Thread: Barrel cleaning

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

I remember reading in question n answer section about 35-40 years ago..... young fella asked about using engine oil...it says on bottle,cleans and protects metal...answer was,it will do no harm and will work.
for years I used Dads 2 stroke oil to clean the .410 shotgun we had at family farm in holiday batch...cause it was all I had on hand,Ive used oil off dipstick of landcruiser on my hanky when caught out with nothing else available and a wet rifle.
bottom line is this....anything oil is better than nothing.

not sure if cod liver oil smelling rifle would be best idea however.....it would stop rust .

wd40 is basically kero/terps crc type stuff is slightly better than petrol if its for metal...well a rifle is metal...3n1 oil is made for fine machinery like sewing machines so is perfectly suited to rifles n shotguns.... breakfree is better once things get wet....

I read that q&a years ago too, NZ guns magazine. From memory it was either Peter Maxwell or Nelson Collie that answered. The authors reply started out saying how engine oil was specifically formulated to protect moving parts at extreme temperatures, to prevent corrosion in the most challenging of conditions etc. Basically all the things we ask of gun oil. It concluded that engine oil will not harm a gun and was better than no oil.

That was back when there weren’t many forums and if you had a question you might be waiting a few months for the answer, at least it was answered by someone who knew what they were on about. Times have changed considering you can get ten plus answers in the same day these days.