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Posted: 1/16/2024 9:20:07 PM EDT
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What works best? I read an article about “Cherry Balmz”, but does it really work? What have you tried? Thank you |
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Thank you Sir. |
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This is the stuff I was going to mention before someone beat me to it. |
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Mid-March will be about 9 years since I was first exposed to Cherry Balmz. Didn't start using it until about a year later (8 years ago). It's been awesome for me. I lived in Colorado at the time and didn't bother with Winter Balm. I use it during winter up here in Montana now and have had great success with it. Stays in place, last a long time, and cleans up easy. ETA: that goes for both black rifle and winter. |
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I rarely shoot in sub-freezing temps being in GA, but I’ve always used Slip 2000 EWL-30 and EWG and have always been happy. The grease is stated to be good to -100°F and the EWL-30 to -85°F. Obviously I’ve never tested them to their extremes. I’ve still got some Cherry Balmz and Winter Balmz, and their Rimfire Remedy is tits, but when they went all Chicken Little a while back with not being able to get their proprietary ingredient I went back to Slip 2k. And ounce for ounce it’s a lot cheaper. Cherry Balmz does smell delicious. |
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OP, in TX where you're not hitting extreme cold weather, you're just fine with your roughly mil specced CLP of choice. If you don't want to do the CLP thing light synthetic oil for cheap options or EWL for gucci stuff is great. Attached File ******************************* Had a whole bunch of this at one time--absurdly slick stuff. |
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Seriously considering trying this. |
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The superlube is foodsafe, safe to handle. Stays put. Have used it for years. The grease is available at different hardware stores and harbor freight. If you like something thinner i buy these at menards.Attached File |
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Super Lube oil and grease is one of the best lubricants available. I used it extensively for customer guns, and my own. It's a clear-white Teflon full synthetic lube good from -45 to +450. The grease is a thick type, the oil is a thin grease-thick oil that stays right where it's put. It lasts indefinitely with no drying out, running off, or evaporating. A few years ago I read that the Canadian RCMP did a lube test to find one that would work in high North full arctic conditions, and they picked CLP Breakfree as their standard. |
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Wow, I've been using this for coating the innards of my silencers to help with cleaning and minimizing dangerous blow back materials getting into my face (its NSF). I had never considered using this as gun lube though. Slip 2000 EWL has been my go to for a long time on sliding parts in hand guns and long guns. 100F to -10F works great. No idea whats in it, so I'm going to try spreading around the silicone and see how that works. Thanks. Never considered it. |
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TW25b is another lube that is great for extreme cold. It is not cheap, thus, some other things (synthetic oils/greases/etc) may work just fine at a more reasonable cost. I have a tub of it, but, it is not my go to. The cool thing is (no pun intended), if you live where it gets cold, you can experiment with various lubes and see what works AND what is the unit cost for each. Use the scientific method, document, and see what is what. If I still lived where it consistently got cold, that is what I would do. |
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https://gunbutter.com/ Been using this and it's excellent in the cold compared to other brands like Lucas! Code rob saves you 20% on your order too! |
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Thank you for all the responses & suggestions. I should have mentioned I was in Texas, so when we get below 15 degrees, I call that “extreme”  . I was in a deer stand for a couple days this past weekend and the temps dropped to 14 degrees with a 2 degree wind chill. It was clear that the Lucas heavy duty oil I had on my AR wasn’t up to the task. I ended up ordering some SLIP 2000 from Amazon. Rifle is lubed up and sitting outside tonight and tomorrow morning we are supposed to around 20 degrees. I’m sure I’ll have different results tomorrow. |
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A guy in Alaska tested a lot of lubes in sub-zero weather and decided (in his opinion) that Marvel's Mystery Oil was the best. I have been using 100% Synthetic for what it's worth, the variety of options has improved dramatically since their original testing was performed. I also use Lubriplate NO. 105 on the bolt lugs and the BCG raceways. Lubriplate was the go to for M1 Garands over 80 years ago. That doesn't make it a bad choice today. |
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It's a bit dated, but in 1995 RCMP tested a bunch of firearms lubricant products for performance at -40 degrees and four passed their tests. The four are: Eezox FP10 G96 TW-25b Here's the report if you want to read the details: http://web.archive.org/web/20201111181305/http://www.g96.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/TR-01-97.pdf I haven't been to -40 since then but do know that at least FP10 and TW25b work fine on ARs and handguns at -15F. I use Superlube a lot, especially for handguns but it does start to get very sluggish below about 20 degrees or so. Go with a very thin coat if you're going to be colder than that. |
