Silicone vs. Gun oil on gun internals ...

ranbur

ranbur

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I met a guy at the range that tells me he uses silicone spray rather than gun oil ... cleans the gun with it and uses it on the internals.

First time I had ever heard of this ... I know of silicone wipe rags ... never heard of using it on the internals of the gun.

Have to say his gun was nice and shiny ... but ...

How does this affect the function and longevity of the gun?

Anyone else out there do this?
 
Isn't G96 silicone based? I think the idea is that once the carrier evaporates the silicone remains in place and provides reliable lubrication. Some of the lighter weight gun oils supposedly run off and don't lube the parts you wanted.

Overall, for the things we use our guns for it'd be very hard to ever screw it up regardless of what you use. Most gun owners do the equivalent of changing their car's oil after every trip to the grocery store (myself included).
 
For me personally I love G96 and don't plan on using anything else. That being said I don't think silicone would do any damage. I would think it would stand up to the heat well. What an interesting idea.

Mike
 
Silcone isn't a great lube, or a great rust protection, wouldn't be my first choice.
I like to use air compressor oil now for all my lube and rust protecting needs, smells better then motor oil too.
 
Yeah I have always been an oil guy too ... TriFlo for the most part ... but thinking about it I am wondering if silicone gives a longer "slippery factor" for lack of a better word ... ie: when the oil gets hot and dries off the parts are dry metal ... but you know with silicone how damn hard it is to get off anything ... seems way more persistent than oil ...
 
Use silicone lube for everything now, guns, car, truck, tractors, if it needs oil or grease use silicone. There are thousands of articles all over the web where silicone lubes and conventional lubes are tested and silicones win hands down every time.
 
I clean traditionally but use Super Lube for lubing.

super-lube.jpg
 
skimmer said:
Isn't G96 silicone based? I think the idea is that once the carrier evaporates the silicone remains in place and provides reliable lubrication. Some of the lighter weight gun oils supposedly run off and don't lube the parts you wanted.

Overall, for the things we use our guns for it'd be very hard to ever screw it up regardless of what you use. Most gun owners do the equivalent of changing their car's oil after every trip to the grocery store (myself included).
Click to expand...

^ This

I clean my guns after every range trip. Sometimes after as little as 20-30 rounds :redface:
 
Well my car uses very expensive Synthetic motor oil so I've been using that on my guns for almost 10 years.
I clean traditionally but finish with 0W-40.
Put a drop of your current product between thumb and forefinger and rub then try good synthetic oil and see if you feel a difference.

Retired RCAF
 
skimmer said:
Isn't G96 silicone based? I think the idea is that once the carrier evaporates the silicone remains in place and provides reliable lubrication. Some of the lighter weight gun oils supposedly run off and don't lube the parts you wanted.

Overall, for the things we use our guns for it'd be very hard to ever screw it up regardless of what you use. Most gun owners do the equivalent of changing their car's oil after every trip to the grocery store (myself included).
Click to expand...

It has silicone in it, but is mostly petroleum-based. Here is the MSDS:

http://www.qcsupply.com/media/pdf/msds/140688_MSDS.pdf

I would not use silicone spray. It doesn't lubricate well for metal-to-metal contact.
 
Well ... just to try it after going to the range this weekend I did clean one of my 45's with regular silicone spray ... the same stuff one uses for general lubrication.

Certainly seemed to clean out the crud easily enough ... the slide is nice and smooth ... and the exterior (which is both blue and stainless) buffed up really nicely.

We will see how it performs on the range next weekend ...
 
Another vote for oil... Sort of. I also use a tiny dab of McCormick's trigger slick on the slide rails on my 1911. For oil I typically use BreakFree.
 
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