[Jeff Higgins]

Every now and then, even with as much shooting as I do, I either learn a new or re-learn an old lesson. This one has the potential to be more "serious" than most, so I thought I would swallow my pride and share my embarrassment with you folks in the hopes of saving you some potentially serious trouble.

You guys have probably guessed by now that I might own a few guns. I hate to admit it, but sometimes it may actually border on "too many", at least from the standpoint of keeping all of them in the shooting "rotation". Some of them sit for years between range sessions. Not a big deal, as I usually take them out and give them a cursory once-over, maybe run a patch down the bore just to chase the spiders out, and stuff like that before I actually shoot them.

So, the other day when my younger son and I went shooting, I brought along a couple of handguns that normally sit in the nightstand or in a concealment holster. I almost never shoot the things. Granted, that in and of itself might seem like a bit of a bad idea, but I do own many just like them that I do shoot quite often. I can operate either in my sleep. That is, of course, assuming they are actually operational...

Well, one of them was not. My Charter Arms Bulldog Pug in .44 Special ran flawlessly, which is typical for revolvers. My Kimber Ultra Carry in .45 ACP, however, jammed repeatedly. So I asked my son to watch and see if he could see what was happening.

"Dad", went his observation, "the slide is kinda 'oozing' forward. I can actually see it creeping forward almost into battery". Turns out the gun oil I had applied the last time I had it apart and cleaned it had dried into a golden tar. Just a sticky mess. So I quick field stripped it, cleaned it up, reassembled, and it was back to running like its old self.

It's been unfired for probably a couple, maybe three years. I cannot remember which gun oil I applied back then. I'm sure something I bought at the gun store, like Birchwood Casey, Hoppe's, or something similar. I have run into this on other pistols and rifles in the past, most notably a couple match rifles that sat unfired for about a decade.

I've posted this here before, but I'll mention it again. In light of this tendency for dedicated "gun" oils to dry out and gum up, I switched to using what I consider to be the best I have yet tried. I guess I must have missed cleaning the Kimber and re-oiling with the stuff... like I said, maybe "too many" guns...

Well, it turns out it's not a "gun" oil at all. It's Mobil 1 in 5W-20. I learned of its use as a "gun" oil about ten years ago, from the airgun crowd. The pistons in spring piston guns are apparently particularly susceptible to gumming up when lubed with "gun" oils so, after much trial and effort, they settled on Mobil 1. I have personally had it in several guns now for almost a decade, with no signs of drying out and gumming up.

After this episode, I'm making a concerted effort to go through the inventory and clean and lube all of them with Mobil 1. I cannot remember which ones I've used and subsequently cleaned since I "switched over", so I'm just going to do them all.

So, um, yeah - valuable lesson here. I know a lot of guns sit far too long and we don't get to shoot them as much as we like. Maybe take a look and see if yours is in the same boat.