Lubricating Your AR-15
Don EdwardsDescription
Don Edwards of Green Line Tactical demonstrates his rifle lubrication method. It’s quick and easy to keep your AR-15 running smoothly on the range—and anywhere you might need it.
WHAT TYPE OF OIL?
The inside of a rifle gets extremely hot when fired repeatedly, and a lot of carbon is blowing in there, so use the right type of oil—one that’s made for rifles. Several thin teflon- or silicon-based lubricants are on the market and are designed more for rust protection on the outside. They will burn off, blow away, and not last very long. Keep a bottle of high-quality rifle lube on hand as part of your defensive gear.
RIFLE LUBRICATION, CLEANING, OR BOTH?
If you clean your AR-15 but don’t lubricate it, it won’t run very well. After about one magazine of ammo, it will start getting sluggish and loaded with carbon. If you leave it dirty but keep it lubed with high-quality lube, it will run for a very long time.
DON’S RIFLE LUBRICATION PROCEDURE
1. Move the bolt forward.
2. Find the two small holes that are in the side of the bolt carrier and put a drop or two of oil inside each hole.
3. Using the thumb, pull back on the charging handle just enough to expose the locking lugs and put a couple drops of oil on them.
4. Turn the rifle on its side, exposing the magazine well. Do the same thing with the thumb, hold it open, and put a couple drops of oil on the locking lugs from this angle.
5. Also put two drops on the bottom shiny friction surface of the bolt carrier itself.
6. Turn the rifle right-side up, lock the bolt to the rear, and leave the charging handle open. Put two drops there on the charging handle and smear them around with your finger. That will keep the charging handle slick too.
7. Work the oil in by moving the charging handle back and forth a few times.
That’s all you need to do to take a rifle that’s acting sluggish on the range during rifle training or practice and get it back in the game.
OTHER NOTES
Be careful how much oil you put on your rifle. If you overlube it, though it doesn’t hurt the rifle, the oil will fly up into your face during a string of fire and you’ll need to stop and clean your glasses before continuing.
Hey everybody, this is Don Edwards. And today, I wanna to talk to you a little bit about lubricating your AR-15. But first, let's talk about cleaning it, and lubing it, and why you need it, okay? So these things, if you think about it, it's like a piston in a truck or a car. And it gets really hot and there's lots of carbon blowing in there. So think about the type of oil that you use. If you're using some of these really thin Teflon or silicone-based lubricants that are more designed for rust protection on the outside; it's gonna burn off, blow away, and not gonna last very long. So you wanna use an oil that's made for rifles. There's a lot of oils out there that are made for AR-15s. Look at some of those, okay? Once again, these things, you can clean it, but if you don't put lubrication on it, it's not gonna run very well for you. You'll get about one magazine worth of ammo out of it. And it's gonna start getting sluggish and loaded with carbon. You can leave it dirty. And as long as you keep it wet with lube, good quality lube, it can run forever as long as you keep it lubed up. So let's talk about how I lube one of these rifles when I'm out in the field, at the range or whatever and they start to go down, they start to choke up. I have a student that needs a little bit of oil on their rifle, we pull off to the side, we'll do this little trick right here. And it'll get it right back in the game. So first of all, we put the bolt forward and we take these two small holes that are in the side of the bolt carrier. And we'll just put a drop or two right inside these holes, right? Then I'll pull it over here and I'll just take my thumb and pull that. Pull back on the charging handle, slightly enough to expose the locking lugs. And I'll put a couple of drops here on these locking lugs. Turn it over this way. Do the same thing with my thumb. Hold it open, put a couple of drops on the locking lugs, put a couple of drops on the bottom-shiny friction surface of the bolt carrier itself. And then one last thing is, if I lock this bolt to the rear, and leave the charging handle open, and put a couple drops right there; and kinda smear it around, that will keep this charging handle nice and slick too. And then last thing, I wanna work it in. Work it back and forth. And that right there is about all you need to do to take a sluggish rifle that's on the range and it'll be back in the game in no time. Careful how much you put on there 'cause if you overlube it, that stuff will fly up in your face. You're not hurting anything, but you can get it all over your glasses at first. And after a couple of trigger pulls, is done. But do that and your guns will run fine.
Any quick tips on cleaning/lubricating an AR 15 9MM rifle? I know the bolt carrier on the 9MM is different and isn’t gas operated. I can’t find any videos on what parts to lube on the 9mm version. The manual isn’t that great and a video is always better! Any feedback would be appreciated!
I don't own a AR-15, but I have carried and fired an M16A1, including the M203 (grenade launcher version). Except for my GP100, no other weapon was so hard to clean to the armorer's standard as the M16. The GP100 had powder residue, but you could see most of it. The M16 had residue in places that only the armorer would find. We had to field strip the whole rifle and clean the inside and outside. We used Break Free CLP, the issued cleaner. Cleaned great and lubricated the metal surfaces. As far as the action slowing down after repeated firings, we never experienced that even on extended use during qualification on multiple ranges. Guys in my Cavalry unit had to do annual qualification and we had unlimited ammuntion to burn off after the session. We probably fired 300 rounds or more in about 30 minutes. Just loading the magazines slowed us down. We fired so many rounds, the barrels turned red.