Lubrication Of Sig Sauer Pistol Rails

Site Notices

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Lubrication Of Sig Sauer Pistol Rails

Posted: 9/13/2009 10:17:41 PM EDT

This article is about what I personally recommend for lubricating
Sig Sauer pistols. I have different methods for lubricating other guns,
but this article is focused on the Sig Sauer pistols.

My philosophy: If metal rubs metal, it needs grease between the parts.

We lubricate guns simply to allow the
parts that rub on one another to move smoothly. Modern combat handguns
are not intended to be run without lubrication. One of our customers
made this mistake recently and is now spending a lot of additional
money to get his gun in working order after degreasing his gun and dry
firing 1,000 times after it came back from Grayguns.

Application of grease

I had an empty “Shooter’s Choice” syringe sitting around so I filled it
with my favorite grease. Any method of application will work just fine.
I use about half-ounce of grease a day while working on guns. I was in
need of a way to keep grease readily available without having to
unscrew the top of a jar or bottle and I found the syringe to work
perfectly for me. What I like best about the syringe is that I can put
the grease directly where I want it, such as inside certain springs and
the corners of frame rails.

Product options

Any gun-grade grease will do the trick. I personally prefer to use Brian Enos’ Slide Glide, Shooter’s Choice grease including a cool syringe for later use or Lubriplate found at Brownells.com. The grease in the following pictures is a lithium/moly-based grease that I’m experimenting with, details available soon.

I’ve applied most of the grease to the underside of the frame rail
completely filling the top inside corner. This is critical along the
length of the rails because most of the force of recoil lifts the slide
and applies force backward and upward against the underside of the
frame rails.

Notice how there is a greater amount of grease near the muzzle end
of the gun than at the rear. This is intentional. There is only so much
space in the tolerance of the pistol for lubrication to reside. Since
the slide goes on back to front it’ll push the remaining grease to the
back of the frame and bunch it up on the back of the slide when the
slide it closed.

You can see that I didn’t use as much grease on the side of the
rails as I did on the underside, this is purely because it’s not
generally necessary.

The top also gets a layer of grease to protect against galling and excess friction.

More pictures and more information will be posted in the coming
days, and I provided detailed shots on applying grease to the pistol’s
internals as well.

Different mission, different approach

For my every day carry
(EDC) I grease the rails, put the slide on, run the action a couple of
times, remove the slide then wipe the rails off to remove the large
amount of bulk. I leave the grease on the under side of the rails alone
when I wipe them off, the slide normally holds enough grease to keep
things running.

For an EDC, remember your gun goes everywhere you do and is exposed
to everything you are, hot, cold, humidity, dust, taco shells from that
ill advised taco you ate while trying to talk on your cell phone while
driving last week….everything. So if you have grease squirting out of
every crevasse on the gun, you’ll be attracting the general detritus of
every day life into your gun. Generally, that crap doesn’t generally
make it in far enough to do any kind of damage unless you’re
irresponsible enough to never clean your carry gun.

For open carry EDC for law enforcement, you gotta
start thinking a bit more. I’ve had a couple of cops bring me their
duty pistols for work and I’ve been astonished at what I’ve found. When
I cocked the hammer of one of them, I found three pieces off bitten of
finger nail and a corner of plastic from a plastic ketchup packet….I
mean WTF MAN! Clean your freaking gun.

I asked how long it had been since he last cleaned it and he told
me it had been a couple years, “I hardly ever use it, I figured it was
still pretty clean” was his excuse. His gun was absolutely bone dry, I
actually found dust on the frame rails as opposed to lube.

That brings me to another subject, cleaning. Here’s what I recommend.

Competition

Clean it after every 200 to 400 rounds. Most of the time a big match or
a day of shooting will be enough of a work out that your gun will need
cleaning.

EDC with frequent use including open carry

Clean it after every time you use it. If you’re going to depend on that
gun to save your life, you want it to work the first time you pull the
trigger, so keep it clean and lubed.

