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What do you use to lube the hinges of your over/under or side-by-side? I’ve heard just about everything possible suggested, and I still don’t have a clue.

An old pigeon shooter I knew would use only Vaseline on the hinges of his Fabbri. If I had one of those guns, I suppose I’d lick it clean. I’m not sure I’d use Vaseline.

I do have a Perazzi 28 that came with a tube of “Perazzi”-label grease. It was a graphite grease and was really, really messy. But it was endorsed by the people who made the gun, so that counts for something. One time I took the gun to Giacomo Arrighini (www.giacomosporting.com), the Perazzi gunsmith in the US. Giacomo uses and recommends the light teflon oil Tri-Flo on all of the P-Gun’s moving parts, including the hinges. When Giacomo speaks, you listen, because he’s the man.

But when I got a Kolar review gun, it came packed with a tube of Kolar’s special gun grease. And Krieghoff packs its guns with its own grease too. Actually, Krieghoff used to market a spray gun oil that was also supposedly good for ticks on your dog. I wish I still had some of that. Beretta packs its guns with a light oil lube, just to balance things out.

An old Navy friend recommended “mayonnaise” on the hinges. That’s what they used to call the white grease Lubriplate. I used it for years on my Superposeds and it worked great. I guess it has been replaced by lithium grease, which works really well also.

Another product that has worked very well for me on hinges is SLiP2000 lubricant. It’s a heavy synthetic oil. I put it on the bearing surfaces with a Q-tip. It doesn’t seem to migrate like a thin oil or collect grit like a grease.

If you want a quick primer on oil and grease, visit www.abbeyclock.com/aoiltwo.html.
It makes this slippery subject a little easier to grasp.

Are you getting the sense that you can use just about anything? Well, you can. I’m sure that there are lots of products that I’ve missed that work fine. The key to any of this is that the hinge area of your gun be wiped scrupulously clean before any new lube is applied. That’s the important part. Make positively sure that there is no grit in there. Then you can put just about anything on and it will work. Spermaceti, anyone?

Boots off. Beer open.  

Posted on Monday, April 28, 2008 in Permalink