DLC - best dry bolt lube for dusty environments?

3

300ATT

Induna
Full Member
Minuteman
Oct 29, 2008
735
397
Denver CO
#1
I was blessed to have a great Thanksgiving shooting steel at distance with my kids and extended family in the Arizona desert. I was shooting a custom .308 built on a Badger Ordinance M2008 action. It ran great but I did notice the constant dust and at the end of the day I started feeling resistance when cycling the bolt.

Before I have the bolt sent off for a DLC treatment ( not sure this is an end-all-be-all fix) I wanted hear from The Hide members what work best in fine blowing dusty environments.

Is there a dry lube that works well?

What do you do and what have you found works the best?
 
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#2
Never tried it on something like a bolt but Caterpillar had a dry graphite spray that I used for door hinges and other stuff that needed to be lubed but you couldn't use anything that dirt would stick to or it gummed up quickly. Might be worth looking into.
 
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#3
Interesting. I will look into dry lubes. Anyone else have any experience with dry lubes in the field?

I have always just cleaned actions after a dusty day shooting and then lightly lube them but cringe a taking them back out as the oil is a dust magnet.

What do others do?
 
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#6
@Floglock I have owned large & small sailing catamarans and have used sailkoat many times - I should have thought of that and might even have a can laying around - will experiment - THANKS!

@308pirate - Thanks, will check out the mil spec.

Anyone out there running Dlc'ed actions more or less dry ??? Good? Bad? No conclusions yet?
 
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#9
Clean it. Run it dry. I only lube my bolt lugs with a tiny dab of grease, then wipe it off before I go out. Live in the desert also. A lot of dry lubes will turn into an absolute shit show if the part comes into contact with any regular gun oil or solvents, think like an action and bolt coated with laffy taffy, I never want to clean up that kind of mess again.
 
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#10
You will find that a lot of people can get rather denominational with shooting related wet products. Guys will find a product they like, and preach how it is the best thing ever. So you end up with all these people parroting about their favorite lubes/ products. I have my own few that I like and it even differs according to the coatings involved. I have spent quite a bit of money on lubes- hah; and I can definitely tell you what not to use...
 
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#11
Agree.

Subscribing to precision shooter magazine way back when was NOT a good thing ... lots of lubes/products/snake oil pushed for the sake of advertising ... weren't they the ones that touted "fire-lapping" a barrel as the best thing ever ... what happened to that? ... crickets ...
 
#12
I think to answer your actual question, I have a DLC'd M2013 and it doesn't need lube. I live in New Mexico where we have similar dust and windy conditions and it runs well dry, with the DLC. I don't know the current turn around time on having it coated, and it's certainly more expensive to have done than it is to buy a bottle of some type of lube. If you are looking for a dry lube that's marketed towards gun owners though; Hornady One Shot seems to work fairly decent.
 
#13
 
#15
 
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#17
Ok first stab. I wiped out the chamber and wiped off the bolt. Sprayed a light coating of dry lube inside the action and on the bolt and let dry. Ran the bolt - kind of sticky. Ran it some more not so good. Then I lightly buffed the bolt and action with a micro fiber towel and MUCH better and slick. A little bit goes a very long way. Will try it out in a match tomorrow.
 
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#19
Drislide has been around since Vietnam. It is also used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Get the needle applicator. Use sparingly. This is not Teflon in a suspension. It is composed of MDS, graphite, a corrosion inhibitor in a evaporating suspension. I have not used the current for weapons formulation just the original formulation. https://www.drislide.com/collections/weapons-lubricant-1
 
#20
Quarter Horse said:
Drislide has been around since Vietnam. It is also used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Get the needle applicator. Use sparingly. This is not Teflon in a suspension. It is composed of MDS, graphite, a corrosion inhibitor in a evaporating suspension. I have not used the current for weapons formulation just the original formulation. https://www.drislide.com/collections/weapons-lubricant-1
Click to expand...
I have used drislide for years and it just works
 
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#21
I would be careful about using dry lubricant. I have never seen a firearm manual suggest dry lubricantt for anything. Also, why not keep it simple? Take a rag with you and just wipe your bolt down as needed. 10 seconds and done. You can also take a 12 gauge bore mop on a short rod to clean your action if necessary. If it is really windy and dusty, just cover your action with a rag when not shooting. What about hard rain? I shoot precision rifle matches and have shot in some nasty downpours. Will rain wash dry lubricant off? I use a well known gunsmith. He builds hundreds if not thousands of rifles per year. Many of his rifles are used by top competitors. He suggests wet lube. That is what I use.

Bang
 
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#23
perttime said:
The dry bicycle chain lubes are not the best for wet and muddy. A couple of hours' MTB ride in wet conditions will have the chain squeaking.
Click to expand...