EDC with little to no use

Clean your gun at least once a month. More of the same of your gun
being needed to save your life. Even without use, your gun needs to be
cleaned and relubricated, so give it a quick bath and make sure it’s
ready when you need it. There are 720 hours in a 30 day month, I think
you can afford to spend 1/720 of a month cleaning your gun every month,
it’s cheap insurance.

Posted: 9/14/2009 6:09:22 AM EDT

[#1]

Good read and if it works do it. I dont use grease any more. The newer oil like FP10 that get into the metal and stay wet seems to work for me better. Grease that come on the new Sigs from the factory on break in can cling hold metal filings and scratch up the rails. On the older pistols with loose fit slides I would probably use it , but the newer tight fit pistols to me run smoother with FP10 and hold less grit. I would think it would depend on the type of shooting a person does, and the type and condition of the pistol. I am not trying to get into a grease vs oil converse, but just pointing out another opinion . Prior to the newer oils available I did run grease for 20 + years on pistols and AR rifles and it worked , but was a grit trap.

Posted: 9/14/2009 8:06:06 AM EDT

[#2]

i work at a gm dealership and we have lubricant labeled lubriplate. will this work. its a white grease.

Posted: 9/14/2009 12:38:57 PM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:

i work at a gm dealership and we have lubricant labeled lubriplate. will this work. its a white grease.

Like this stuff?

I'm sure that it'll work fine. All lubricants work pretty well. With something like a handgun where there isn't THAT much friction (at least compared with things like industrial bearings) it is really hard to tell the difference in performance. Give it a try, it if doesn't feel smooth or there is any sticking or grittiness to it clean it off and try something else.

Posted: 9/14/2009 3:44:35 PM EDT

[#4]

Good write-up, max. I've been meaning to get a hold of some slide glide and try it out.

Posted: 9/15/2009 8:20:50 AM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:

Quoted:
i work at a gm dealership and we have lubricant labeled lubriplate. will this work. its a white grease.

Like this stuff?

http://www.lubriplate.com/images/cartridges-group.jpg

I'm sure that it'll work fine. All lubricants work pretty well. With something like a handgun where there isn't THAT much friction (at least compared with things like industrial bearings) it is really hard to tell the difference in performance. Give it a try, it if doesn't feel smooth or there is any sticking or grittiness to it clean it off and try something else.

no it comes in a tin can, as long as it wont do any harm ill try it.

Posted: 9/16/2009 2:13:00 PM EDT

[#6]

I use white lithuim grease on my P226. It was used and the top side of the slide serrations on the frame was a bit used, from gold to light gold. on some spots, the rest was still black. So I used a fair amount of grease a bit everywhere, leaving me with a big ball of grease behind the slide when I cycled it back and forth. I guess I was using too much.

Posted: 9/16/2009 4:34:32 PM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:

I use white lithuim grease on my P226. It was used and the top side of the slide serrations on the frame was a bit used, from gold to light gold. on some spots, the rest was still black. So I used a fair amount of grease a bit everywhere, leaving me with a big ball of grease behind the slide when I cycled it back and forth. I guess I was using too much.

Just wipe it off and keep going. It's a bit of a waste of grease but you're not going to hurt anything.

Posted: 9/17/2009 11:50:43 AM EDT

[#8]

I mean just after I apply it to the rails, it seemed that I put too much at the time but now that there is a thread on this, I know i was doing the thing correctly.

I used a bit of oil one time, combined with the grease... I got 2 small rivers of oil dripping from the rear of the rails after my shooting session

, I now use only grease and it stays there, just like it's supposed to do.
I can't find any gun greae around here so the white lithium greae does the job just fine.

Posted: 9/17/2009 12:23:10 PM EDT

[#9]

The Sig I just received used oil, will make a point of stripping and replacing with some lithium grease that I have for my M14s, thanks for the article!

Posted: 9/18/2009 12:58:55 AM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:

The Sig I just received used oil, will make a point of stripping and replacing with some lithium grease that I have for my M14s, thanks for the article!

I like to use oil on the internals of the pistol, but grease for the slide rails.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Lubrication Of Sig Sauer Pistol Rails

Handguns » SIG Sauer

Warning

Confirm Action

About AR15.COM

Stay Connected

Newsletter

Contact Us