Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Best firing pin lube/freezeproof

Had a light strike on a round the other night in a deep cold. I hypersonic cleaned the bolt, now what should I use to keep it form having the same issue again

What does “Deep cold” mean in degrees?

Use a low viscosity synthetic oil sparingly, or run it dry.

Hornady one shot dry lube is fantastic stuff.

Agree with IB. In “deep cold” I’d be inclined to run it dry. The firing pin doesn’t need to be lubed to work properly. Firing pins usually malfunction in the cold because they are OVER lubed.

If your firing pin/spring doesn't have grease on it or is dirty, I would look towards the over travel on your trigger. A lot of folks run a very tight sear/hammer tolerance and temp/debris can tighten the gap enough to to impede, or stop, the hammer from falling. Not too uncommon on Model 700's. Darrel Wick

Hornady one shot or Superlube spray.

If any lube it would be this.

https://www.amazon.com/American-Grease-Stick-Lock-ease-Graphited/dp/B000GKW2NM

Have been using eeszox in below zero without issue for dozen years? Or run dry. Someone mentioned hornady one-shot. Dear friend (rip) engineer, retired competitor, loved it on everything, though he no longer hunted, either. I had it gum the action on a silly marlin m60 action block and that kind of chilled me on it’s use for anything but rails, barrels, and rimfire blocks; things that have a little inertia behind them at least. Coat dies with it, too. Not to diminish one-shot, just my example of one. Still use it often… a little thing that reminds me a friend passed, but i don’t put it on bolt-action firing pins/springs.

Run it dry. No lube necessary.

RS

Not uncommonly overlubed with WD-40.

I've also seen this happen but, it happens when the action is not cleaned properly before application, HOS will break everything loose when it is sprayed on and then all the crap that was inside gets gummy.

Hornady one shot is a dry lube, once it dries it will not "gum" up.

I see this often, "Paul, what was wrong with my gun"

"It was dirty"

"Really? I always clean it when I'm done shooting"

"Not good enough, do you want to learn how to clean it?"

And then they learn........

Clean the firing pin, apply your favourite gun oil, and then wipe it all off with a clean cloth. Done. Don't overthink it.

100%.

Don’t disagree at all, except that being ocd, this was ultrasonically cleaned beforehand. Hornady’s stuff, no less. Still, could of been something left in there. So in any event, am leery of it in said application.

👆

EEZox or Corrosion X, properly applied (and dried!) is what I've used down to 30 below. Or totally dry. Makes no matter, but the former do give some lube quality, as well as corrosion protection. It's all I've ever hunted for 30 years or so, regardless of temperature.

The only fail to fire I've had happened about 10 years ago out of Kotzebue, about 15 below, but that was due to a rough rust pitted FP shank and a stress-shortened spring on a gift AFU rifle found on the tundra by a friend in the Brooks range. A bit of emory cloth smoothed the surface (really should replace that SA725 striker) and a new spring made it good to go, without failure since using only Corrosion X on it. Needed a new takeoff barrel too, and refinishing of wood and receiver, but that's another story. It's a killing machine (ugly, tho) and I have all of about $125 in it.

If I did a lot of shooting in moderate temps, I'd probably change my ways a bit on lubing, for the particular rifle in question, but for a lightly used rifle, especially on one-off hunting trips, keep it "dry" per 1st sentence.

I'm not familiar with "hypersonic cleaning the bolt".

Is it preferable to disassembling it, removing the firing pin, spraying everything with gun scrubber, and wiping it all down to clean off the gunk?

Yup

Dry graphite

Graphite if you have to have something there,but i don't put anything because if you do the dust around here will cake or clog it up bad enough that it's hard to get out.

I hate cleaning dirt,dust caked with oil out of tight places.