Before I joined the military and later became a law enforcement firearms instructor, I thought I knew a lot about guns. Like most things, the more I learned about guns and shooting, the more I realized just how much I didn’t know.
You see, I grew up with guns, hunted with my grandfather and like every teenager…I knew it all.
Sounds familuar doesn't it?
The reality was my grandad always made sure the guns were in tip top shape. He showed me how to clean and lube them, but I had a short attention span.
There was always something more important I wanted to do, so I would rush through cleaning my gun to go do the “fun stuff”. Sounds like a typical guy thing, right?
Anyhow, my name is Jeremy and I want to share with you something that might just save your life. While in the military, later as a civilian contractor, and now as a state level law enforcement firearms instructor trainer, I’ve seen many rifles and pistols malfunction or just out and out fail.
We all know that guy who shouldn’t be allowed to touch a gun let alone carry one, right? Well, I have worked with “that guy”. That dude could screw up anything and everything, and he usually did.
During one contract, we were one the range making sure our rifles were dialed in and working. Mind you, this was 12 hours before we were headed out on a security detail and it seemed like every other round though this guy's gun was jamming up. He was wearing me out.
After we had finished, the team lead told me to go over and help this jughead figure out what was wrong with his rifle.
Once we broke his weapon down you know what I saw, don't you?
Not only was the gun just filthy, it was dry as a bone! I’m not kidding a bit when I tell you it looked like you had busted up a cube of charcoal and packed it inside this gun.
I was like “dude, that’s going to get your ass killed! Who the hell taught you how to take care for a weapon?
It scared the crap out of me thinking that this guy would be beside me. I knew if all hell broke loose he would be over there jacking around with a jammed-up rifle.
Not helping me put effective rounds downrange.
I wanted to tell him just pack as many extra magazines on his body as he could get, so when his clogged-up gun got his ass killed at least I could pilfer his body for extra ammo!
Instead, I spent the next hour or two with him breaking down every part of his gun, cleaning it, and most importantly lubing it up correctly for reassembly. When we finished, he said, and I quote, “Holy shit! This thing’s action has never felt like this. It is slicker and smoother now than it has ever been”.
Good grief, some people's kids, right? Oh well, this is likely how my grandpa felt cleaning up guns with me.
The very next day our simple little security detail went to hell in a handbasket and we got into a pretty wicked firefight, bullets were flying everywhere. Your training kicks in and you get to work. That day we had a couple minor injuries, nothing more thank God.
That night “Mr. Rifle Jam” came and tracked me down. He wanted to know what exactly I had lubed his gun with because after almost a dozen magazines of ammo though it, it was still just as smooth as it was right after we had cleaned it the day before.
I opened a small maintenance pouch that I had made a habit of wearing on my plate carrier. I showed him the small Ziplock bag of weapon lubricant that I always had with me. A mixture that I have trusted my life to for the last 25 years.
Inside that baggie was a mixture that my grandpa called his “secret sauce”, you know, the good stuff. You see grandpa was a WWII vet in the Pacific, and he understood what it took to keep a gun running in sand, saltwater, mud, and rain.
To this day I vividly remember the smell of his pipe and the smell of the “secret sauce” while we were cleaning guns together. He’d always chuckle say “Jeremy, get it all greased up, shiny like a glazed donut. It needs to be slicker than owl shit”.
Today we have access to more in-depth scientific analysis of lubricants. We have new and improved synthetic oils, greases, and additives.
Exactly the stuff we need in today's harsh enviornments, right?
All of those improvements have helped me improve the “secret sauce” gun lube that my grandpa had me helping him mix almost 40 years ago when I was a kid.
I’ve tried just about every gun lube on the market over the years. Oils, greases, lubes, and balms….nothing is slicker than Owl Sh*t. Seems once again that grandpa knew what he was doing!