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Just about anything works. A well built AR will run bone dry without lube in -20F. Been shooting guns in below zero weather for a long time, down to -40, and I've never had a stoppage due to the cold using just about every popular gun oil on the market. I mostly just use mil spec clp |
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Quoted: Chris Bartocci (of Small Arms Solutions) tested all of the major lubes in upstate NY near Buffalo when he was working for Colt, and he said the only ones that worked below -60 degrees were G96 synthetic lube and Slip2000 EWL. Hope this helps. The coldest recorded temp on record in Buffalo, NY is -20 °F. If he was testing in temps of -60 °F it wasn’t in Buffalo. And do we have a list of “all the major lubes” tested? That’s pretty ambiguous. |
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New York State: The lowest temperature ever recorded by the climatology department was -52 degrees Fahrenheit on February 18, 1979. This was recorded by the National Weather Service Station in Old Forge, between Albany and Syracuse. Some good reading here regarding cold weather lube testing: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD0703836 https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/trecms/pdf/AD0831612.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjfqJCNjPSDAxVTl4kEHSB_Dk0QFnoECCkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw26vjVq68Us2Vstv3RQQCaT |
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Quoted: Texas extreme low temps > Michigan normal low temps I can tell you synthetic motor oil works fine as a gun lube at negative temperatures. never tried at -40 cause I didn't want to go out and try. I did let the gun sit out at -10 overnight and it worked fine. I live in MI and I've used car oil, even used car oil sometimes, 0W is tested for crank at -35c and pump at -40c I believe. I think people really over do the whole gun oil stuff, it's literally snake oil. |
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Quoted: The coldest recorded temp on record in Buffalo, NY is -20 °F. If he was testing in temps of -60 °F it wasn’t in Buffalo. And do we have a list of “all the major lubes” tested? That’s pretty ambiguous. Quoted: Quoted: Chris Bartocci (of Small Arms Solutions) tested all of the major lubes in upstate NY near Buffalo when he was working for Colt, and he said the only ones that worked below -60 degrees were G96 synthetic lube and Slip2000 EWL. Hope this helps. The coldest recorded temp on record in Buffalo, NY is -20 °F. If he was testing in temps of -60 °F it wasn’t in Buffalo. And do we have a list of “all the major lubes” tested? That’s pretty ambiguous. I don’t think he meant he tested the lubes in his backyard while he was living in Buffalo, I think he meant he tested them while working at Colt while he was living in Buffalo. He lives in Texas now. You can email him and ask him about the test. I shouldn’t have said “all the major lubes” he said the only two that survived the test were G96 and Slip2000 EWL. I don’t know all the different lubes he tested, you should probably ask him which ones tested and how they did. |
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Quoted: Chris Bartocci (of Small Arms Solutions) tested all of the major lubes in upstate NY near Buffalo when he was working for Colt, and he said the only ones that worked below -60 degrees were G96 synthetic lube and Slip2000 EWL. Hope this helps. I recall seeing his video that discussed this. In 2001 when I bought my first high end 1911, a Rock River Arms Basic Limited Match, I stated using Wilson Combat lubes and have been using them ever since along with Slip 2000. Both of these have worked great for me, handguns and long guns. |
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Quoted: Chris Bartocci (of Small Arms Solutions) tested all of the major lubes in upstate NY near Buffalo when he was working for Colt, and he said the only ones that worked below -60 degrees were G96 synthetic lube and Slip2000 EWL. Hope this helps. I use G96 synthetic oil on my bolt gun strikers. If that freezes up I should be in my lazy boy with a bourbon, neat, next to the wood stove. |
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Quoted: I typically run thin grease on my bolt/carrier. But if it’s really cold, thin oil or a clp keeps things from gumming up Once cold ass weather hits, I strip all grease from my guns. I found out a few years ago that my grease choices were poor when temps dipped. |
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Quoted: What works best? I read an article about “Cherry Balmz”, but does it really work? What have you tried? Thank you I just participated in a two gun match where the temps were 0F and with windchill, down to -10. Rifle was lubed with CLP. Pistol was lubed with regular red Lucas gun oil. Zero issues. Now... 0/-10 is NOT like Stalingrad or actual arctic cold, but that's about as cold as I'm going to play in, so regular CLP/Lucas works for me. |
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Quoted: I just participated in a two gun match where the temps were 0F and with windchill, down to -10. Rifle was lubed with CLP. Pistol was lubed with regular red Lucas gun oil. Zero issues. Now... 0/-10 is NOT like Stalingrad or actual arctic cold, but that's about as cold as I'm going to play in, so regular CLP/Lucas works for me. Windchill is irrelevant for equipment. It's not getting colder than ambient. |
I've only shot down to -15. Unfortunately, I was busy with things other than shooting when it was -33. That would have been a perfect day to test. Here's what I've used: Magnalube PTFE grease, G96 Sythhetic grease, Mobil 1 10w40, and G96 CLP have all worked fine. No sluggishness, no failures. |
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Chris Bartocci does an interview with the owner/creator of G96 and how it won the new CLP military contract & etc. Interview here |
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