Lube your ammo?

[mjelder]

I'm a younger guy and have been into shooting for a while. After a day at the range with my father, we were sitting in the kitchen cleaning our respected pistols. We both finish up and start reloading our mags (we're both carrying individuals) and i notice that he is throwing a very small coat of lubrication on every round before he putsit in his mag (shoots a springfield 1911). I asked him why and he said that when he was in vietnam he and his squad did it while loading every pistol mag. He swears it cuts down on jamming and misfeeds. Any opinions on this? Does it work? can it damage the weapon? I feel like oil down the bore could cut down on accuracy? not that you have to be incredibly accurate at 10 yds with a 1911

 

[VUPDblue]

Seems to me like lubricant on rounds in a carry gun would only act like a magnet for dust/dirt/debris. The accuracy shouldn't be affected one way or another by the lube.

 

[kevman65]

You have to remember, Viet Nam was a humid, humid, HUMID country, as in it rained up when it got bad. Someone probably started that thinking it would help prevent internal rust.

 

[singlestacksig]

In the early years of Viet Nam the M16 did not have a chrome Barrel , so it might help to lube the rounds.. there have been several gun in history that required rounds to be lubed.. so the fear of jams from not lubing ammo may have stayed alive in the fox holes..

 

[Eddie]

Seems like a lot of Vietnam veterans that I have known over the years had a tendancy to over lubricate their weapons. As was said above that was a very humid climate. I will put a little more oil on a gun that is going into storage for years than I ever will for my daily carry. A pistol carried daily has enough of a problem picking up lint from clothing without adding extra oil.

 

[mjelder]

Good thoughts. Appreciatethe feedback. Never really thought about the problem of internal rust.

 

[Disposable Heart]

Well, a few things, I am throughly against lubing ammo:
1. As mentioned earlier: Lube can penetrate and ruin primers/powder. No good. Have had this happen before.
2. In high pressure environments, the lube can CAUSE more fouling in the chamber due to the lube burning from blowback gasses.
3. Rifle cases need some "grab" on the chamber walls to ensure uniform accuracy. Lube defeats that. While the difference is minimal, it is still not a good idea.
4. Some lubes (such as CLP) have low grade copper cleansers in them: They can begin to corrode and eat at the jacketing of the bullet. Maybe not a detriment to accuracy, but it can cause corrosion despite having oil on it (I have had that happen, upon advice of lubing from my Nam vet father as well! ).
5. Excess lube in chamber can raise pressures. I have some loading manuals that state that specifically, they have complex equipment and engineers that make more than I do yearly, I am inclined to believe them.
6. Lubing of ammo to make a weapon more "reliable" may be indicative of a problem with the gun. Sort of like using Wilson mags in a 1911: It will run now, but still has not fixed the problem with the actual weapon. Fix the gun, don't bandaid it.

I have heard alot of gun stories from vets. Some good and verifiable, some rubbish. My father overlubed his guns (Vietnam vet) where I have had a friend that was an Iraq war vet (war number 1) who lubed his weapons lightly or even used dry lube (fear of sand buildup). Funny how their experience will always shape their views. Heck, my father swears by the 5.56 round (saying the horrendous wounds he saw on NVA), but won't touch an M14 or clone M14 claiming that the humidity would warp the stock and ruin your zero. Weird...

 

[safarihunter]

You might want to pose the question to both a firearms and ammunition manufacturer's tech service departments. Their comments may help clarify the issue

 

[vthokie]

I agree that this is a question can best be answered by either a arms or ammunition manufacturer. We all know the need for keeping ammo clean; but oiled?

 

[cosermann]

One's weapon system and the environment dictate maintenance to some degree.

Where people make an error, imho, is when they take one protocol developed for a particular weapon system to optimize operation in a particular environment (i.e. jungle/desert/arctic/etc.) and apply/generalize it to every situation.

Doesn't work that way.

 

[pudly]

I don't see any upside to lubing ammo in most circumstances. Most of us use brass cased ammo with copper/lead bullets. Which of those components benefit from oiling?

That said, when I do clean my magazines (not very often), I use a small amount of lube inside to help the spring and follower move smoothly inside the mag. Rust protection for the mag is a nice bonus and there is no risk of oil penetrating the primers.

 

[mongo404]

I had an experiance with a new shooter once where he cleaned an lubed his ammo the end result was multible sqibs!!!!!!!! The lube penetrated and ruined the powder. Not such a great Idea In my opinion.

 

[boljr01]

piling on..

Have to agree there's no upside given the vast majority of scenarios the normal concealed carrier encounters. Conversely, have seen it leak around primers and foul them and powders. Also, have seen high pressures signs that were attributed to ammo lube.

 

[randyb]

Box of truth did some work on lube and pistol rounds and seemed to not effect reliability in their research. That being said, I do not lube my ammo with anything. No WD-40, no tetra grease, and no KY either.