Oil The Bore?

[WARFAB]

A few days ago I was reading through the user manual of a recent handgun purchase and I noticed it says to run a dry patch through the bore to remove oil before firing. Today I was looking at a friend's Kimber and noticed the lubrication instructions card. It said to be sure to run a dry patch through the bore to remove oil before firing. Anyone have any insight on why they recommend this? Is it because of potential chamber/barrel pressure issues or some other factor?

I grew up shooting rifles. The final step of cleaning always included running an oily patch through the bore to protect it from corrosion. We never cleaned the bore before shooting it the next time. It wasn't a lot of oil. Meketrefe has explained to me that there is some potential concern about how the oil impacts pressures on rifles. No idea if the same idea applies to pistols. Do most people leave the barrels of their carry pistols dry?

[thughes]

I always run a lightly-oiled patch through the bores of all my guns, never know how long they'll sit before they get to the range again. Carry gun bore stays dry but I shoot that at least once a week. I too have read that you should run a dry patch down the bore to remove any residual oil prior to shooting, never have done this and never had a problem. I can understand the concern as Mek pointed out but am not worried about it personally. The Swiss rifles do get stored with grease in the barrels but that's another story.....

[Guest]

This is the ole..Meh..either way theory..all kinds of people will have their beliefs on this subject..apparently you should be oiling it lightly for sitting/storing, then before range time dry patching he bore to get out the excess and prevent fouling..now rewind decades and nobody worried about this stuff and everything worked fine..but of course nowadays and the almighty dollar runs the brains..gotta sell that Hopps 9 to 300million people 4x's a year...as for me.. I oil every thing every where and I never have run a dry patch through before range..soooo 3 stories with 3 fine results..do what chu wanna do.

[GUNSICK]

I oil my mine and never run a dry patch before shooting either.

[WARFAB]

Perhaps it just says I'm not shooting my carry pistol enough. The instructions surprised me because it's not like you're going to stop to clear the bore when you draw in self defense, and I don't want the pistol that gets the most exposure to the elements to not have some protective oil in the bore.

When I saw the way Kimber worded it I wondered if maybe I was missing a different reason for not wanting the oil in the bore. The shooter I work with who carries said he never oils the bore.

[Guest]

Even if you had the bore filled to the brim with 10/40 oil, that bullet is gonna go flying at 1200fps when that hammer falls no matter what lol.

[Tony]

I like it wet...

[WARFAB]

Even if you had the bore filled to the brim with 10/40 oil, that bullet is gonna go flying at 1200fps when that hammer falls no matter what lol.

But seriously, why would you use 10/40 when you can use bacon grease?

[Meketrefe]

It all depends on the caliber and how pressure is developed. Pistols are very forgiving because of the small case volume to bore ratio.
They also run at lower starting pressures.
With high velocity cartridge where you have a huge case to bore ratio (lets say a 7mm STW) where pressures can be high and very high
speeds and lots of heat the oil and type of oil does have an impact on pressure spikes.

I am sure the average patch pass very slightly oiled for protection is not going to create any problems so all this is relative but if one is like I have
seen with oil or grease dripping off the bore then one might create a situation for problems.
Also a rifle for long term storage might be greased inside with plenty of grease or oil with the owners understanding that it might be
cleaned before firing. Same thing with cosmoline or any other long term prevention treatment.

For the average process I found that a light wax does actually a better job than a wet patch in protecting the bore from corrosion.
The liquid wax is so thin that the protective layer is virtually nonexistent plus it takes longer to foul again.

So there is no one recipe fits all but just use simple common sense.

[WARFAB]

Would you say most of these pistol care instructions are influenced by liability concerns?

What kind of wax do you use?

[Meketrefe]

I use Pro-honda for absolutely everything, motorcycles, cars, firearms, helmets,... etc...
This thing is amazing. This is to wax what ballistol is to light oil treatment. So many applications!

[harleyhutch]

Patches! Patches! We don't need no stinkin patches, Yer supposed to, but most people don't, If you run a LIGHTLY patch when done cleaning, lightly wouldn't leave enough oil in the bore to raise pressure significantly, but people being people and manufactures erring on the safe side only makes sense, also running a patch before firing verifies the bore is free from obstructions. Also ammo is manufactured and tested on a clean bore and one can only ASSUME that they did this with a clean DRY bore. We can get those with an engineering back ground involved with lots of numbers of two dis-similar metals moving against one another and the forces of friction but the ammo manufactures figured that into the equation during R&D and adding another factor in after the factor skews the results.
I like bore butter and if I get some on my fingers I can always stir my coffee, it warms my finger and makes pretty colors in my coffee.