To help make ends meet, I now work part-time at a local gun shop/range. Some co-workers have recently (as within the past week or so) had their carry guns treated with Froglube. Makes the action feel really smooth and nice, but not sure of it long term. Does it eventually gum-up/get sticky. Do you have to THOROUGHLY clean the old application off your gun before you re-apply. I'm just not familiar with it.
The other I've heard a lot about, with was what I was going to get before the co-workers started showing off their Froglubed guns, was Fireclean. I've heard lots of good stuff about it, and since it's just an oil and not a paste like FL, seems like it'd be a little easier to apply and re-apply.
I don't have any real first-hand experience with either one, so any feed back about your use of both/either is appreciated in advance.
First thing to remember is that everyone is "correct", because it works for
THEM, but that don't mean it is "correct" for you: Almost no person will freely accept that their way is not "right", since it
does work for them. So, with that out of the way, pardon me while I climb upon my soap box...
I have been shooting- and cleaning- firearms for the better part of 50 years, and the absolute most important thing to maintaining
accuracy is getting rid of lead and/or copper fouling, and unless you use a Copper Solvent, and Bristle Brush, in the bore, it ain't going away. I almost never hear people mention that when the subject of cleaning is brought up.
Unfortunately, too many "cleaners" don't realy clean a firearm. Take the vast amount of "cleaners" on the market simply copied Break Free with the "CLP" moniker. They are almost always either OIL or GREASE, and they do
not remove bore fouling. CLP means Clean Lube Protect, but it only cleans as well as any
OIL cleans something, so it
will remove powder residue, finger prints, other oils and salts, but honestly, that is just not "cleaning" your firearm now, is it?
I keep hearing people talk about removing "carbon fouling" from their firearms, and that truly is
powder residue, and unless it has remained uncleaned for a VERY long time [maybe 20+ years???], pretty much any oil you can put on a rag, including used motor oil, will wipe off powder fouling.
Unfortunately, some years back, the US Military "dumbed down" cleaning by getting rid of bore solvent and switching to Break Free CLP [some salesman saw THEM coming!], but if you look at the vast majority of those rifles, accuracy really sucks because they have
NOT been properly cleaned in nearly 25 years now.
Go talk to any number of Hi-Power Rifle or Handgun Silhouette competition shooters and they will tell you that you must clean the copper/lead fouling from the bore, just not quite all of it, since a
slightly fouled bore shoots better than an absolutly clean bore. Go look at any number of cleaning kits on the market, and they do not contain solvent. Are the cleaning kit guys working with the gun making guys to facilitate your firearm wearing out faster, or what? Go figure.
I started out using WWII solvent and gun grease, and probably would still be using that if it were still available in quantity, and at afordable prices. It WORKED. Look at how many WWI~WWII 1911/1911A1 & M1 Garand are still out there and going strong, without the use of the newest Hi-Tech grease/oil. Simply clean the bore properly with a solvent, then lube the firearm with the minimum lube you need.
Yes, I said MIMIMUM. More lube means more stuff that can be fouled with dirt, dust, sand, and yes, powder fouling.
So, which lube, since I canot easily get the old Mil grease, is "best"? I have used nearly everything that has come out over the past 45 years, since EVERYONE says their lube will out perform EVERY other lube out there, and most of them did
not live up to the hype; just better advertising,
maybe. I gave up something else for RIG a long while back, and I gave that up for Frog Lube about two years ago, I beleive.
I have never had Frog Lube go rancid, or freeze and crumble [claims that one of the newer competitors are making]. Any lube will thicken up if it gets cold enough, and any lube will melt and flow if it gets hot enough, but under those temperature extremes, are
YOU still functioning at 100%??? Any lube, if left open for long enough will tend to loose moisture and cake up, too. Frog Lube has not failed me, and I have also used it to "lubricate" my knuckles, elbows, and knees, when the air was dry and hot, and my skin was cracking and bleeding.
I also think that the need to heat up a firearm before putting lube on it so it flows into the pores [??] of the steel is a whole bunch of bunk. They never did that with 1911s', Garands, and various belt fed machine guns, so how do you explain the longevity of all those weapons?
Right now I have a GLock which was bought in the winter of 1989/1990 that has not been
properly clreaned since 1993, with well over 35,000 rounds of everything except Wincester ammo through it, and with only the minimum anount of lube on the slide rails, bottom of the slide, and barrel, and a minimum amount of oil on the pivot pins, every 500 rounds. Accuracy has diminished due to not using bore solvent [and you can still put every round into the kill zone of a man size chest target at 25 yards], but no other deterioration of function has been observed. No failures to feed/eject, no mag release problems, no malfunctions of any type, (except for Winchester ammo, which I will never shoot in any handgun I own, unless it is life or death and I don't have a convenient club or big rock handy.).
I got some of the Rand CLP [there it is again... what, they couldn't come up with an
original name for their lube???], Fireclean, and Frog Lube, and passed them out to 15 active, experienced, shooters to evaluate against whtever they are using now. The un-scientific results are: (14) didn't like it at all; (1) switched to Rand; (12) switched to Frog Lube; (2) switched to Fireclean
Now, I suspect there are quite a few of you that are going to disagree with me, and quite a few who will say I am crazy, or just plain don't know what I am talking about, but I am simply satating
my personal experience of 50-odd years of hunting, competitive shooting, and defensive/ofensive shooting, with rifles and handguns. So, take it for what it is worth to you, and please make certain that you keep your bore clean...
