Most of the stuff sold or used as “gun lube” is at best, more expensive than it ever needs to be and is no better than motor oil, some things are at worst detrimental to firearms.
On the “worst” end of the spectrum we have WD-40 and CLP. WD-40 is NOT a lubricant by design - it is a water-based machining coolant dispersing fluid. It’s designed to get under water-soluble oils used in machining and get it off the metal, which used to be an important function in a machine shop before non-corroding water-based oil emulsions became more common.
CLP is OK for cleaning, but is a poor lube.
In my work on guns, the only thing I used WD-40 for is lubricating a cut on aluminum. When I’m milling or flycutting aluminum, spraying a little WD-40 into the cut produces a mirror finish. Other than that... I don’t even have it in my toolbox.
On the fairly expensive but only-slightly-better-than-useless end of the spectrum are things like RemOil.
But let’s get back to your point: The idea of using synthetic motor oil has real merit.
Let’s back up a moment: What is or has been the best gun lube in the past? Because gun makers used to have a strong preference in the past... and it was sperm whale oil. It was the perfect lube - didn’t dry out, didn’t turn rancid or gummy, resisted breaking down at higher temps, stayed where you put it, lubed even in sub-zero conditions, etc.
As a kid, I remember how well sperm whale oil (which is actually more like a gel than a pourable oil at room temp) lubed my model cars, guns, you name it. Then the damn bunny-snugglers banned importation, sale, etc. People have been fined thousands of dollars recently for putting “found” inventories of sperm whale oil up for sale on the ‘net.
Everything since then has been an effort to duplicate sperm whale oil. Synthetic motor oils and (especially) synthetic ATF’s are getting closer to sperm whale oil characteristics all the time.
ATF and hydraulic fluids have important attributes of being pretty good at low temperature performance, but they tend to run off too easily. Synthetic motor oils share many of these attributes, and stick a bit better where you put them. Motor oils have lots of detergents in them, which is used to carry away combustion byproducts to the filtration system. ATF’s and hydraulic oils (or spindle oils) avoid these additives.
So we need a tackifier added to the oil, much as some types of machining oils (in particular, “way oils” used on machine ways) have in them. Using “way oil” on guns is probably better than most of the things you can get out of a bottle, but most people can’t find way oil without going through an full oil line dealer or a machinery supply shop. What people need is something they can brew up from local supplies - like the local NAPA parts shop.
One homebrew formula I’ve been taught is ‘Bug juice’ from some USA armorers:
2 quarts Mobile 1 synthetic 10W30
1 quart ATF (doesn’t much matter which ATF - Mercon/Dextron III is probably easiest to find)
1 pint STP oil treatment (which adds tackiness to the oils)
1 9 oz bottle of Hoppes #9. I think you could sub a little bit of mineral spirits here.
This is not the same as “Ed’s Red” cleaning mixture, which is a whole ‘nuther issue.
On my AR-type objects, which have now tragically been lost due to a boating accident (in which my boat collided with another former gun owner’s boat on the Purgatory River in Colorado, and both craft exploded, burned and subsequently sank beneath the rocks on the bottom of the river bed...) this mixture is needed only in small quantities. Put a drop (as in ONE) on the bolt and wipe it around the rings before you insert it into the carrier, put another drop on the outside of the carrier and smear it around before you put the carrier into the upper, etc. On a bolt gun, you need only put a drop into the bolt raceways. On shotguns, you need only lube the breech block, action bar(s) and possibly a gas piston (depending on the shotgun in question). On something like a A5, you might want to lube the barrel/receiver interface.
As for cleaning: Look into a product called “M-Pro 7” for cleaning carbon and plastic deposits:
http://www.mpro7.com/mpro7-gun-cleaner.html
This is the first thing I use when cleaning guns - especially shotguns suffering from plastic wad fouling. To remove plastic fouling from a shotgun, push a sopping wet bore mop or shop towel down the bore and then leave the barrel sit for, oh, 30 minutes. Go down the bore with a bronze brush, then follow with a dry cleaning mop or cotton rag pushed with a small dowel. Plastic is gone.
Sometimes, people are alarmed to see pitting “suddenly show up” in their barrels after using M-Pro 7. Here’s the reality - the pitting was there (on older guns) or developed from non-cleaning by the owner(s) - and the pits used to be filled with plastic and carbon. MPro 7 didn’t cause the pits - it only cleaned them out.
On rifles and pistols, M-Pro 7 removes the carbon fouling better than any other product I’ve used. NB, I’m saying ONLY the carbon and plastic fouling is removed with this product - but those are often the most difficult to really strip out of a bore. I’ve seen people saw patches through a bore for 20 minutes after soaking with Hoppes, then using a brush, and they still can’t get a clean patch. With MPro, you can get clean patches pretty quickly if you let it soak for a little while.
For removing copper fouling, there’s several active bore cleaners which I’m sure people know about - but people should NB that these won’t attack all copper fouling. Not all copper used for jacket material is the same. The copper solvents that remove the jacket copper from your run-of-the-mill or premium jacketed hunting bullets might not remove copper fouling from Berger or Barnes 100% copper bullets. USP Bore Paste is a very fine garnet non-embedding abrasive which can remove copper fouling from a barrel pretty quickly.
Lead fouling can be removed with penetrating oil type products, of which Hoppes #9 is one. Another good one is Kroil penetrating oil (available only directly from Kano Laboratories). These all need time to penetrate under the lead to allow it to be removed with a brush.
Some firearms which can lead up very fast might need a more aggressive tool to remove lead. eg, revolvers have notorious leading issues in the forcing cone. A Lewis Lead Remover does the trick well:
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=21587/Product/LEWIS-LEAD-REMOVER
When I was in Nevada, I found that most any oil or grease on guns attracted the powder-fine alkaline dust that blew in off the playa, seemingly from every direction at once. I ditched most all liquid or grease lubes and ran with a mixture of powdered graphite and moly disulphide, with a little mineral spirits as a carrier that would dry off. Fortunately, most gun owners will never need to deal with the alkaline dust blowing in off the playas. It’s both gritty and corrosive and is the very work of Satan himself, as far as firearms are concerned.
Thanks
As for cleaning: Look into a product called “M-Pro 7” for cleaning carbon and plastic deposits:
http://www.mpro7.com/mpro7-gun-cleaner.html
Big Loud AMEN here.
Bookmark for gun cleaning/lubing. Thanks for the information NVDave!
Guns have wood and/or super plastics close at hand and such things as skateboards use precision steel bearings in plastic moon housings with soft polyurethane just outside. I want a lube that is not only o-ring safe but has also been tested for on varieties of plastics and products.