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To: FlyVet; Destro
Now that I'm thinking about it...I did carry a small spray can of WD-40. It was about the size of the palm of your hand and fit nicely in your cargo pocket or alice pack. I don't remember using it too much while in the field, but I remember my platoon sergent told us to have it on hand and wipe the excess.
We always had plenty of cans of Gun Scrubber that would somehow appear during cleaning time....Army NCO's kick ass!
14 posted on 08/10/2003 1:30:54 AM PDT by I got the rope
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To: I got the rope
I got sent to Honduras in 87'. I watched as the rain clouds swired over the land and ocean. Just as it started to sprinkle, I pulled out a small can of WD-40 and soaked my M-16. About 2 minutes later it rained like I had never seen in the states. My rifle never rusted! It rained for 3 days without stopping.

I don't have experiance with desert warfare, but I do with Artic conditions. In the extreme cold, "bolt action" is best. In the jungle, a sloppy AK that works is better than an M-16 that is accurate but fussy.


Knowing when to be accurate and when to spray and pray is necessary to be an effective grunt. I think our weapons are to high tech. They forgot to Keep It Simple Stupid.

18 posted on 08/10/2003 6:50:34 AM PDT by duk
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To: I got the rope; Riley
We always had plenty of cans of Gun Scrubber that would somehow appear during cleaning time....Army NCO's kick ass!

Sometimes we frustrated AF NCOs would also buy our own stuff when the stuff we needed was non-existent. WD works good when you wipe off the excess, good solvent but doesn't provide long-term lube. Gun Scrubber, I bought a can of that once. I think it's "Trike". Trichlorofluoroethylene, a nasty industrial cleaning solvent. Cleans the gunk off anything, and evaporates quickly. Haven't seen it marketed much these days, since they found out it also likes to contaminate drinking water and causes cancer. It was a good gun cleaner, though no lube qualities.

I suppose as Riley said, CLP is okay as long as you have some good cotton rags to wipe all the excess off. We usually got stuck with useless artificial fiber "plastic" rags.

One of the dry lubes I've bought that seems pretty good is Elmer's Slide-All. Aerosol, Teflon-based. I saw a PTFE-based spray dry lube at KMart a while ago (PTFE is glorified Teflon). It was cheap, in an economy-sized can, but can't remember the brand name of it. I think both would be good for someone who has to carry a tight rifle like the M-16 for days on end in a dirty environment.

62 posted on 08/11/2003 12:06:43 AM PDT by FlyVet
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