WD40 on guns??

[agentl074]

I guess I'm a traditionalist; I use Hoppe's No 9, also the copper solvent, Hoppe's gun oil and Hoppe's gun grease for storage. No problems to date.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it

 

[TheGhostRider]

About 8 years ago I was perusing the Peddlers Post for firearms; I came across an ad for a Remington 870 HD police shotgun...
Hmmm!
The price... $175.00!

HOLY BONKERS BATMAN... I couldn't dial the phone fast enough!
The seller was only 3 miles from my house!
When I got there to look at the shotty it looked pretty darn nice...
But there was a hitch... it would only fire occasionally!
Hmmm?
I asked the young man what he lubed the gun with... I noticed that the action seemed very sluggish and there was a build up of what appeared to be a brown tar inside the receiver area.

His reply was... WD40.
I offered the man $150.00 after trying 3 times to cycle and fire some shells.
He accepted and I promptly went home with the shotty.
After 3-4 days of soaking all the bolt parts and trigger assembly in kerosene the crap started to soften enough that I was able to clean her up.
It had probably never seen more than five rounds prior to my purchasing it and it was in perfect condition other than the caked on lube.
To this day that shotgun has NEVER failed to fire when I pull the trigger.

WD40 is NOT what should be used to lube a firearm of ANY type!
I HAVE used it to wipe down the exterior of barrels before and haven't had any ill effects. Just don't lube the action with it!!

 

[Deet]

I have used WD40 for 30 years to clean and lube my guns, my 30 yr old mossberg has never seen anything but WD40 and it goes bang about 500 times each season, (hunting and Trap shooting). My pistols only get a light coating of rem oil on the internals the outside get a liberal spray of WD40. I'll post again in thirty years, I'll bet the mossberg still goes bang everytime.

 

[Whosyer]

The only firearm that I have used WD40 on, was my Mosin. And that was to remove the cosmoline. Then it was back to the Hoppes.

 

[TheAutomator]

Non-chlorinated brake cleaner and red high temperature bearing grease for me. Anyone that uses cleaning and lubrication products marketed toward guns is a sucker.

 

[Walter Zoomie]

 

[Jay]

Anyone that uses cleaning and lubrication products marketed toward guns is a sucker.

Please let us know how well CLP works in the crankcase of you vehicle. After all, you wouldn't want to use any "motor oil" that's marketed for a vehicle.

 

[Leadeye]

I use WD-40 on my cap and ball revolvers. Cleanup with Spray&Wash and hot water then WD-40 when clean.

 

[agentl074]

For some environments, WD-40 and good motor oil will work just fine... other environments may demand a better chemical such as a CLP

 

[TheAutomator]

Please let us know how well CLP works in the crankcase of you vehicle. After all, you wouldn't want to use any "motor oil" that's marketed for a vehicle.

My apologies for thinking that there's more R&D done for vehicle lubrication than is done for gun lubrication, and anything made for keeping metal lubricated at high temperature will probably work pretty well no matter what high temperature metal-on-metal job it's doing.

Wait, I'm right?

Oh, well I'll be damned.

 

[Jay]

My apologies for thinking that there's more R&D done for vehicle lubrication than is done for gun lubrication, and anything made for keeping metal lubricated at high temperature will probably work pretty well no matter what high temperature metal-on-metal job it's doing.

If all you're dealing with is the metal parts of a firearm, you have a point..... many hi-temp lubricants/solvents will damage firearm finishes. The percentages of similar chemicals in vehicle lubes may differ significantly from those recommended for firearms.

You do as you see fit..... you obviously will, and I'm sure we should all be humbled by the vast amount of knowledge that deems many of us to be suckers.

 

[TheAutomator]

What should be humbling is the money I save by buying a lifetime supply of bearing grease for $10 instead of a small can of CLP.

 

[Jay]

hmmmm..... like the 5 lb can of Lubriplate 130A I bought in the 70's for my guns, that was formulated for the M1 Garand, and the M-14........ Then it began to catch on as a wheel bearing grease...it's still in use today, matter of fact.. about $6 back then.... Were you alive then?

 

[Prometheus]

I exclusively use WD40 on all my AK's and milsurps.

I don't have a problem using it with my new stuff either.

'wd40 gums everything up' well yeah, if you shoot it before it dries some, lol. Same thing will happen with any other 'wet' lube.

In any event, wd40 will do. If you plan on storing a gun for awhile, use something else. Motor oil (preferably new, not the synthetics) is superior to virtually anything else for that except cosmoline.

I have some hopes, some rem oil... whatever I get as presents or see on sale.

FWIW While living in S. Fla I shot thousands of rounds thru a SAR1 over the span of 12 months w/o a cleaning. The only lube the gun had was WD40 at the start of the 12 months.

I don't own a gLock (they suck) but I find it hard to believe that 'wd40 voids the warranty'. Anyone actually have an owners manual for a gLock that says that? In any event, from the company that brought the word "kaboom" to the forefront of the firearms industry I wouldn't be surprised, lol!

 

[DesertDoc]

CLP is the way to go. I have always been told to shy away from WD40 because it could gum up after a while. I dont know if there is any truth to this but CLP has always worked fine for me so why change.