# GCP , your opinion on this cleaning tactic of a semi auto



## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

My neighbor and I had at his suggestion, a gun cleaning and bull session in his shop after a outing to the field berm range in the back pasture that he has fenced off to keep his stock from grazing in.

As we were cleaning our weapons and shooting the breeze, he laughed at my gym bag full of 20 to 70 year old metal Outer's cleaning boxes and newer plastic case rods , brushes and ziplock bags of oils and solvents I have bought and inherited over my life for all the calibers and gauge firearms I have.

That day I had carried my S&W 469 I bought about 30 years ago and a revolver to shoot. 

After cleaning ,oiling and wiping down the revolver, he noticed that as I field stripped the 469 by jacking back the slide to the notch to raised the slide release lever to disassemble , he noticed that after firing a box of rounds that I raised the slide release with a slight pressure on the ejector nub with a plastic top small screwdriver and said he never saw a Smith slide release raise that easy and I told him I would show him why after cleaning it.

After normal cleaning of the five pieces and magazines of the 469, I got one of the tubes of inherited Gunslick benzene and graphite lube paste that my grandfather and father used up to 50 years ago and wiped it into and onto all the parts and wiped the access off before reassembling it.

As I Gunslicked the 469 , he looked at the box of one of the tubes and remarked that the 50 year old lube contained cancer causing ingredients and I said what comes out the end causes fast acting lead poisoning and using Gunslick graphite paste never gave my grandfather , father or me any tumors and it has kept two old 1911s, and my 469 cycling tight with no jams and my gunsmith has cleared them all in good shape at his 750 to 1000 round inspections.

My neighbor said he totally dries the components of his semi autos and surface oils and wipes to keep them tight and I told him two old G.I.s taught me to rub the graphite into the metal before surface oiling and wiping down to keep it tight but smooth like using slick 50 in a engine crankcase..

Do you think one of us is more correct than the other or both correct depending on the weapon frame materials?


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

that sounds like a loaded question.

modern lubes have gotten the lubrication needed and metal corrosion resistance without chemicals that could make you sick , one tube of product used over decades isn't likely to get you sick but if your the guy who is mixing tons of the product each day for 20-30 years that is where they get sick and why not using those ingredients makes sense for the good of the persons making them and the area of the factory.

there are many ways to arrive at a clean gun that is well lubed and well maintained.
graphite is one of them. 

grease , mineral oils , synthetic oils , natural oils , water soluble oils combination products, PTFE 

really there are so many products that work well.

you clean after every use. 

the test for a product these days is not if it cleans , provides corrosion resistance and lubrication , but how long it can go without being serviced. is the wear protection still there after 2 years of sitting? does the product dry out and become sticky.
will it spend a week in a sweat damp holster without corrosion.
. 

1000 rounds is a day of range practice for high volume shooters. 

your gun is slick because you keep it very well lubed and shoot often enough and replace the lube often enough it never gets tacky your also using a lube that probably never fully dries.
repeated disassembly and reassembly leads to parts more easily coming apart the fact that you get a lube in frequently aids this.

I would think the question isn't weather you need to work it into the metal surface , merely placing it there and working the moving parts back and forth would likely get it worked in fine.

what your basically doing is a small amount of surface polishing every time you clean which also leads to the parts polished disassembling and re-assembling very well and smooth.

you have the time and the product already also.

neither are wrong 


your procedure is one that works , the question would be how much of it is really necessary to accomplish the goal , probably not nearly as much as you do however you have the time , it is a tradition for you not really a need to change.

think about all the people who have 50+ year old guns that clean them religiously with WD-40 , it is not a very good lube , that dries becomes sticky doesn't have that good of corrosion protection , yet it works for them because they never let the gun get dry and they use it after every shooting session.


.


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## random (Jul 23, 2020)

> contained cancer causing ingredients


heh: My son's "anti-cancer" firefighting gear contains substances known to the State of California to cause cancer

In the quantities being used, that seems to be irrelevant. You're not snorting it, right?

From my experience, if it works for you, it's fine.


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

We only run 50 maybe 100 rounds through a piece during a range session and our gunsmith does his check at least every 4 or 5 months.

Thanks for the explanation. My neighbor will get a kick out of knowing neither of us is more right than the other. We just learned different but we both religiously clean our cordless long range drills after our play dates at the berm.

I was taught the only place WD40 had a use was for single or double barrel shotguns after a shoulder bruising day of bird hunting and then only for a first barrel soak before a wooden dowel driven brush, nitro cleaning patch and gun oil patch.

My father caught me using WD to clean his Remington model 11 after using it deer hunting and after the preaching of the sins of WD on stored weapons, he had me clean every firearm we had and watched me and boot camp drill instructor inspected them and made me oil a couple a second time.

Cleaning those 7 semi auto long guns 9 times then felt like punishment, but since I don't feel cleaning any after even just a few rounds to shoot a snake a chore but relaxation as I feel like he and my grandfather are watching and one of em saying to clean it right so it remains a gunpowder powered lead launching machine and doesn't turn into a club with loads still in it..

I bought a "broken" .44 lever action rifle from a guy for $50 and the gunsmith I used at the time charged me $80 more to strip it down and said all he had to do was to soak it and clean all the WD40 gumming out of it. 

I kept that rifle, cleaning it as the smith told me to for 5 or 6 years until the guy I bought it from talked me into selling it back to him for $200 since I already had .44 lever actions.

