New m1a owner

[StevieGuns77]

so if had my m1a for about 4 months now and still have not gotten out to shoot it. I have a question about lubricating it. When i bought the rifle the guy at the gun store was very knowledgable about military style rifles. I asked him a lot of questions but i forgot some. When i came to pick the rifle up he was not there and the guy who was taking care of me did not seem to know to much. I asked about the lubricant because i had heard that you must use grease and he gave me a bottle of tetra gun lubricant. it says fluoropolymer penetrating lubricant and bore conditioner on the bottle. Is this the right stuff because i do not think it is for some reason.

[Joe Garibaldi]

Search around (especially "products reviews" -- Timlt has posted a nearly encyclopedic review of lubricants and rust preventatives) and you'll find much more info than I know, but here's what I do.

M14's were issued with just oil in the cleaning kits, so oils alone should suffice. Grease is generally used only on the very-high friction surfaces, but it also tends to gather dust and other crud more than the teflon and other synthetic lubricants, or even oils.

Basically, it's almost a personal preference. Everyone has different opinions on what's optimal, but most things work fine. The Tetra you mentioned should, but look around and you may find something you like better.

Finally, in contrast to my simplicity theme, since you haven't yet fired it, you may want to consider the barrel "seasoning" process once you get started. Run a search and you'll find many entries on how to do it (all a bit different), but it usually involves cleaning the barrel after every shot for the first ten shots, and at varying intervals thereafter.

It's hard to hold off on blasting away with a new acquisition, but for an investment like an M1A you might want to consider it, and probably can if you've been able to hold off for 4 months.

- Joe

P.S.: Congrats on your new acquisition, the Mini's big brother. I'm surprised you can have one in Chicago (but I guess it's a pistol-grip thing?).

[H2O MAN]

M14s use Grease/Lube ... ARs use oil.

I use MD Labs XF-7 weapons lubricant on all of my M14s.