Locking lug and slide bar areason the Remington Model 760pump are candidates for moly-dgrease.

Rifle 24132 www.riflemagazine.com

Many folks think a general

gunsmith spends all hisrepair time just replacing parts.Nothing could be further fromthe truth. Though this probablyvaries a bit in different parts ofthe country, the most time-con-suming operation is cleaning thedarned things. If a gun is mal-functioning and the reason isn’tobviously a broken part, one sim-

in the stock, so the owner thoughtthat was the problem. After cor-recting the looseness, perform-ance didn’t change.

Eventually a wad of com-pressed white powder dry lubewas removed from the lockingbolt mechanism in the receiver.That did it! The barrels had notfelt loose in the receiver. Perhapslockup was just not uniform de-

ply has to start cleaning to locatethe problem. This brings us faceto face with the topic of thismonth’s column – lubrication.

We can almost hear the howlsat the mention of this subject. Lu-brication, many will say, hasnothing to do with gunsmithing.These folks want to know howto make firing pins out of sawblades and extractors from old,discarded toenail clippers. Sorry.I’m in charge and today we talkabout lubricants. Besides, notusing lubricants could very wellbe the reason a gun needs repairin the first place.

Lubrication of firearms cer-

tainly is gunsmithing. Many prob-lems just disappear after ap-plication of a proper lube. It’sone place where the old quote,“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” defi-nitely does not apply. Or thewording could be changed to, “Ifit ain’t broke, lubricate it or itsoon will be.”

Anyone who does much repaircan tell stories of autoloadersthat won’t autoload and pumpguns that pump hard or some-times miss feeding a round. Thesame thing happens to leverguns.Quite frequently the pump andleverguns are .22 rimfires.

Double and single break-openrifles may not lock solidly ifparts are dry. This may seemstrange, but accuracy can sufferas a result. I didn’t believe it untilI saw it with my own eyes. Therifle was a European O&U in7.9x57mm.

Speaking of over-unders, toomuch lube is also a possibility. Arather recently manufactured .30-06 was stringing shots verticallynearly a foot at 100 yards. The re-ceiver was just detectably loose

Gil Sengel

LUBRICATIONLUBRICATIONLIG

HT G

UN

SM

ITH

IN

GLIG

HT G

UN

SM

ITH

IN

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Gibbs double with STA-LUBEand DRI-SLIDE – the only lubesneeded to keep your tiger rifleworking perfectly.

pending upon how hard the gunwas closed.

Do not think too much lube oc-curs only with dry products. Aclassic case involves recoil-oper-ated autos like the BrowningAuto-5 or Remington 58 shot-guns. In both guns a friction

piece rubs on the outside of themagazine tube to slow the rear-ward motion of the recoiling bar-rel. For some reason people wantto oil and even use heavy greaseon the magazine tube. The barrelthen slams back, cracking fore-arms and breaking internal parts.In reality, the magazine tubeshould be clean with only a hintof very light oil (wipe it on thenwipe it off) to prevent rusting.

If not enough lubricant cancause wear, parts breakage ormalfunctions and too much lube

can result in parts breakage ormalfunctions, what is a person todo? Do it correctly, that’s what!

Unfortunately, this subject hasbeen allowed to get way morecomplicated than necessary overthe years. There are only fivebasic reasons to coat (by somemeans or other) the inner orouter surfaces of a firearm: (1)lubricate moving parts so theycontinue to move when neces-sary, (2) lubricate moving partsso they don’t wear excessivelyfrom rubbing against one an-other, (3) prevent rust short term(two-week hunt, for example),(4) prevent rust long term (indef-inite storage) and (5) preventrust due to handling.

Since we are only interested inlubricating moving parts, the firsttwo categories are all that need

November-December 2008 33www.riflemagazine.com

Cocking cam surfaces (arrows) of Mauser bolt (top) and Remington .22rimfire bolt (bottom) require moly-d grease.

Dry lube is perfect for bolt-gun mainsprings. Parts must remain disas-sembled until vehicle evaporates.

be considered. It is important tounderstand the differences andlimitations of each.

In the first instance live all theso-called light oils. Over theyears these have been referred toas gun oil, sewing machine oil,reel oil, lock oil, 3-in-1 oil, spermoil and on and on. Their purposeis to lubricate small movingparts, especially those under verylight spring pressure. Lubricationof such parts is mandatory, be-cause they are relatively soft andwill bend or break if they can’tmove freely. A good example isthe .22 rimfire tubular magazinefeed mechanism.

Unfortunately, light oil runs offquickly and must be reapplied. Ifunable to run off, it solidifies or“gums up.” Then parts don’tmove.

Modern synthetic oils are betterin this regard but don’t solve theproblem entirely. They are easier

simply have no application tofirearms in my opinion.

One such dry lube suspended ina volatile vehicle is molybdenumdisulfide. It is sold under varioustrade names, DRI-SLIDE® being

to remove (spray cans ofsolvent) and reapply (spraycans of lube). If any ofthese – synthetic, natural,petroleum base or solvent– gets on wood gunstocks,it destroys the finish,stains the stock under-neath and breaks downwood fibers eventuallyruining the stock.

