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The Annoyed Man wrote:

MechAg94 wrote:I would bet most people don't torture test their guns enough to tell the difference between the better lubricants.

You're probably right about the torture testing, but what I do look for is how easily a product will clean off fouling - particularly where it has been burned on pretty good, such as the tail end of an AR bolt for instance. In that regard, Fireclean has worked better for me than Hoppes.

I guess that part is what I was getting confused over. Hoppe's solvent is a cleaner, not a lube so torture testing really doesn't apply in my mind. I agree that the solvent doesn't clean off carbon too well. It doesn't get the carbon staining on revolvers off well either. I have heard there are specialty cleaners that do very well removing carbon.

I know some products act as solvent and lube in one. I just haven't used those much.

eureka40 wrote:

I only use the imported lube.

TMI.

Okay, I couldn't figure out if some people were talking about solvent or lubricating oil. They aren't always the same thing. I wouldn't expect Hoppe's solvent to work well as a lubricant and I wouldn't use the oil for cleaning except as a final coat.

Thinking about composition as I haven't watched the videos and I can' t see the links where I am at: We use industrial oil in our compressors. All the major petro companies sell the stuff. They all say their oil is better. If you look at the composition, they are all 99.9% mineral oil with small amounts of additives. Given that the FireClean is veggie oil based, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it matched up with Crisco for the bulk of the liquid. Probably most any veggie oil based lubricant would do the same.

Dumb question: When y'all refer to Hoppe's #9, are you talking about using the solvent or the gun oil or both? I have always used that solvent for cleaning, but the oil for actual lubrication.

I have recently been using some Slick 2000 EWL, but I haven't done enough shooting yet to say how well it works.

IMO, most guns will function without any or much lubrication. I would bet most people don't torture test their guns enough to tell the difference between the better lubricants.