Lubricating Slides

[ShootnStr8]

What is the best way to lubricating slides?  I have heard oil only and I have heard grease.  All sorts of stuff seems to be used including: STP, Slide Glide, Lubriplate, Mil Spec, transmission fluid and so on.  So what you find works best?

Blessings!

ShootnStr8

[mcwoodduck]

I use lithium greese on the rails and the back of the slide  a little dab here and there and then reassemble the gun aget cleaning.  And rube them together.
Found the oil drips out over time, I did use a spray wax and that worked well in the desert where there was a fine dust that would clog the greese over time.
The Wax worked but needed to be reapplied every so often.  I keep a can in the shooting bag as well as a clean wash cloth.

[Brett]

As a general rule of thumb- If it slides, grease it. If it rotates,  oil it.

[Empty Quiver]

I use MIL COMM TW25B and apply a moderate  sheen if you will. I don't want a sloppy mess and I find the heavier application just collects dust bunnies. When the gun goes to the range however it gets a generous slathering of the TW25B. It comes out of the tube about the consistency of hand lotion, and like lotion, it thickens over time to a grease like consistency.


 I suppose it is about half way between oil and grease, so neither. 

[irold]

After cleaning , my pistols get Rem oil.  Before taking them out to shoot , I oil again , lock the slide back , oil the rails where ya can ...oil the barrel.....go shoot.  Haven't had any problems , been doing that for 20 odd years.
 
regards , irold

[SteveHawaii]

I'm using Slide Glide now.  What I like about it is that it stays put and is real slick.  A little goes a long way.  Pretty much everything else gets full synthetic 5w30 Mobile 1.

[gypsyman]

Tetra gun grease on the slides, Tetra lube on anything else that moves. gypsyman

[Lloyd Smale]

i mostly use tetra oil. I tried the grease but up here when it gets real cold the grease is just to thick and causes problems with my 1911s

[rockbilly]

I have used “Break Free” for years with no problem.  I use it on all of my guns.  A little more than you asked for, but…..

Due to the number of firearms I own cleaning and maintaining is a problem. Once a year I try to go through the safes and clean and oil all of them, most are not fired in between cleanings, I  do this to help preserve the finish, they are stored in a silicone gun sack in the safe as well.

To clean I remove the grips on handguns and submerge them in a mixture of engine oil, hydraulic transmission fluid and naphtha.  After soaking for a while in the solution I remove the gun, let it drain on a rack, and then it is blown off with compressed air and wiped clean.  Breakfree is then applied to all moving parts and again wiped down, the grips are put back on the gun, and it goes back in the silicone sack and back in the safe. Long guns are d0one pretty much the same way, stocks are removes as well as scopes on those that are not used often and they are cleaned in the same manner. Scopes are not removed from those that I use. I have guns that I bought 50 years ago that would still rate better than 95%, not one has never fail to function when removed for service, in other words the investment is protected!

[1911crazy]

Moly on the frame/slide rails, the trigger sear, hammer face, disconnector path.  I put a few dtops of CLP with a tad of moly in the mag body/spring.