Here is where a modern-day lube really shines. Ifthere is no need for rustprotection, in other words theparts aren’t exposed to water orextreme humidity, a dry lube sus-pended in a volatile vehicle (thinliquid that evaporates after appli-cation) is ideal. Dry lubes alone,like white powder and graphite,

The mainspring strut in asingle-action revolver

(arrow) is another perfectplace for moly-d grease.

November-December 2008

to evaporate leaving only the drymoly-d film.

If rain or powder fouling can’tget to these parts, they are nowlubed for years. No need to con-stantly reapply more lube, asmust be done with all oils. Moly-dwill never migrate into finestocks and ruin them. Doubleguns have been returned to meafter years of hard use in whichthe owners had done little morethan just shoot them. When thestocks were removed, the insideslooked just as I had left them –which in some instances was farmore than could be said for theoutsides!

Also, DRI-SLIDE does not buildup like other dry lubes. Thevolatile vehicle dissolves and re-distributes existing lube if theowner feels a need to reapply it.This should not be necessary un-less serious cleaning is done toremove gunk that builds up onand in actions like .22 rimfire au-toloaders.

Now we come to the second

well known. Quite simply, for usein sporting firearms, there is noneed for any type of oil anylonger. DRI-SLIDE performs alltheir functions. It is all I haveused for light lubrication infirearms for 40 years. I believeDRI-SLIDE came about for use inM16 rifles during the VietnamWar. At least that is when it wasintroduced to me. Nothing elseeven comes close.

Of course, there are a few rules.Moly-d (molybdenum disulfide)resists moisture well, but if onelives or hunts in a very damp cli-mate, it’s a good idea to wipe allinternal surfaces with a patchlightly coated with RIG® gungrease (available from Mid-wayUSA). RIG will stay where itis put if the coating is very light.Next apply the moly-d by firstshaking its can vigorously to becertain the lube is well sus-pended in the vehicle. A drop ortwo is then placed in various lo-cations of the lock or action.

It will be noticed that the blackliquid disappears instantly intothe mechanism. Cycle the part acouple of times to help distributethe liquid. Now the parts must beleft exposed to the air for severalhours to allow the liquid vehicle

35www.riflemagazine.com

Mauser (top) and WinchesterModel 70 (bottom) have exposedtrigger sear surfaces that canreceive moly-d grease.

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temperature, high-pressure, diskbrake wheel-bearing grease. Notethat this is wheel-bearing greasenot chassis lube. The brand Ihave always used is Sta-Lube®,part number SL3161. Packagingis in 14-ounce cans. It was dis-covered at least 25 years agowhen repacking truck wheelbearings that had been run manythousands of hard miles. Thegrease remaining in the bearinglooked, felt, smelled and tastedexactly like the new lube in thecan. This stuff definitely hadother uses!

My first application was hingepins and ejector trips on doubleguns and rifles. Then came trig-ger sears and Model 70-stylewing safeties. It is hard to imag-ine anything better.

reason for gun lube usage.Here we are lubricating toprevent undo wear on partsworking under heavy springor manual pressure. Exam-ples are cocking cams ofbolt guns, hand and ratchetmechanisms in revolvers,locking/unlocking cams inpumps and autoloaders,locking lugs in bolt actionsand trigger sear surfaces.DRI-SLIDE works fine inthese applications, especiallyin very low temperatures,but only for awhile. Heavypressure placed on these partsseems to scrape the dry lube offover time. This requires reappli-cation and waiting for the vehicleto evaporate. There is a betterway.

All such firearms applicationsrequire something that can beplaced directly on the bearingsurface and will stay there. In thelube field this means a heavygrease. The difference betweenguns and most other machineryis that guns only require a verytiny amount of grease.

Since moly-d works so well as adry lube, it only makes sense toput lots of it in a speciallyadapted grease. The result is themost perfect heavy-duty lubefor specific sporting firearm usesknown to man. It is sold as high-

Rifle 24136 www.riflemagazine.com

One place that isn’t lubricated is a Browning Auto-5 magazine tube!

Moly-d grease prevents wearif used on double gun hinge

pins and locking bolts.

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November-December 2008 37www.riflemagazine.com

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Yes, that mention of lubingsears is correct. For some reasonthere are “experts” out theretelling shooters this should notbe done. One has stated flatlythat casehardened parts arenot designed to be lubricated.Good heavens! That’s as nuttyas Hillary Clinton’s duck hunt-ing story. Providing parts aresmooth, trigger pull is a functionof the angles of the engaging sur-faces. If lube does alter pull,there is a mechanical problem tobe dealt with quickly.

One other item needs mention-ing. Note that emphasis is onsporting firearms, not militarytypes. Virtually all military weap-ons made in the last 40 yearshave plastic stocks, rather loosetolerances and are designed tobe hosed down with a spray canof something or other. Thisworks well on these arms but nottighter-fitted sporting guns withwood stocks. Use what is recom-mended by the maker.

That’s all one needs to knowabout lubrication of sportingarms; at least that’s my opinion.The foregoing works. It’s just notthat complicated. Besides, pre-venting worn or broken parts isbetter than replacing worn orbroken parts any day!