Dry film lubricant in our firearms?

[SRV1]

Has anyone used any type of dry film lubricant and if so what kind and what where the results? I have a can of the stuff by Blaster and their is other companies out there that make similar stuff. I figured dry lubricant would not pick up much gunk or other debris like oil does. I figured before I give it a try I would ask if any of you have done this. Thanks, James

5.25 Oz. Dri-film Aerosol-Per Each-11006 at The Home Depot

9.3 oz. Dry Lube with PTFE Lubricant-16TDL at The Home Depot

[Noodles]

The first one I can't help but notice isn't "safe on any surface", and neither of them seem to be for high-temperature surfaces, so who knows what it'll do in a rifle. But it sure could be interesting to try.

[usmcveteran]

I use Militec-1. You apply it as a liquid and shoot your firearm or heat up the parts with a hair drier to get it to "bond with the metal". you apply it a couple times and heat it a couple times then your all set and can wipe it all off. After being wiped off it works great at lubricating the firearm and since you wiped off the excess it doesnt attract dirt like regular lube. You dont need to apply a lot of it so I have had the same bottle for over a year now and have plenty left.

On a side note I bought some steel nails and applied militec-1 to a nail, CLP to another, and nothing to the last one as a control. I made a salty solution and placed all 2 nails together in between paper towels and placed them on a plate. I then poured the salt water solution on the paper towel soaking it on the plate with the nails. I found that Militec-1 did resist corrosion but not as well as the CLP but it did do a lot better then the control.

[Tifosi]

I'd not suggest the sprays or even straight up molybendum disulfied powder be used as the soul lubricant, at least not on a semi~auto.
Yes, it'll work, yes you can feel the friction release, and yes it'll alleviate collection of dust.
What it won't do is work well if actually shooting more than a few rounds at a session or over a long period of time (presuming one cleans between shooting sessions, which will also remove X% of the solid lubricant, and if cleaning anyway, why worry about a little oil excess?)

This is not without testing or off the cuff.
Using 100% straight moly powder, which is the additive in most of the quality spray lubes, and applying specifically to the instructions we averaged 200 rounds (various rates from bump fire to 'take all day') through a few AR/15's before failure, and when they failed, they failed hard.
No forwarning or indication that something was happening, just hard stoppage and a pretty big unwillingness for the bolt to unlock.
Spray didn't even last that long, and took about 2 years to finally get all stripped off by first working it manually with normal cleaning stuff, then letting natural wear take over after it became too big a PITA to bother frigging with anymore.

As much as we could work out, the lack of oil was also not allowing residue to flow (for want of a better word) so instead it was staying right where it was and just building and cooking until it represented more or less a big chunk of concrete inside the carrier groups.
About as easy to clean out too I might add.

Also note that the powder type is burnished in and wiped off so that there is absolutely minimal tolerance change in the item its applied to whereas the spray versions can radically effect clearances as its normally some form of epoxy paint mixed with moly or other powdered lubricant that is built up on the surface of the item it is applied to. In certain instances on very precise fitting parts, you can literally not be able to cycle/assemble/disassemble because its just too thick while other stuff can work, but its slowed down because the increase in size creates drag, which in turn kinda defeats the purpose of lubricating to begin with.
Cheap example to compare against: lay a coat of sealing primer on a piece of sheetmetal and then measure the thickness of that vs unpainted.

I'm actually a firm believer in the stuff and its lubricating properterties, but at no time ever would I expect it to retain functionality of a device it was applied to without there being at least a minimal amount of actual lubricating oil in there with it. But then again I use my stuff like thier intent is to save my ass, not get shot 3x a year to confirm zero and mabe once more at a critter in the woods.

Again, on a bolt gun, it would likely be just fine for a long period of time due to cyclic rate of fire, carbon buildup amount and location, and actual mechanism function.
A blowback semi~auto, 'mabe' but I won't be spending any sort of time trying it out.
But a direct impingment system? Not ever again in my lifetime.

[Bill]

I've used graphite during cold weather in my blow back 9mm for years.

[Les]

I use Militec-1. You apply it as a liquid and shoot your firearm or heat up the parts with a hair drier to get it to "bond with the metal". you apply it a couple times and heat it a couple times then your all set and can wipe it all off. After being wiped off it works great at lubricating the firearm and since you wiped off the excess it doesnt attract dirt like regular lube. You dont need to apply a lot of it so I have had the same bottle for over a year now and have plenty left.

I'm a Militec-1 user too. Great stuff and the owner of the company ships free cases of it to the guys in the sandbox. Have to like a company like that with a nice product to boot. Militec is also in my lawn equipment as an oil additive and in my car's oil too. I've turned guys onto this stuff at my local club and the opinion is that guns are much easier to clean after using Militec. We buy a case of pint bottles and split the case between a bunch of guys, makes it much more affordable. We get pints for $15.50 that way.

[k2ue]

I really like SmoothKote dry moly lube for bolt & trigger parts, but it has let me down for high friction use, such as pistol slides and AR-15 bolt carrier-to-receiver lube. I use a piston AR, which will stay clean for 1000 rounds, but a few weeks ago in a class the moly bolt carrier lube failed at 500 rounds, giving failures to return to battery. Militec-1 has never let me down. Where possible I apply and put the item in a toaster oven at just 150 degrees for an hour, which helps it bond to the metal.

[SRV1]

The Super Lube is good from -40°F to +500°F, so it says. Maybe semi-auto's this may not fare to well but in bolt actions it could work. I wish I had a beater .22 semi-auto that I could test this on.

James

[Tifosi]

Just to get it out there in regard to temperatures:
Dow~Corning Z~moly powder serviceable temperature range from -226 to 399°C/-447 to 750°F

[Allstar Tactical]

So far in all of our testing a good majority of the moly mix we use stays in suspension, but we expect a portion of it to settle out and adhere onto the metal surfaces, likely lowering the coefficient of friction. Those of you using Militec, I'd love for you guys to try our product and compare/contrast. We had a guy post on our Facebook that he switched over to using ours, so it might work for some of you.

Shoot me a PM if you guys are interested with your address and I'll send out a small sample for you guys to test out!

As said above about Militec, we also are providing anyone over in the sandbox with free bottles and samples. We just shipped out a nice care package to a local Army guy who got deployed to Afghanistan.

[kev74]

I've used the Liquid Wrench brand dry spray lube (Teflon based) on a .22 semi rifle. It seems to work well and helped reduce the amount of crud that sticks and collects in the action.