You are correct. A few years ago I rode my bicycle from Ottawa to Key West. I carried dry lube and had to apply it frequently. I did not last. At the end of my trip the chain links were shot and my chain rings and freewheel had to be replace because they were out of spec.

Bang
 
#24
Stay away from this dry lube crap. Want your gun to run, use normal lube. Guns should run on the wetter side and anything that leaves a residue should be avoided. There are lots of good stuff out there that all do the same thing. Mix up a gallon of eds red and you will be set for the next 20 years. Even in a dusty dessert environment you need the liquid to be able to transfer the particles out of the action and away from moving parts.

Knuckle heads in iraq tried the same shit because they didn't want the excess lube to turn their guns into a sugar cookie. Guess what happen when they needed to defend themselves? Read up about the the Jessica lunch mx convoy ambush sometime.

Lube your shit and when in doubt, lube it more
 
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#25
Quarter Horse said:
Drislide has been around since Vietnam. It is also used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Get the needle applicator. Use sparingly. This is not Teflon in a suspension. It is composed of MDS, graphite, a corrosion inhibitor in a evaporating suspension. I have not used the current for weapons formulation just the original formulation. https://www.drislide.com/collections/weapons-lubricant-1
Click to expand...
No it's not. As an armorer deployed there i never saw the shit and it sounds like the miltech bushit they sent us cases of which was worthless. Bottom line you need a viscous liquid to move foreign objects out. It also is going to have a lower co-efficent of friction than just about any dry substance. That is what keeps shit running when things aren't optimal.
 
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#26
Laugh, don't laugh; I mix some Vaseline into Odorless Paint Thinner and use it as my CLP. I allow it to penetrate for a reasonable period, then rub it dry to the touch with a pink shop cloth. It runs effectively enough and doesn't pick up the Talcum powder-like 2.5 micron dust that is ever present here on the Southeast Arizona High Desert. I don't clean my bores so much nowadays, but moving parts get the above treatment.

This is also my preservative treatment for the VFW's eight Garands' metal, which I maintain, when they get put up for storage until next Memorial Day, etc.

I simply ask myself, how did we win our part of WWII without all of those miracle lubes that proliferate today, and I make the exception for Lubriplate, which I reapply before the ceremonial firing each year.

Also, I keep seeing on TV about how the USA won WWII; simple point of fact, the Russians killed more Axis than all of the other 25 or so Allied Countries combined. I don't like the Russians, but credit should be given where credit is due.

Greg
 
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#27
Because in ww2 they used regular motor oil or similar cheap peteoluem product. Not some hillbilly concoction that will get someone killed when it jams up a weapon system. Try that bullshit in the cold weather and you will get people killed

And that's exactly why today, eds red ( 3 parts motor oil and 1 part ATF) is as good as anything on the market and better than most of the junk marketed as gun oil/lube.

Gun lube is not complicated...we go over this almost every year.

And how many Russians died to inflict wounds on the axis? Who were vasty outnumbers, outgeared, had zero logistic support and fighting in a foreign land in the worst winter conditions known to warefare?

The USA almost single handidly won ww2. Without lend lease and supplying Russia with virtually all of their war material and food, the Germans would have steamrolled over Russia. The only resistance they could put up in unarmed and underarmed human waves. The us won the war in the east and the west either directly or indirectly. It's amazing how ignorant people are on our own history.
 
Last edited:
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#28
Primus said:
Stay away from this dry lube crap. Want your gun to run, use normal lube. Guns should run on the wetter side and anything that leaves a residue should be avoided. There are lots of good stuff out there that all do the same thing. Mix up a gallon of eds red and you will be set for the next 20 years. Even in a dusty dessert environment you need the liquid to be able to transfer the particles out of the action and away from moving parts.

Knuckle heads in iraq tried the same shit because they didn't want the excess lube to turn their guns into a sugar cookie. Guess what happen when they needed to defend themselves? Read up about the the Jessica lunch mx convoy ambush sometime.

Lube your shit and when in doubt, lube it more
Click to expand...

@Primus, I couldn't agree more for an AR but not sure I agree w/respect to the Badger 2008 action. The fit between the bolt body and action is tight and that was where the binding occurred. The well lubed bolt collected fine dust like a magnet. The action continued to run but not as smooth and with resistance. Possible solutions:

1.) DLC the bolt and run the action dry except for the lugs

2.) Cut some fluting (spiral?) in the bolt to collect the dust/grit particles and gather them away from the moving parts

Anyone have a comment as to the merits of the above. Maybe you need both and then run them well oiled as @Primus suggests.

I shot a match this weekend with my AI/AT in northern CO. I tried the dry lube on the both body and lite tw25b on the lugs. Lots of dust on the gun, it ran great, no issues. Note that the the gun was not expose to as much dust as the one I took to the 3-day AZ desert shoot over thanksgiving.
 
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