By and large, gun cleaning products and lubes are a marketing gimmick.

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daniel craig

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As the title says. This will probably get me kicked out of this site and banned for life but...I believe it to be true. Look, everyone has their favorite. Everyone thinks theirs works better than the next guys and that it’s worth the money. If it makes you happy, so be it. But the prices on some of that crap...yowza.

But I’ve never met a gun cleaning product made in the past 150 years that does a better job than plain old soap and water on the level that gets me excited to spend coin on it. I’ve even experimented and used shaving creams (I was surprised at Barbados) motor oils and just about any liquid/gel you can think of. I keep coming back to soap and water.

I buy a cheap all in one to treat the metal and wood after cleaning and that’s it.


As far as lubricant goes, almost everyone I’ve ever met or talked to way over does it. I promise you, most modern firearms don’t need nearly the amount of lube people seem to think they do. On smooth surfaces all you really need to do is reduce the friction, it doesn’t take much to do that. A wee bit of Teflon or graphite will go a long way.


[pours a scotch, sits back and waits for the explosion]
 
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Does soap and water remove copper fouling? How about for new barrel break-in? I’m not a big black powder guy, (even if there’s one in my avatar), I thought that was all soap and water was used for.
Yep. Takes a wee tad of the W word...werk or something like that that but yes. I think people want a product that makes it so they don’t have to actually do anything to clean.
 
This soap and water thing interests me. There are guys over at arf.com that swear by it. They literally take dawn dish soap and go to town on a filthy Ar15 with it. Using hot soapy water on the bolt carrier group and hosing down the upper in the shower or outside with the hose.

I havent had the courage to hose down my upper but I have cleaned the BCG in the sink with H20, dawn and a scrub brush. It worked well, just had to make sure it was totally dry before lubing. I tend to agree with guys about motor oil being a similiar, more economically viable alternative to the $20/4 oz wonder lubes. I still use CLP and a few others because I have enough to get through years and have have had good results with it but Mobil 1 is much cheaper and works just fine by most accounts I've seen.

I think a couple naysayers scared me off of hosing out my uppers but there were a ton of guys saying that's all they do with no ill effects and just hit it with compressed air and lubed up with Mobil 1 afterward. It seems like a good way to get your gun clean in a hurry and dawn works really good. I'm speaking strictly in terms of the AR to be clear, I wouldnt recommend for most other guns....
 
I agree to a point. That point is the soapy water, I'm not doing that to a vintage glossy blued & walnut rifle. Might be fine but I couldn't bring myself to dunk it. I do however 100% agree on the hype nonsense of cleaning products. I haven't used commercial products intended for guns in probably a decade, besides hoppes just cause I like the smell and it works. My cleaning kit consists of patches made from cut up t shirt & blue jeans, q tips, toothpicks, choreboy, paracord, brake clean, compressed air from a compressor, motor oil/trans fluid or clp- really whatever I've got I don't lube much- it just attracts more scuzz. I've caught heat for my practices but if anyone can tell my clean gun from anyone else's I'd be shocked.
 
I thought almost everyone already knew that.



I'm going to say you don't clean rifle barrels very often; I clean several a week, and copper fouling requires a copper solvent. You can't 'werk' your way out of it.

Perhaps I don’t clean as often or as thoroughly as you do, though I did get paid to clean guns as part of my last job, I never met a gun so fouled with copper that dishsoap and hot water didn’t suffice.
 
Certainly in terms of rust prevention, not all products work the same. Have a look here:

https://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/141077-Results-of-gun-care-product-evaluation
I’ve seen that link. Part of me wonders what people are doing with their guns… Because while rust is an issue I’ve noticed that proper storage and I’ll wipe down after the woods goes a long way. The only time I’ve ever had a gun rust was when it got wet and I left it in my car trunk for a month. And even then it wasn’t so much rust I couldn’t clean it off I’ve seen that link. Part of me wonders what people are doing with their guns… Because while rust is an issue I’ve noticed that proper storage and I’ll wipe down after the woods goes along way. The only time I’ve ever had a gun rust was when it got wet and I left it in my car trunk for a month. And even then it wasn’t so much rust I couldn’t clean it off. And I live in the north east too so it’s not like all I’ve experienced is dry weather.
 
