Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Oils, CLP,s Homebrews, Solvents ect ect ect

It's good lubrication and good cleaning that are generally somewhat at odds with each other particularly where high pressure and/or high temperature lubrication is required.

I've read a ton of threads on lubing the AR, it can get entertaining...

Pat Rogers saw more rounds down range than most folks ever will, being a shooting instructor whose students usually shot 1000 rounds or more in a 2 day class, he saw several failures and more than a few trends. He also kept notes that were full of vital info on failures. He used to post some of these nuggets on M4C and a few other boards. He is the one who used Vagisil and just about everything else available. (Google "filthy 14" for some interesting reading.) The last I knew he used Slip 2000 I believe and used a cleaner to clean when he had to. Sadly he passed away a year or two ago.

In an interview he talked about what makes an AR run. As long as the lube stayed where it was needed, it worked. It also needed to remain consistant in all weather conditions. He liked something enviromentally friendly. He did not subscribe to the theory that CLP or any other cleaner/lube/protector worked. Use a good lube or at least reapply any lube when you needed it and use a good cleaner when you needed to clean it.

I got a few small bottles of Machine Gunners lube from LaRue Tactical everytime I ordered from them and found that it worked for me and I started keeping one of the small bottles in the pistol grip of my guns or in the stocks. I'm sure there are better products out there but it's worked on everything I've used it on, pistol or rifle. A buddy had a gun quit him on a hunt we were on. I started taking my stock off and he started laughing at me, "don't tell me you got gunsmith kit in there" I pulled out a bottle of MGL and he was soon back in business.

I've got a solvent tank at my shop for cleaning and have found B12 Chemtool gets the carbon off better than anything else. So when I need to clean more than a wipe down, it goes into the vat then soaked in B12. Blown dry then wiped down with MGL. It's worked for me.

They call threads like this on ar15.com. lube wars, them dudes get heated on there about stuff at times.

For a general cleaner, I like CLP and Hoppes #9. They are easy to find, cheap, and work well with a stiff nylon brush.

For a lubricant, I like Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil. It seems to work about as good as anything else I have tried. Its cheap too.

I don't use compressed air to "clean" a rifle. I scrub the rifle as you should to remove what you are trying to clean off of, or out of the rifle. There's substitution for elbow grease.

I've never bought into the clean, lube and protect in one idea. Most cleaners break down oil that lubes so it just doesn't add up in my mind.

24 yrs infantry, used all the milspec stuff always readily available, never gave thought to cost honestly. Used clp all over the planet, used lSA in winter at fort carson and training in germany and norway, used LSA in korea in winter, used light coat clp in morroco, used graphite in desert storm with light clp, used clp in oif 1, used vasaline in panama on exterior and clp inside, never had issues keeping a weapon up and running, 10 to 15 min basic wipe down exterior with barber brush and feild cleaning with kit. Basically milspec stuff depending on climate. Been surfing all the crazy conoctions on the web, basically anything from motor oil to vagisil (of all things) bug juice, red juice, ect ect ect, got my ar about 4 months ago, been using CLP and used hoppes bench rest for copper every 300 rds . I keep my weapon clean, i dont subscribe to the run it till it fails or see what breaks then clean it club, cause it will give me "bragging rights" that i shot 4753 rds before my extractor broke and also discoved cracks in my bolt and carrier... gee ya think not cleaning it put mechanical and pressure stress into it at all........ anyways i retired in 2008 i have put 453 rds thru my weapon so far and have an issue with new age CLP/Breakfree, the shyt just evaporatesin storagre and burns off in firing to fuqqing fast, definately not the old school formula with all the money shot teflon and chem additives you had to shake up from the bottom. Im talking like 2 to 3 days in the case and the lube is not wet ,still in a film but not wet. I like to dry fire for 5 to 10 minutes daily so the evaporation rate is noticable. so i purchased 2 4oz bottles of CLP , 1 4 oz bottle of LP, 1 4oz bottle of regular hoppes #9 and 2 1oz bottles of lucas extreme duty gun oil (blue green color) so i mixed up 18 oz of a homebrew clp last wensday. The stuff is still wet , not migrating and holding well on everything so far, im gonna out and shoot tommorow probably around 150 rounds and see how the homebrew works. Spent just under 30 bucks. 18 0z will last awhile i imagine. AR,s will run properly on just about any lube as long as you take care of em a little bit each day when in use. Now some of ya,ll can come out and hammer me for my opinon.....

WD40 is a good solvent for a lot of stuff' B12 is a good cleaner for carbon as well.

Key to what Yondering is saying about WD40 is using it before crud gets to the point of being baked on.

MM