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silicon lube?

fastcarsgofast
I have some CRC heavy duty silicon lube and was wondering if it would make a good rifle lube?

OK, here is what I was thinking.

1) If light oil is a good lube for rifles then why not a heavy duty silicon?

2) I have had a rifle lubed with CLP that I left in the safe for a long period of time seize up. The CLP had dried up and I wound up using a rubber mallet to get the action open. I was thinking that perhaps the silicon would not dry up since it leaves a moisture free film.

3) About the only place within a reasonable driving distance to get gun care products around here is Wal-Mart. Their selection leaves something to be desired. I could order some type of lube but I have found that the shipping on chemicals and aerosol cans is outrageous.
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Comments

7 comments

Date Votes
  • EVILDR235
    I would not use it.Buy a gun related lube.Also don't drain gas out of your tractor to use to clean it.

    XXXXXX
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  • He Dog
    Use this instead: http://www.steelshieldtech.com/mainpage/retail-product-weapon-shield.html
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  • StoBtruppen
    IMO it seems that the 'non' gun lubes like the stuff made for gears and other machinery parts tend to have a gummy residual after a while or like wd-40 leave a sticky film. I would only use specific gun related lube products as suggested being that its not much more and is protecting your investment.
    Walmart sometimes carries some decent products that work, the only real problem with them though is that they change their inventory too often. Once I find something I like and get used too if they don't feel that sales are good enough or whatever their reason its off the shelf, supply and demand though I suppose. I have come across deals there though where the whole box of something I wanted is marked way down, woohoo.
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  • bpost
    Most lubes will work just fine on a gun, as long as they don't dry out and get gummy over time, like WD-40. Mobil 1 is a great lube, so is a clear teflon based spray lube we sell at work. I have put over 250 rounds through my target 45 and the lube is still clean, doing its job. Guns are no harder to lube than other machines are.

    My .02.
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  • jonk
    I use a thin coat of gimbal bearing and spline grease on all my guns that need greasing. If it's tough enough to work under pressure and heat AND underwater in my boat's stern drive, it should work just fine on a gun, right?

    And it does.
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  • beantownshootah
    quote:Originally posted by jonk
    I use a thin coat of gimbal bearing and spline grease on all my guns that need greasing. If it's tough enough to work under pressure and heat AND underwater in my boat's stern drive, it should work just fine on a gun, right?

    And it does.

    I'm sure this could work fine, just that its optimized for a non-gun application (eg your gun doesn't HAVE to work underwater, etc).

    I've never had (nor previously heard of) the experience of CLP drying out and becoming glue-like, and I use that as my main gun cleaner/lube probably 90% of the time. (Why? Because its cheap, readily available, and "good enough"). I suppose that's more likely if you really used a lot of it and the stuff got pretty dirty.

    I use SLIP-2000 for my AR-15s, but only because it was recommended to me explicitly by a "big name" guru/trainer in the AR-15/tactical world. I'm not really sure it works a lot better than anything else (though maybe it does).

    If you want a readily available and (relatively) cheap lubricant, some people recommend high-viscosity synthetic motor oil as gun lube figuring that since it will keep the metal parts of a race-car engine lubricated at 7000 rpm at umpity zillion degrees for hours at a time, it ought to work for just "a gun".

    I'm sure this will work fine, and in fact, probably a lot better than many other things.

    I suppose you could use pure silicone as a lube, though I don't know how wear-resistant it is, nor how well it repels/displaces moisture (which is something that petroleum based lubes do reasonably well). Silicone certainly won't clean a gun as well as a petroleum based cleaner, though that's another issue.

    For what its worth, my local Wal-Mart carries both Rem-oil and CLP, and I think either one are probably fine for 90% of gun applications. Any hunting/sporting goods store that carries any gun accessories ought to carry a few lube-type products. Lastly, its not like you really need SO much lube! A small bottle of CLP lasts a pretty long time, I find.
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  • jonk
    quote:Originally posted by beantownshootah
    quote:Originally posted by jonk
    I use a thin coat of gimbal bearing and spline grease on all my guns that need greasing. If it's tough enough to work under pressure and heat AND underwater in my boat's stern drive, it should work just fine on a gun, right?

    And it does.

    I'm sure this could work fine, just that its optimized for a non-gun application (eg your gun doesn't HAVE to work underwater, etc).

    I've never had (nor previously heard of) the experience of CLP drying out and becoming glue-like, and I use that as my main gun cleaner/lube probably 90% of the time. (Why? Because its cheap, readily available, and "good enough"). I suppose that's more likely if you really used a lot of it and the stuff got pretty dirty.

    I use SLIP-2000 for my AR-15s, but only because it was recommended to me explicitly by a "big name" guru/trainer in the AR-15/tactical world. I'm not really sure it works a lot better than anything else (though maybe it does).

    If you want a readily available and (relatively) cheap lubricant, some people recommend high-viscosity synthetic motor oil as gun lube figuring that since it will keep the metal parts of a race-car engine lubricated at 7000 rpm at umpity zillion degrees for hours at a time, it ought to work for just "a gun".

    I'm sure this will work fine, and in fact, probably a lot better than many other things.

    I suppose you could use pure silicone as a lube, though I don't know how wear-resistant it is, nor how well it repels/displaces moisture (which is something that petroleum based lubes do reasonably well). Silicone certainly won't clean a gun as well as a petroleum based cleaner, though that's another issue.

    For what its worth, my local Wal-Mart carries both Rem-oil and CLP, and I think either one are probably fine for 90% of gun applications. Any hunting/sporting goods store that carries any gun accessories ought to carry a few lube-type products. Lastly, its not like you really need SO much lube! A small bottle of CLP lasts a pretty long time, I find.


    True enough. Thing is, that grease is like $10 for a tube. Which in and of itself lasts a few years on the boat. A finger tip full is enough to lube 2-3 guns and costs me essentially nothing, while the ready-made products are often quite costly.
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