Today, there are many high quality and specially built rust preventatives on the market. Products such as Break Free CLP, Birchwood Casey, Eezox, and many others took the spotlight in modern shooting sports communities.
Some of them, such as CLP, EEZOX, and Birchwood Casey are truly hardworking performers, trusted by military marksmen, SWAT teams, and civilian shooters, people who have the utmost need for performance and reliability. However, the engineering behind these products are so intense that "sweat and muscle" is too mild a word to describe the efforts put into producing these oils and lubes by the technicians at these companies. When anyone first enters the great world of the shooting sports, he or she would be completely infatuated by the latest products. Marvels in firearms engineering such as polymer frames, Timney triggers, hold audiences in awe, and most of all, the lubes, oils, preservatives, and solvents on the current market that all claim to "do the jobs", as well as fight and compete for their place within the consumer spotlight, became almost a sort of legend in the firearms community. Caliber wars rage as well as debates on which oils and solvents are the best.
However, when one has been involved in this great sport for some time, they begin to think in terms of traditional curiousity. It is almost, well, sort of like the passing of puberty and the arrival of adulthood and maturity for the gun owner, when he or she begins to extensively study the history of firearms, and the history of the sport itself.
One of the most interesting aspects of the history of firearms, is the maintenance of these machines themselves. Before there was Breakfree, or Birchwood Casey, or EEZOX, there was only one type of product available to the masses: the original magic formula in a blue and yellow can: WD-40.
For more than 40 years, WD-40 was the only product available to the hunters, shooters, and competitors of the early space age. First formulated in 1953 as a water displacing formula, WD-40 stands for "Water Displacement-40th Attempt". Thus, it took the technicians 40 attempts to perfect this formula. However, before WD-40, there was the two Great wars. What did the troops use to keep their rifles in working order. Surely, the products of the recent days would not have been available.
Finally, this ponder about gun lubes wanders into the Blackpowder Era, the Golden Age of the Rifle, where ammunition is quite corrosive and maintaining the guns themselves is just as important as getting them to shoot accurately. In a time when missing a shot meant either starving to death or ending up as the dinner of a more massive creature, keeping guns in working order is more important than anything else. However, in these times, there were only products of the land that were available. Natural greases, tallow, fat. Petroleum products had only began to find their place on the market, but the longhunters of the old days did absolutely fine with the primitive materials they had on hand.
Just another pondering of a another summer day.
Some of them, such as CLP, EEZOX, and Birchwood Casey are truly hardworking performers, trusted by military marksmen, SWAT teams, and civilian shooters, people who have the utmost need for performance and reliability. However, the engineering behind these products are so intense that "sweat and muscle" is too mild a word to describe the efforts put into producing these oils and lubes by the technicians at these companies. When anyone first enters the great world of the shooting sports, he or she would be completely infatuated by the latest products. Marvels in firearms engineering such as polymer frames, Timney triggers, hold audiences in awe, and most of all, the lubes, oils, preservatives, and solvents on the current market that all claim to "do the jobs", as well as fight and compete for their place within the consumer spotlight, became almost a sort of legend in the firearms community. Caliber wars rage as well as debates on which oils and solvents are the best.
However, when one has been involved in this great sport for some time, they begin to think in terms of traditional curiousity. It is almost, well, sort of like the passing of puberty and the arrival of adulthood and maturity for the gun owner, when he or she begins to extensively study the history of firearms, and the history of the sport itself.
One of the most interesting aspects of the history of firearms, is the maintenance of these machines themselves. Before there was Breakfree, or Birchwood Casey, or EEZOX, there was only one type of product available to the masses: the original magic formula in a blue and yellow can: WD-40.
For more than 40 years, WD-40 was the only product available to the hunters, shooters, and competitors of the early space age. First formulated in 1953 as a water displacing formula, WD-40 stands for "Water Displacement-40th Attempt". Thus, it took the technicians 40 attempts to perfect this formula. However, before WD-40, there was the two Great wars. What did the troops use to keep their rifles in working order. Surely, the products of the recent days would not have been available.
Finally, this ponder about gun lubes wanders into the Blackpowder Era, the Golden Age of the Rifle, where ammunition is quite corrosive and maintaining the guns themselves is just as important as getting them to shoot accurately. In a time when missing a shot meant either starving to death or ending up as the dinner of a more massive creature, keeping guns in working order is more important than anything else. However, in these times, there were only products of the land that were available. Natural greases, tallow, fat. Petroleum products had only began to find their place on the market, but the longhunters of the old days did absolutely fine with the primitive materials they had on hand.
Just another pondering of a another summer day.
