New Glock lubrication (what the factory is doing)

[BehindBlueI's]

I recently bought two Glock 43x pistols, one MOS and one non-MOS. I shot the MOS and it was not resetting the trigger during live fire. During dry fire it was fine. It felt a bit odd as well. I took it to my armorer and he found the slide guts were coated in too much oil and the frame guts were completely dry. I had him check the non-MOS, which I hadn't fired at all, and it was similar but not as bad. He did verify everything was together correctly, nothing was broken, etc, so figures the lubrication was the issue. I haven't had time to live fire yet but hope he's right.

Per him, since Glock quit using the copper colored anti-seize he's been seeing a lot of that sort of thing with new out of the box guns. Apparently they've hired some very minimally trained people to assemble and lube, again per him.

Side note: This reinforces the need to test fire anything before you carry it for real, even "Perfection"...

[Coyotesfan97]

I don’t think I’ve ever fired a Glock without a field strip and oiling it. One of our FIs was pretty adamant about that. I usually left that gold lube on and cleaned it up after shooting.

[vcdgrips]

The lore I heard when I bought my first Glock in the fall of 1991 was that it took 500ish rounds to shoot off the copper lube.

My present carry G3 G34 was purchased used with some of the copper lube in the very rear corners of the slide. The gun was represented to me to have been sold by the store to someone who decided they wanted a G19 instead. Ergo, less than 500 rds thru it. FWIW.

[WDR]

I have not detail stripped the slide to say for sure, but a recently purchased G34 seems to have quite a bit of lube on the striker assembly from the factory. More than I'd use myself. IE: none beyond what migrates there from the striker/sear surface. I didn't really pay much attention to the slide, if it had the copper anti-seize in it to start with... I just bore snaked the bore and took it out and put several hundred through it. Makes me curious to go look, but I'm really enjoying this beer right now...:cool:

I should probably break down all my recent Glocks that I have not detail stripped, and have a look.

[JAH 3rd]

I bought an Austrian made 41 a couple months ago. Way too much oil around the striker leg area. Most definitely going to remove striker and spray polymer safe cleaner in the channel before firing. My 26 was not over oiled and got it about 3 weeks ago. Guess it’s a crap shoot as to what you get in the oil department.

[OlongJohnson]

Apparently they've hired some very minimally trained people to assemble and lube, again per him.

Side note: This reinforces the need to test fire anything before you carry it for real, even "Perfection"...

To me, it reinforces the need to...


I don’t think I’ve ever fired a Glock without a field strip and oiling it. One of our FIs was pretty adamant about that. I usually left that gold lube on and cleaned it up after shooting.

...at a bare minimum before even test firing it.

I've found plenty of defects in brand new guns that were easily corrected (burrs, debris, etc.) but if left in for more than a handful of dry or live fires would immediately cause damage.

[CarloMNL]

The G43X I picked up early May had the copper lube on it. Some oil on the barrel lugs (top and bottom) and on the trigger bar/connector juncture. Caveat though. All guns sold in my country undergo ballistics recording prior to being made available for sale so I'm guessing the distributor oiled the needed bits and snaked the barrel after the tests were completed.

I detailed stripped the gun, and lubed it as per usual prior to shooting it for the first time. The things that I found weird were 1) the RSA just popped out the moment I took the slide off the frame, and 2) the spring of the Extractor Depressor Plunger assembly was not fully seated.

I've made it a habit to detail strip the slide periodically to check on the EDP spring. After a week of dry practice, I've noticed the spring start to wiggle loose. It's still somewhat attached to the metal rod but not fully seated. Never happens with my G17. Not sure if this is a design issue or just a tolerance problem with the small parts.

[TGS]

I was under the impression that you're not supposed to shoot the guns with what they're shipped in, regardless. It's more of a packing oil/preservative, as opposed to gun lube.

[lwt16]

Picked up a G43X MOS a couple of weeks ago and it had the copper grease in the slide rails. I detail stripped it and found nothing out of the ordinary.

Sig used to be quite bad about packing P320s slam full of white grease and I would have to armorer level strip them down to get all that gunk out. I inspected/installed sights on one of the newer aluminum framed models last week and it wasn't packed like earlier pistols and the P365 I bought not too long ago wasn't full of the stuff either.

