Sticky Uncle Mike's

Jcon72

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Has anyone else had trouble with the Uncle Mike's J-frame combats developing a sticky residue? A gun that I bought came with a set of the 57009 Craig Spegel combats (from the early 90's, probably) and it has a tacky residue on the surface, almost like an extremely heavy grease. I have tried liquid hand soap, vinegar and Zep degreaser but none of them seem to quite clean it off completely. I'm afraid to use anything more harsh like brake cleaner for fear of damaging them.
What to do?
 
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I know what your are talking about. I have the original pair of RB J frame UM combats on my 60-4 that I carried pretty consistently, when I used to do a lot of canoeing. I think it is a deterioration of the rubber compound.
 
Try Hoppe’s Number 9 solvent on a cotton cloth. Apply liberally. Let it sit for 1-2 minutes then wipe it off. What doesn’t wipe off will eventually evaporate. This has worked well for me on several pair of Uncle Mikes grips in recent years.
 
Try Hoppe’s Number 9 solvent on a cotton cloth. Apply liberally. Let it sit for 1-2 minutes then wipe it off. What doesn’t wipe off will eventually evaporate. This has worked well for me on several pair of Uncle Mikes grips in recent years.


Thank you, I'll have to give that a try.
 
The thing is, this stuff is very similar to adhesive residue and can be smeared if some effort is applied. I'm with target tech; it seems to be a deterioration of the grip but the Hoppe's #9 idea will be an interesting idea to try.
 
Yes I have and unfortunately, that means that the material the grips are made of is starting to break down and deteriorate. The suggestions above about cleaning the sticky gooey stuff off is only a temporary fix and the grips are at the end of their life.

The answer is to get a new pair.
 
Yes I have and unfortunately, that means that the material the grips are made of is starting to break down and deteriorate. The suggestions above about cleaning the sticky gooey stuff off is only a temporary fix and the grips are at the end of their life.

The answer is to get a new pair.
That's a tall order if you like Uncle Mike's J-frame Rubber Boot Grips, and I do. They were a deal with Craig Spegal, a copy of his boot grip design, but in rubber. I do not know the details, but Uncle Mike's lost permission to copy his design and production ended a number of years ago.
 
This is a deterioration of the material. I have had this issue with numerous products that had an applied 'rubber-esque' product.

I have used alcohol and an actual cloth towel to clean and remove the excreted tacky goo. It won't be the same, but it will no longer be gooey.
 
I use Goo-gone. Takes some scrubbing with a paper towel, but it really does the trick. I have some that I've fixed this way years ago and they're still hanging in there.
 
Well, like i said above, with several Uncle Mikes grips having deteriorated years ago, I was not able to make them usable for any length of time. The Goo kept coming back no matter what I used to "de-goo" them so I tossed 'em. A shame too, they were very well designed (except for the material composition of course).

Not saying don't try, but don't hold your breath either.
 
You could try acetone if nothing else works.

The problem is that the gooey stuff is NOT really on the surface, it comes from the material breaking down. Unfortunately, it continues to happen even if cleaned up. Too bad, I used to really like the design of the UM's. :(
 
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