When I sold it back to him , I told him if I ever heard of him using WD40 on it, all the WD would be good for would to keep him regular because I would shove it where the sun don't shine and he could grease his colon with it.


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## muleskinner2 (Oct 7, 2007)

I have been using WD-40 to clean my guns for over forty years, thirty years on a Ruger .44 mag that I shot 26,000 rounds through. I reloaded hard cast bullets, and kept the boxes the bullets came in. 52 boxes at 500 bullets per box. From the tropics to the artic never had a problem. I still carry that old Redhawk in my truck. It accounts for a few rattle snakes, and coyotes every year.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

muleskinner2 said:


> I have been using WD-40 to clean my guns for over forty years, thirty years on a Ruger .44 mag that I shot 26,000 rounds through. I reloaded hard cast bullets, and kept the boxes the bullets came in. 52 boxes at 500 bullets per box. From the tropics to the artic never had a problem. I still carry that old Redhawk in my truck. It accounts for a few rattle snakes, and coyotes every year.


but you cleaned it every few months or more often , that is why it keeps working and many people think it the best stuff under the sun.

you can clean a pump shotgun especially a M500 they seems to be tighter in places it matters lube it all up with a generous amount of WD-40 , it will operate smooth , put it in a corner for a year and come back , a sticky mess soak it all down in WD-40 again and the solvent losses the varnish back up

my cousin would spray his 12ga pump gun down with WD-40 , one year he got it out opening morning and I was driving deer to him , I see him raise up and have a shot he certainly could have made 20 yards , she was running but they all run we are used to it , he said , it went click he ejected the shell not even a dimple tried it again at a stump and it fired fine , it seems the firing pin glued in the channel. it freed up but he didn't trust it and ran home for a backup gun which he took a quick test shot before he came back to make sure it worked.


Dextron ATF is a better choice at least it is a lot less gumming you can even thin it down with a little deodorized K1 than wd-40 you can make up a bunch cheap

the guns I work on for the club get used a few weeks in spring then put back in the safes till the next year cleaning a gun you cleaned before put away when you get it out isn't much fun and cleaning guns doesn't take that long , but when you sit down to do 15 22 rifles at once even at 5 minutes a piece your over an hour

this is one of the reasons I went to the Hornady one shot dry lube , I can wipe off al the kids finger prints , shoot some down the bore run a bore snake 2 passes spray the bolt and trigger mechanism and put them int he safe for another year , when the groups open up , scrub the lead out. same for the 9 22 pistols

lots of products work , some take more time or need to be used more frequently.


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## Rodeo's Bud (Apr 10, 2020)

Old dudes always try and solve any lube problem with WD-40.

They always look at me like I'm either crazy or shot their best dog when I tell them no thanks.

Years of military service using gallon jugs of the stuff and smelling it are enough to turn me off it.

But the fact it just doesn't work as well as newer high tech stuff is the main reason.

Personally though, I'm not much of a cleaner. Shoot, squirt some oil on it, call it a day.

Of course, I don't shoot hundreds of rounds at a time either.

I am planning an afternoon soon to pull everything out and give them a once over to be ready for fall shooting. Too hot and dry for it right now.


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## muleskinner2 (Oct 7, 2007)

GREENCOUNTYPETE said:


> but you cleaned it every few months or more often , that is why it keeps working and many people think it the best stuff under the sun.


You might be right. If a gun has been sitting more than a week, I clean it before I use it. And I always clean them after a shooting session. The pistol that I carry every day gets cleaned every Sunday if I have shot it or not.


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## muleskinner2 (Oct 7, 2007)

Double post.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

almost anything can work

A retired SeaBee was telling me they frequently got shorted oil in their gear for maneuvers , they took to using their personal bug spray spray that in a Ma Duce for about 10 seconds , pull the charging handle and it ran as it should.

I think I would have added a bottle of oil to my personal supplies.

I was talking to another guy he had decided any Hummer could run on 1/2 quart less oil crack the drain plug with your multi tool and fill the oil bottle let motor-pool worry about it when the vehicle came back. or if you just needed a little pull the dipstick wipe it on your finger, apply to gun and if needed repeat.


here is a nice test of 46 different products Comprehensive Corrosion Test: 46 Products Compared
it doesn't cover grease but gets the oils.

you can probably see why I chose Hornady One shot , especially if I tell you I have a decent investment in combat Tupperware I certainly don't want a cleaner or lube that will eat my serialized part.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

for general purpose grease I use Lucas #2 red and tacky 




you can see why here although I used it before I found this video I load it in the oral syringes they will give you for free at the pharmacy that way I can be cheap and put the grease right were I want it.

the easiest way I have found to load the syringe is to hold the tip tight to the grease gun and shoot it right in


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## Cairnstone Farm (Apr 30, 2020)

Shrek said:


> My neighbor and I had at his suggestion, a gun cleaning and bull session in his shop after a outing to the field berm range in the back pasture that he has fenced off to keep his stock from grazing in.
> 
> As we were cleaning our weapons and shooting the breeze, he laughed at my gym bag full of 20 to 70 year old metal Outer's cleaning boxes and newer plastic case rods , brushes and ziplock bags of oils and solvents I have bought and inherited over my life for all the calibers and gauge firearms I have.
> 
> ...


These days, graphite is s no-no because it is an "abrasive" substance.


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## Cairnstone Farm (Apr 30, 2020)

I still think ole' HOPPE'S is king, and I'm not even an old timer. Either way, clean it and oil it. These days kids think it's a reliability issue from the manufacturer if they ever have to clean thier guns.


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