Regards.

[BehindBlueI's]

I was under the impression that you're not supposed to shoot the guns with what they're shipped in, regardless. It's more of a packing oil/preservative, as opposed to gun lube.

Per Glock:

The copper colored lubricant on
portions of the slide of brand new GLOCK pistols is
intended to help provide long-term lubrication and
should not be removed


The areas under discussion are, again per Glock, areas that only an armorer is supposed to access. I don't think they mean for the original purchaser to take the gun to an armorer before firing, although that's apparently not a bad idea. Or do armorer level stuff yourself, of course, if you can.

[camsdaddy]

This is interesting. I normally purchase my Glocks slightly used. I dont know that I have ever fully stripped one down prior to shooting. I do shoot them prior to carry unlike many people I talk with. Kills me to hear someone talk about their new carry gun and when I ask how it shoots or what ammo it likes they sigh and tell me they have not shot it yet.

This is a concern because many buy and shoot a gun 20-25 rounds and never disassemble or lube or shoot it again. Those are the ones who may see a failure.

[Dannywill]

It's always good to oil it before shooting and get it cleaned properly after use.

[blues]

Per Glock:

The copper colored lubricant on
portions of the slide of brand new GLOCK pistols is
intended to help provide long-term lubrication and
should not be removed


The areas under discussion are, again per Glock, areas that only an armorer is supposed to access. I don't think they mean for the original purchaser to take the gun to an armorer before firing, although that's apparently not a bad idea. Or do armorer level stuff yourself, of course, if you can.

I've always left it in place on my guns.

The only thing I do with new guns is a field strip, cleaning with CLP, followed by light lubrication per Glock's recommendations. A drop on the connector, a drop on barrel and hood, one on each of the slide rails, and finally, a drop smeared at the front of the slide behind the muzzle opening.

Same process after each use of the firearm. Works for me.

[ST911]

My SOP for new Glocks: open box, visual once-over, load, shoot. If it's a pool/training gun it may or may not get relubed before it gets put away and used later. If it's going to work, user cleans and lubes. I've found little reason to do anything else with 9mm G's. It's rare that one doesn't work out of the box, and any manufacturing/inspection issues emerge in the first session.

[willie]

Long ago I started pointing out to people that if they don't test a new weapon, then they don't know if it will function.That has been my experience, and I have observed it with others' purchases.

[JBP55]

I always remove the anti seize, clean and lubricate my Glocks before firing a round and have never had an issue.

[FrankB]

I strip every firearm I buy to varying degrees, not only to clean and lube, but to get shavings and other materials out of the picture.

[WDR]

Per Glock:

The areas under discussion are, again per Glock, areas that only an armorer is supposed to access. I don't think they mean for the original purchaser to take the gun to an armorer before firing, although that's apparently not a bad idea. Or do armorer level stuff yourself, of course, if you can.

Agreed. Detail stripping a new gun is a good way to void the warranty with Glock (though I have never needed the warranty myself). I generally punch a patch/bore snake the bore, then maybe add some CLP if things look dry, and go shoot a few rounds before I trust, or invest much effort into a new gun. But that hasn't ever stopped me from detail stripping one later on. A simple field strip, inspect, patch/snake the bore, and lube if needed can't hurt, and is a good idea with any new gun. Excessive lubrication in places it shouldn't be, or not enough in places where it should be, is likely to cause you issues.

For the record, I'm not an armorer, but Glocks are stupid simple to detail strip compared to other guns. You can basically detail strip one with a ten penny nail, so...

[HeavyDuty]

The firing pin channel on my new USA 43 was dripping with oil.

[Coyotesfan97]

The firing pin channel on my new USA 43 was dripping with oil.

No bueno. That’s one area that shouldn’t be oiled/lubed at all.

[Wayne Dobbs]

I recently bought two Glock 43x pistols, one MOS and one non-MOS. I shot the MOS and it was not resetting the trigger during live fire. During dry fire it was fine. It felt a bit odd as well. I took it to my armorer and he found the slide guts were coated in too much oil and the frame guts were completely dry. I had him check the non-MOS, which I hadn't fired at all, and it was similar but not as bad. He did verify everything was together correctly, nothing was broken, etc, so figures the lubrication was the issue. I haven't had time to live fire yet but hope he's right.

