Having fielded firearm maintenance customer service calls and emails for decades, I can safely say that the number one concern and frustration among gun owners is understanding the resulting side effects of mixing different gun solvents and lubricants together.

“The gunmetal contact points are gummed up.”

“Lubricant looks caked up in the bore.”

“What is this weird color coming off on my cotton patches?”

“How can i clean up my firearms better because something isn’t right here.”

“Why am seeing rust. I cleaned my guns and then lubricated them.”

“In hot and then cold, this wax lube is either running off or congealing.”

“I scrub and I scrub but it still won’t come clean.”

… and the best yet, “I used transmission fluid and synthetic motor oil. What happened/”

There are some stories that are still unsolved mysteries, but overall, especially with firearms that have “history” on the gunmetal, especially in the bore, the culprits are often the same – either you have mixed different cleaner chemistries together or you haven’t thoroughly removed solvent residue. After that, over-lubrication is the next most popular answer to your gun care mishaps.

I know people who own firearms have pride and stubbornness, which on its own is a recipe for disaster, but then you also have a problem throughout the firearms industry with so many differing opinions. At one extreme you have the many gun makers who want to claim that you don’t need anything at all on their guns, or that any gun oil will do as they remain as vague as possible in guiding consumers. And on the other side, you have a plethora of opinions directing people to use a very long list of solvent and lubricating solutions, and sometimes recommended to mix products if not use different materials on specific parts only. All of that can lead to frustration. That being said, I’m not going to get into the proponents of using cleaners and lubes designed for use in automotive applications, because you know, that’s brilliant.

From a chemistry standpoint, when you mix two different chemical formulas, you are opening the door to the unknown. Common sense should tell you that if you combine different things, you don’t know what will happen. Ingredients will interact. Sometimes, they cancel each other out and dumb down performance, or you can accidentally create a chemistry-set mishap and actually invent something more toxic than what you started with. There will definitely be a residual affect, namely, unwanted residue that isn’t looking like cleaner or lubricant in consistency. Most likely, that newly invented substance will either hard stop or slow down your gun parts. Overall, you want to shoot for minimally invasive gun care, right?

Here are some helpful tips to anyone maintaining firearms:

1. Accept the premise that you need to clean and then lubricate your firearms.
2. Choose a good gun cleaner, either liquid or aerosol, and stick with it. Now, please read that back to yourself.
3. Begin the cleaning process by first removing pre-existing solvent residue, and then do the same after you have cleaned. This may be a little confusing but the point is you don’t want solvent residue on gunmetal before lubricating. 3A. Using CLP is an exception to this rule if you choose that path.
4. Apply gun lube – either oil or grease viscosity – to clean, dry gunmetal. Of course, cleaning and lubricating other firearms materials like wood, plastic and rubber is different, and be careful.
5. Remove excess firearms lubricant. Overdoing it will just lead to a mess or slowing down your functionality. With modern finely-precisioned gun parts, tolerances are modest so the less material between two surfaces of gunmetal should be minimally invasive.
6. After shooting, try dry wiping the guns down first and see if enough carbon fouling comes off, which should be visually obvious on your white cotton patches or rag, etc.
7. Use different forms of brushes, jags, mops and/or a patch holder to apply and remove cleaning materials and residues. Sounds obvious, or it should. And yes, a bore rope product also falls into this category.
8. Along the way. Do not mix different company’s gun solvent or lube formulas. Pick ones that work vs. ones that don’t quite do the job. That should be a hint you are wasting your time and making a mess.
9. The better gun care products should work well and quickly. Think about that and don’t buy the cheapest products. There is a difference. However, there is also alot of hype out there so do your homework.
10. Did I mention to not mix different products together? If so, you should be fine.

In my work in the gun care industry, we take product development and testing serious with certified test results both in the lab and in the field. There is a difference between theoretical performance and results at the gun range and in the field, but combined, using better products and practices will yield good results.

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