
Originally Posted by
KYPD
I think you are on to something. I am a lube freak, and try everything that comes onto the market, but I keep coming back to bike lubes. For 30+years I have used bike lubes on my firearms. In my opinion, they are superior to Hoppe's or other gun-specific products for lubrication. I'm not sure about cleaning, and I have not tried Pedro's degreaser, but now that you mention it, I will.
Why bike lubes? During its lifetime, a civilian rifle or pistol might get used in a dirty, gritty, snowy, salty, wet environment a few times, but a bicycle absolutely will, for long periods of time, under heavy load conditions, and with nearly all of its most sensitive lubricated parts exposed, so the demands on bike lubes are very high. Moreover, all those contaminated parts have to be moved by human legs, connected to a human brain, and a human wallet, that can measure the effectiveness of the lubricants used. And bikes aren't at all easy to clean and lube. Bike people are very serious about their lubricants. Gun people are serious too, but in the case of guns, it is harder to tell the difference, and hype often wins out.
Try Pedro's Syn Grease on your bolt lugs, and cam pin surfaces. Very stable stuff. Phil Wood's Tenacious Oil is ideal for lubing the bolt/bolt carrier/upper receiver bolt bearing surfaces. It stays put instead of running off.
Some guys love Breakfree, but it never impressed me. I would avoid using teflon-based products anywhere in a gun that hot gases touch, such as the barrel, bolt, or inside the bolt carrier. The heat can cause the Teflon to give off very toxic gases. Dupont's Teflon has had lots of problems over the years.
Since you can get bike stuff cheap, try everything and tell us how it performs.
Cheers.
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