Per him, since Glock quit using the copper colored anti-seize he's been seeing a lot of that sort of thing with new out of the box guns. Apparently they've hired some very minimally trained people to assemble and lube, again per him.

Side note: This reinforces the need to test fire anything before you carry it for real, even "Perfection"...

When you're running your factory 24/7 and shipping 8K guns a day, those kind of things can rear their head.

[BehindBlueI's]

I recently bought two Glock 43x pistols, one MOS and one non-MOS. I shot the MOS and it was not resetting the trigger during live fire. During dry fire it was fine. It felt a bit odd as well. I took it to my armorer and he found the slide guts were coated in too much oil and the frame guts were completely dry. I had him check the non-MOS, which I hadn't fired at all, and it was similar but not as bad. He did verify everything was together correctly, nothing was broken, etc, so figures the lubrication was the issue. I haven't had time to live fire yet but hope he's right.


He was right. 43X ran just fine yesterday. One mag of HST hollowpoints, one of factory 147gr AE, then about half an hour's worth of my 124gr ball reloads (124gr plated bullet, 6.2 gr of Accurate #5) with no issues at all.

[RJ]

Thought I would add another sample point.

Just bought a new Glock 19 Gen 5 MOS, through GT Distributors using my 2021 GSSF pistol purchase coupon.

73875

There was hardly any trace of the gold lube/paste, except for a very light schmear on the left hand slide rail, interior. Talking a scrape of it, maybe. I used a Q-tip to get a small amount and examine it closely to confirm it was that copper color.

The barrel hood had a teeny drop of lube, and there was some on the slide underneath as well (but not much). And that was about all I could see, without punching out the locking lock retaining pin and taking it apart to see (which, I kind want to shoot it first).

73876

I did a basic field strip, examined for shooting residue in the bore (there was a little from the test firing), and bore-snaked it out. I could not tell that there was any lube on the connector to trigger bar, so I put one small drop of lube at the top of the connector so it would drip into the interface and then worked the trigger back and forth.

Reassembled with lube as per the Glock manual.

[pew_pew]

The manual clearly says to leave the copper lube in the gun and not clean it off. I asked a Glock armorer about it and he said it’s to mate the parts and smooth everything out. Some people are overly obsessed with cleaning guns.

[blues]

The manual clearly says to leave the copper lube in the gun and not clean it off. I asked a Glock armorer about it and he said it’s to mate the parts and smooth everything out. Some people are overly obsessed with cleaning guns.

I clean my guns after every usage...but I still follow the advice to leave the copper lube in place. It's possible to keep the firearm clean...AND...follow instructions.

(I don't think I'm obsessed...just disciplined. Dirt in the house goes under the rug. If you can't see it, it's not there, right?)

[DC_P]

(If you can't see it, it's not there, right?)

By that logic if you never disassemble your pistol it only takes a quick exterior wipe to keep it clean. I like it.

[TCinVA]

I've never felt the need to leave anti-seize (because that's what it is) on parts of my handguns. If the chances of galling are that high it's a materials and manufacture issue that anti-seize isn't going to fix in the long term.

I avoid grease in general because grease is just oil with a binder. The oil component of it does normal oil things like migrate and evaporate, leaving the binder behind. The binder then behaves like the sponge it is and picks up new things that aren't oil, generally the things we'd rather not have held against friction points on the gun. Only it looks like there's still grease there because you usually can't see a difference between binder that's holding oil and binder that's just holding unwanted garbage. So I clean all that stuff off and just put a good liquid lubricant on the friction points of the slide, barrel, locking block, and frame.

I also usually put a drop of lube on the friction points inside the frame including a drop on the side of the trigger bar that runs against the polymer. Then run the action several times, dryfire several more, and wipe off any excess before loading for use or carry.

Glock's expertise is likely centered around polymer injection molding and CNC machining. I doubt they've got tribologists on staff to make those calls for them because handguns are not complicated lubrication problems.

[JBP55]

I clean my guns after every usage...but I still follow the advice to leave the copper lube in place. It's possible to keep the firearm clean...AND...follow instructions.