This soap and water thing interests me. There are guys over at arf.com that swear by it. They literally take dawn dish soap and go to town on a filthy Ar15 with it. Using hot soapy water on the bolt carrier group and hosing down the upper in the shower or outside with the hose.

I havent had the courage to hose down my upper but I have cleaned the BCG in the sink with H20, dawn and a scrub brush. It worked well, just had to make sure it was totally dry before lubing. I tend to agree with guys about motor oil being a similiar, more economically viable alternative to the $20/4 oz wonder lubes. I still use CLP and a few others because I have enough to get through years and have have had good results with it but Mobil 1 is much cheaper and works just fine by most accounts I've seen.

I think a couple naysayers scared me off of hosing out my uppers but there were a ton of guys saying that's all they do with no ill effects and just hit it with compressed air and lubed up with Mobil 1 afterward. It seems like a good way to get your gun clean in a hurry and dawn works really good. I'm speaking strictly in terms of the AR to be clear, I wouldnt recommend for most other guns....
The nice part about soap and water is it won’t give you cancer… The jury is still out on motor oil’s
 
I have to admit I don't know too much about lubricants. Take gun oil. It's expensive. Multiple dollars for a tiny delicate container. I haven't bought any in years. I do buy hydraulic oil for the tractors by the five gallon bucket. When a bucket's drained, there's always a few ounces left you can't get. I open the seal on the bucket and use what would otherwise be wasted for my gun oil.

I have used other oils at one time or another. Aside from noting that some are heavier or lighter, and that WD-40 is more of a cleaning agent and a cheap penetrating oil, rather than protection, I have no real idea how to tell one from the other.
 
WD-40 is more of a cleaning agent and a cheap penetrating oil, rather than protection

I was in a gun shop once, two guys standing in front of the lubes and cleaning agents. The one guy told the other "you know this is all just a scam dont you, just git yerself some dubyaD40 and yuh be good to go".

WD40 is the last thing I would use on my guns. I like the smell, horrible choice for guns. I'm not actually sure what it's good for...
 
I could probably get by with just ATF and Johnson's paste wax but I do agree that life is made much easier with a good copper solvent if you shoot a lot of fast jacketed bullets.

As far as lube goes I have yet to find a better one than a mix of 50% ATF, 25% Mobil1 and 25% STP.
 
I could probably get by with just ATF and Johnson's paste wax but I do agree that life is made much easier with a good copper solvent if you shoot a lot of fast jacketed bullets.

As far as lube goes I have yet to find a better one than a mix of 50% ATF, 25% Mobil1 and 25% STP.
Interesting. Is this your own formula?
 
I was in a gun shop once, two guys standing in front of the lubes and cleaning agents. The one guy told the other "you know this is all just a scam dont you, just git yerself some dubyaD40 and yuh be good to go".

WD40 is the last thing I would use on my guns. I like the smell, horrible choice for guns. I'm not actually sure what it's good for...

While I wouldn't use it on a gun it's good for a lot of things, and I have tried quite a few of them with great success, Some good applications for it here.
 
I like a couple products.

Barnes CR-10 for copper removal, it works with minimal elbow grease needed.

A good spray de-greaser like Remington Action Cleaner cause sometimes you need to get all the oil/grease off something. Brake cleaner works in a pinch. (watch the plastics)

I ain't afraid to use hot soap & water, especially for the black powder guns but for any gun if it needs it.

For everything else a little CLP for cleaning, and lubricating and a little generic high pressure bearing grease for some specific wear points.

I have played with many of the other super cleaners and lubrication and most of them have proven not up to the hype when you take the price into account.
 
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