When guns are fired, gun lubes leak out, are blown out, and are quickly cooked off of gun parts. If the gun isn’t used for a while, gun oil starts to varnish and needs to be cleaned out and reapplied so that the workings of the firearm don’t get gummed up.
(I’ve seen a number of shooters spotlessly clean their firearm, put it away in the safe for a year, and then wonder why it doesn’t properly function the next time they try to run it hard). With handguns I still use wet gun lubes such as Breakfree CLP, and with rifles I continue to clean them with Breakfree CLP, but now I wipe them dry and lube moving parts with a Lithium based grease. In warmer climates a greased AR or AK will run like a scalded dog, but at prolonged temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit the grease may start to loose its viscosity and make the gun run sluggish, causing the gun to not feed correctly.
Is there something out there better than traditional gun oils?
How about 10W40 motor oil?
I’m about to thoroughly clean a Glock and AR, lube them with 10W40, and shoot them for a year, with the intent of firing 1000 rounds through each without cleaning or reapplying lube. That will be plenty of rounds to potentially blow out and cook away most of the lubrication, and gum up the gun with any residual oil left over. I’ll check back in a year with the results.
