Revolvers: to lube or not to lube!

Astaziel

Astaziel

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Shawinigan, Québec
So, yesterday was my birthday and as a gift for myself I bought my first handgun, a S&W 686 7 shot.
The saleswoman told me to only lube the ejector rod right under the extractor star, and never the inner workings of the gun itself.
I am somewhat skeptical of this, as I would have at least lubed the trigger and hammer pins.
What are you thoughts on this? What's your way of doing it?

Also, what's your favourite lubricant? I use Ballistol on everything as it is cheap and also a decent cleaner, although I found it somewhat lacking as a lubricant.
 
Lube the friction surfaces, its odd the saleswoman would tell you otherwise. I started using a light coating of Swiss surplus automattenfet on the lockwork of a couple of mine and found it lasted quite a bit longer than most oils. Any gun friendly grease should work as well. For oils I like G96 and Ballistol with G96 being preferred for long term storage.
 
The sales woman likely said that because the lubricants that are in there from the factory will last a long long long time of you don’t remove them with a solvent.

In many cases people tend to over lubricate the lock work. This can be a problem because of the window in the frame for the hand that rotates the cylinder. That window gives the carbon and dirt access to the lockwork. When lockwork is properly lubricated (sparingly with light oil) the dirt won’t stick and get spread around throughout the parts. If you compare the movement of other mechanical devices that require lubrication a revolver has very little demand on its parts for the steels they’re made of. There really isn’t much friction in those parts.

When I clean my main shooters (686 Talo 357, 15-3) I typically see carbon/debris in the bottom of the frame and around the hand window but the rest of the lockwork is pristine even after 1000’s of rounds.

One other tip I might suggest on top of the sales persons is when cleaning the revolver Frame be mindful that your Solvent is going to enter that window where the hand is and also the bolt area. When scrubbing those areas with a brush or swab I always flip the frame so any excess solvent will drip away from the openings. You don’t want solvent to get in there if you don’t have to, unless you’re going to keep cleaning and do a detailed breakdown.

If I’m doing that I have a rag dampened with plain ol Hoppes gun oil that I squirted on and twisted it to spread it evenly throughout the rag. I’ll use it to wipe down every part and put as small of a drop of gun oil as I can on the hammer and trigger pins. That’s it. The parts themselves won’t feel wet but the lube will be there and last.

YMMV
 
What I do is put a few drops of CLP around the hammer, hand slot, and cylinder stop a couple times a year, and then use low volume compressed air to distribute the oil. Wipe off all that leaks out, and done.
I sometimes use an electric computer duster instead. That works really well too, and because its warm air, the oil flows better.
 
I have a SW 12-2 Airweight that started to have issues where the cylinder rotation in DA would sometimes not lock/index with the breech.

On the advice of revolver Gunnutz, I carefully removed the side plate and sprayed it with solvent to clean and remove all oil/grease/residues.

I then VERY lightly oiled it with gun oil, removed any excess and re-installed the side plate.

It has been fine ever since.
 
Astaziel said:
So, yesterday was my birthday and as a gift for myself I bought my first handgun, a S&W 686 7 shot.
The saleswoman told me to only lube the ejector rod right under the extractor star, and never the inner workings of the gun itself.
I am somewhat skeptical of this, as I would have at least lubed the trigger and hammer pins.
What are you thoughts on this? What's your way of doing it?

Also, what's your favourite lubricant? I use Ballistol on everything as it is cheap and also a decent cleaner, although I found it somewhat lacking as a lubricant.
Click to expand...

Most sales ladies like a bit of lube., The reason she may say that about your gun is, it will collect , hold dirt power grit
I did a polish job on a Dan Wesson, different guts, same idea. I had to run it dry, other than the pins, as the oil slowed the action down on the sliding parts.
I like super lube grease for slides, it is clear, syst., any oil where you need it .
I have super lube in oil pens, it is a bit heavy I find for small pins. great on springs
P.S.
If you don't know what you are doing, don't mess with it, more revolvers ( and semi's) are hurt from taking things apart than shooting the hell out of them.
I use G96 mainly for clean/lub, without stripping things down.
 
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If it were me I wouldn’t bother adding any lubrication. Semi-autos for sure like to be lubed up but they’re easy to field strip and clean out once the lube’s gunked up from shooting. I shot likely close to 20,000 rounds through my 686 with no issues, other than one time when it jammed up so tight the cylinder wouldn’t rotate—the culprit there was unburned powder flakes stuck to the underside of the extractor star so I would do even us pe any there.
 
Lubricate the key moving parts but don't over lubricate. The extractor star, just a tad to help keep it wet. This is important to prevent wear on the tip of the hand. Just a very, very small amount of oil on the front support for the extractor rod. With a new revolver, after a fair bit of use, just one drop down when you #### the hammer and an very small drop on the locking bolt. If you over lubricate there'll be excess oil coming out of everywhere, even after you wipe the gun down, and turns into a nuisance and does more harm than good by attracting dust and dirt. More is not better.

When I take a revolver down for a good cleaning and lubrication I blow out the excess oil with compressed air before I install the sideplate. Just a tip; if you decide to remove the sideplate, for service, don't be prying on the sideplate to remove it as it'll leave a noticeable burr where the 5th screw used to be on pre-model marked revolvers. Give the frame a slight rap with a piece of wood and the sideplate will pop off.
 
I use Ballistol almost everywhere on all my firearms ( like Hickok 45 ). I have been doing that for years with great results. Only thing to remember is to run 2 dry patches down the bore before using.
Gilbert
 
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