(I don't think I'm obsessed...just disciplined. Dirt in the house goes under the rug. If you can't see it, it's not there, right?)


I have used cases of anti seize working in the mechanical field. I remove it from new Glocks and properly lubricate and inspect them before firing the first round.

[blues]

I have used cases of anti seize working in the mechanical field. I remove it from new Glocks and properly lubricate and inspect them before firing the first round.

I have no such skills, so I just follow instructions.

[CarloMNL]

Received a G19.5 the other day, installed sights, and zeroed the gun.

When I cleaned it afterwards, I decided to detail strip the slide and found the internals to be heavily oiled. Also saw no trace of the copper anti seize that Glock usually applies to new guns.

Incidentally, cleaning out the oil from the slide parts reduced the trigger weight just a little bit.

[10mmfanboy]

I find it hard to believe over lubrication will hurt much, other than packing grease, that stuff gunks up everything. Only two problem glocks I had were those lipsey cerekote fde pistols. Both gen 4, one a g19 and one a g26. I couldn't even get through a magazine without malf city, to the point I field stripped them and cleaned and lubed them and started again, still no luck. After about a hundred rounds through each they finally worked as they should. My guess is the cerekote was either too thick, or places it shouldn't have been. Coincidently both rust like heck now too that most of the finish wore off. I thought glocks weren't supposed to rust even being in salt water for a decade and all that stuff...? they rust almost as bad as my p365 now. I wish they didn't have to stop the old frying pan finish they used to have on gen 3, I don't remember any rust issues with that finish.

[SecondHandSmoke]

Profanity warning.

This video has a portion where he mentions the anti-seize that may be of interest to some people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rduVAVrQCM

[Oldherkpilot]

I was under the impression that you're not supposed to shoot the guns with what they're shipped in, regardless. It's more of a packing oil/preservative, as opposed to gun lube.

Along the lines of cosmoline. I know that was pretty true years ago but not sure if it still holds nowadays. I still strip, clean and lube the new hires prior to heating them up.

[newt]

I had one recently where whatever goo they put in there glued the extractor to the slide. I mean that literally. That thing was a SOLID two piece block. Couldn't chamber a round. I had to use some serious elbow grease to knock that sucker out of there and clean that shit out.

[High Cross]

The lore I heard when I bought my first Glock in the fall of 1991 was that it took 500ish rounds to shoot off the copper lube.

My present carry G3 G34 was purchased used with some of the copper lube in the very rear corners of the slide. The gun was represented to me to have been sold by the store to someone who decided they wanted a G19 instead. Ergo, less than 500 rds thru it. FWIW.

When I bought my first brand new glock 19 at 21 years of age in 2004, I cleaned off that gold lube immediately and stupidly. I had no idea it was to help break the gun in. 17 years later and thousands or rounds, IDPA and tactical classes it has had one malfunction. A stove pipe while weakhand shooting. When i bought new glocks in 2016 I was surprised to see they no long used the gold lube.

[Leroy Suggs]

I have bought three new Glocks in the last year. A 43 and two 26s'.
All had oil in the striker channel and everywhere else.

All made in USA.

I detail strip frame and slide on all new Glocks,clean,oil, and dry where needed. Then I shoot them.

[JonInWA]

At a bare minimum, with a new gun I always field-strip, clean, lubricate prior to any shooting. That provides a component and proper assembly check, as well as removing preservative and replacing as appropriate with proper lube.

For Glocks, I prefer to detail disassemble, for all the reasons above, AND to properly lubricate the triggerbar/connector interfacing surfaces. I'll leave the Glock copper lube in place.

On my compact Glocks, I prefer using TW25B for areas where there's component metal-on-metal reciprocation, and a lighter liquid lube for other areas as appropriate On full-size Glocks, I'll use Lucas Ren "N" Tacky #2 grease on the metal-on-metal reciprocation areas.

I usually leave my Glock magazines alone, but on most other platforms, I'll also disassemble the magazine, remove any preservative or cutting oil residues, and then apply a coating of Dri-Slide, a molybednum disulfide dry film lubricant/anticorrosive to the inner tube, spring, follower and inner floorplate and/or innner basepad. Exteriors get a light film of the lighter lube.

Best, Jon