Flork

Forward: This article has been posted on various other forums and is on my company's blog as well. Please feel free to use it and share it all you want, but please place credit where it is due.





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 theparts that rub on one another to move smoothly. Modern combat handguns are not intended to be run without lubrication. A previous customer of mine made this mistake recently and is now spending a lot of additional money to get his gunin working order after degreasing his gun, dry firing 1,000 times then shooting it after it came back from getting action work.





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 a half-ounce of grease a day while working on guns and 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 my applications. What I like best about the syringe is thatI can put the grease directly where I want it, such as inside certain springs and the corners of frame rails.





Productoptions



Any gun-grade grease will do the trick. I personally prefer to useLubriplate, Shooter’s Choice grease including a cool syringe for later use or Slide Glide. The grease in the following pictures is a lithium/moly-basedgrease 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 rearward and upward against the underside ofthe 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 toreside. 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 is 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 as necessary. The top also gets a layer of grease to protect against galling and excess friction.









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 everyday life into your gun. Generally, that crap doesn’t make itin 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 of bitten off finger nail and a corner of plastic from a plastic ketchup packet….”Come on man, clean your gun once in a while” actually escaped my mouth. 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”. His gun was absolutely bone dry and I found dust on the frame rails as opposed to lube.





Cleaning Practices



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 workout that your gun will need cleaning.





EDCwith 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, it’s more of the same of your gun being needed to save your life. Even without use, your gun needs to be cleaned and re-lubricated, 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.





Lubricants Mentioned:



Lubriplate: Available from http://www.Brownells.com



Shooter’s Choice: Available from http://www.shooters-choice.com



Slide Glide: Available from http://brianenos.com/

Jeff.Slim

Pinned.

Flork

Thanks Jeff.

Badger

Very helpful...Thanks Flork! (and you, too Jeff!)

360glitch

Another helpful article. Thanks for sharing.

Volzfan

Glad to learn something new or at least a better way to do it.

Quality post! Thanks!

Gett Daddy

very good to know. thank you sir.

ccolin7950

Glad to hear so good info on this

ccolin7950

Thanks Jeff, By the way shooters choice is available @ Cheaper Than Dirt in both tube & jar. Should the XD9 get similar lube application?

Flork

Generally speaking, I'd say yes. In most cases every gun can be lubricated in the same manor.



Scott

ccolin7950

Thanks again for the great info, very through & easy to understand (grasp concept)

netfotoj

I use Slide Glide on all my pistols. If it has a slide, it needs Slide Glide. Slide Glide Lite is for carry pistols.

Calico Hunter

Oops - My Bad !



Are you saying my use of RemOil ( contains Teflon ) as a lubricant is not doing an effective job ?

Flork

It will work in the short term or for carry applications where you'll fire maybe 50 rounds, but if you're going to be shooting in a training class or other environment where you'll be shooting 100 rounds or more, I'd definitely advise you use ample grease.

AlexV

I'm brand new to Sig. Thank You for the tip on how to lube. Just so I don't over lube, Grease on the rails, not on the slide itself? Mine is a 229 stainless elite.

Flork

Alex,



Welcome to the universe of Sig Sauer handguns.



I recommend grease on the rails because as you put the slide on, the grease gets kicked to the out side where you can wipe it off without much trouble. If you grease the slide, it globs the grease into the frame and makes a massive mess you have o clean up later.



Shoot Safe.



Scott

AlexV

Scott. thank you. Now I know not to grease the slide as well as the rails. Just the rails. How do you feel about Mobil 1 Grease?

Flork

I'd say that any good grease will do the job, including Mobil 1.



Scott

garandguy

I use LSA/T good stuff!

Flork

Never heard of that. Is it a while lithium or a moly base?