistency.
I've opened up revolvers I serviced for customers as much as 10 years prior and found the Super Lube still in place and still working.
If you don't want to use a grease the Super Lube oil is almost as good and also never disappears.

I bought the grease in cans and the oil in 4 ounce bottles direct from Synco.

Where stainless on stainless will gall mobil syn.wheel bearing grease will prevent that.I put it on after cleaning with a qtip not a putty knife.

yes, high temp wheel bearing grease

WD40 is not a lubricant...

"WD-40 isn't actually a true lubricant. WD stands for "water displacing" and its main use is as a solvent or rust dissolver. The lubricant-like properties of WD-40 come not from the substance itself, but from dissolving components. ... WD-40 can be a good substance to start with — it can help clean up rust or other grime."

FWIW:
Slide-Glide Firearm Lubricant & Gun Grease from Brian Enos


But IMHO: There may be greases/lubricants marketed for guns but I doubt they are any different than any other lubricants. Guns really don't call for any fancy lubrication.
I imagine that my fishing reel needs better lubrication than my 1911.

I have nothing against grease and use it for certain applications.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, however at 74 my time is too short to be testing unless it's a new load. Besides I'd be nothing more than another amateur. I'd rather be gunsmithing, shooting, and reloading in that order; somethings I know how to do.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

I use 3 in1 for oil and white lithium grease where grease is needed. Heck I've used VASOLINE on the trunions of my under & over shotguns with great success. 99% of all products will work in moderation.
Back when I taught CWP classes I even lubed some non functioning handguns with oil from the dipstick in my truck.

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S&W Accumulator

This topic came up on the 1911 Forum. Several said Springfield Armory recommends Full Synthetic 5-W20 motor oil for the slide and frame and nothing else. I have been using it now for several months with good results. One quart will last a lifetime. When a company recommends something they don't sell, I tend to believe them.

I'll agree. I've used whatever grease I had handy or handgun slides and shotgun trunnions myself.

I find the 0W-30 is far superior to the 5-W20,,

The "W to the left" of the dash oil is more lubricating than the "W to the right" oil.

` ~ `

I use whatever is left in the 5 quart jug, after the Silverado gets an oil change,,,

My 1911 has been perfect for 30 years,, with this oil, and it is a Springfield Armory,,
I bought the 1911 used, so I did not get a manual,, Hmmmmm,, the oil choice was a "lucky guess",,?

I tried nice synthetic grease on a slide once, and just from working the slide I could feel how much resistance it added.

I cleaned it out and used Tetra gun grease instead. It's a bit of a pain to work with, but I like it.

Years ago I had a bad experience with a stainless 1911 and galling issues. I'm paranoid about it. I use this stuff...and a bunch of their other products.

Extreme Lube 1/3 Ounce Syringe – Gunwerkz

I guess I was mistaken. I thought this was a "what is the best be[a]er" thread." Really, folks, lubricate a tiny bit, clean after shooting, repeat. The biggest detriment to function is the accumulation of shooting debris. Make it go away. This is not rocket science, it is gun science.

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Some collect art; I shoot it!