Lubing guns till they drip! Is there such thing as too much?

AR/M4 AR General Discussion
1

Lubing guns till they drip! Too Much?

Some background:

Buddy built up a budget rifle for his coworker who is new to shooting the AR platform:

Components in the build:

Bushmaster 16" Dissipator barrel assembly
Enhanced AR type BCG (unknown brand but probably whatever was cheapest using his FFL/MFG discount)
LPK
Full rifle stock

Parts came from Brownell’s(My guess DPMS parts or cheaper)

When he was ready to close it up for a trip to the range I told him to let me see it. It was dry as a bone so I shot some CLP into the upper/BCG

The gun felt gritty but at least it wasn’t going out dry. Plenty of lube so much it was dripping into the lower.

He contacted me via email saying that the gun wasn’t firing (light primer hits) shooting S&B ammo but after he took the BCG out & wiped the oil off the firing pin, the gun shot fine!

Quoting his email:

“Lubing guns till they drip is fine and dandy if you heard from a chairborne commando that he was able to kill a dozen extra hadji’s because his SPR ran so well in Afghanistan. In real world, at the firing pin channel is so flooded by lube that the firing pin does not move freely and causes light strikes. In real world, one who initially took the chairborne commandos words seriously, will have to take the gun apart and wipe off goo and only then the gun will shoot OK.”

I recently took LAV’s 2 day carbine class & he had no issue with my carbine having “too much oil” He also used me as an example to others who’s guns were dry.

Before I fire any new builds I clean the bcg / bore & chamber with solvent /clean patch & oil heavily(BCG Only)

My reply: (Note while typing on my Iphone answering while im working)
“Bullshit, it was the assembly & new break in”

His reply:
“Telling you, dude. Firing pin channel was flooded. Oil poured out and it shot fine after that. Not even skipping a bit.”

My Reply:
"Maybe cleaning the factory smeg off the bcg with CLP aka Break Free actually loosened off the junk that needed to be cleaned. Wiping it down completed the process by removing the debre

The C in CLP stands for Cleans , you notice it is the 1st part of it’s name"

I offered to take one of my rifles to the range & swamp the bcg in CLP & shoot it. I guarantee it wont miss a beat!

His last reply:
“This bolt was cleaned and lubed before. I checked it out when I got it from Brownell’s a month ago. I know that lube poured out and after that the rifle shot ok. If we want to test, we should test with xxx’s rifle.”

He said: “This bolt was cleaned and lubed before” he didn’t say he cleaned & lubed it.

“I checked it out when I got it from Brownell’s a month ago”

Again,bone dry it was but it felt like it had some type of coating on it to prevent corrosion.

Ok guys, Thats the truth, the whole truth & nothing but the truth!

Did I shoot too much CLP into the bcg/charging handle area to cause light strikes from the firing pin to the primer?

If I am guilty I am ready to be corrected.

2nd edit: weather in the 40’s/bcg was out of the plastic bag condition & dry

2

I think you where right telling him it needed to be lubed. I have never run into the to much lube issue maybe others have. Just dont give him anymore advice and let him figur it out him self. He bought alot of junk from the sounds of it so who knows maybe he never cleaned it before you put all the clp in in who knows dont dwell on it you sound like me.

3

I go heavy on the lube, the exception being guns with wooden components. Possible problems are killing the ammo with lube, lube being flung in your eyes and lube being flung onto optical elements. The chamber and bore should be mopped dry before shooting.

4

I would assume that it is possible to have too much oil in the firing pin tube, but I don’t see how it would “pool up” and “pour out” as your friend stated. Normal lube technique would lube up the bolt and carrier and not really get much into the firing pin tube.

There is only 4 openings, three being small, one of the three small opening being at the bolt face. Not much to allow pooling of oil…

Rmpl

5

Your buddy is full of shit.

Send him the link to this thread. The only armchair commando here is your buddy with his piece of shit low grade rifle.

If your gun cannot run dripping wet on everything from motor oil, to WD-40, to transmission fluid, you need a new gun.

I dunk the whole BCG and put it in the upper when I lube for shooting.

I have two giant stainless steel tanks of CLP and CLP collector at home for submerging entire guns if need be for long term storage.

Oil is temporary, rust is permanet.

6

scottyran, your pm box is full!

Email sent, I didn’t post in the thread as it was non related to the topic!

7

I know it is and I’m not going to empty it.

You can email me or post in the thread.

8

That may be the best post I’ve seen today.
I have also never had any problems with adding too much CLP, and I’m very generous with it.

9

The term “armchair commando” as your buddy used it is obscene. Frankly I find that most people who use it are in fact the real “armchair commandos.”

10

This sounds like BS to me. I took an AR out to the garage, flooded the firing pin as much as possible and could feel no binding due to excess lube, not that I expected to. I dropped the hammer on some primed cases and could not tell the difference between a flooded firing pin channel and dry, judging from the indentation on the primer. If such binding were possible, the excess lube would be thrown out with the first few shots. You can accurately measure relative firing pin striking power by dropping a wooden dowel down the bore, holding the rifle (or handgun) vertical and dropping the hammer. You then observe how far the dowel rises. I didn’t do this, maybe your buddy, the armchair engineer might want to give it a try.

11

Any excess oil will drain out or find its way out after the first shot. Its impossible to have a BCG “drain” oil after being fired even once.

12

I referred him to this from Pat Rogers:http://www.ar15.com/content/swat/keepitrunning.pdf

He didn’t want to read it!

13

True story.

S&B does have hard primers, .223 ammo might have wrong headspacing in 5.56 chamber, FP protrusion should be .032-.037. One of these is probably closer to the truth.

14

Well, here’s Larry Vickers on weapon lubrication…I think you can sum it up with “…you can run a gun dirty and wet, but not dirty and dry…”

15

Good article.

16

I soak the hell out of my bcg with no hiccups. Maybe he should start building airsofts instead. Please tell me the name of his shop if he has one so I can steer clear.

17

I’m guessing you’re using the term “buddy” loosely in this case.

18

I lube it generously but not dripping.

19

I would simply state “It runs now, doesn’t it?” Lesson learned: Buddy was unhappy with a gallon & a half of CLP in the works.

All I’d say after that is “No biggie, just use less lube next time and run it”. Who cares what he thinks about “too much” lube as long as the AR is run with lube. Let him get wrapped around the axle about it and don’t get sucked into helping pick the spot.

In actuality, light primer strikes are usually due to light hammers/hammer springs or out of spec firing pins

20

When I’m reassembling my weapon after a good Simple Green kinda cleaning, I put just a light touch of grease on the carrier rails and a little more grease on the cam pin. Then I cycle it a few times and lay in heavy with the Castrol GTX. I don’t get too antsy about oil on the firing pin. It’s never been a factor for me.