There will be oil, but which one? Okay, I’m not a chemist or a petroleum engineer, I’m a gun mechanic. Oil is essential to any mechanism, but the wrong oil can “gum up the works” for sure. I get a lot of calls for servicing a pistol that does not function correctly. Many times, it’s oil-related. Too heavy an oil is actually worse than no oil at all. The latest pistol I had in was a European target pistol, a Pardini SP-22. The owner had taken a few years off from competitive shooting and now wanted to get back in the game. The trigger in his pistol would not function. On inspection, I found that all the oil had dried out on the sear pin as well as the hammer pin, preventing free parts movement. I had to soak the internals for two days in mineral spirits to free them.
The oil he was using was good for frequent shooting but not good for long-term storage; it was too thick and dried out. Firearms are complex mechanisms with many interconnected parts. Those parts are usually close tolerance fit and require only a light coating of oil.
The late Jerry Keefer and I used to talk about this a bit. There is so much unburned powder and priming compound during shooting that it actually can foul some internal mechanisms; add too heavy an oil, and you get a gritty mud-like substance in the mechanism. Grease is a no-go for most guns.
So, what oil is best? I recommend a light oil if you are shooting frequently; you might need to oil more often, but it does not dry out and, during cleaning, makes it easier to flush grit and grime away. After every shooting session, I wipe down my firearms with a slightly heavier oil on the exterior surfaces to prevent rust. For long-term storage, I might go even heavier, but knowing that a thorough cleaning is required before shooting. I use a spray-on cosmoline product.
What oils are best? I have all sorts — too many to list. But I like to choose my oil by a simple method; I want my shooting oil to be more like water than honey. That said, I don’t think one oil does it all. Wilson Combat has come out with a good kit that offers four oils in a variety of weights or viscosities to cover all aspects of lubrication and protection. Each one comes with recommendations for when and how to use it. This is the right approach in my experience; all four cover most conditions.
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