Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: Robenstein
An old grunt I knew who served in Vietnam used diesel oil when he was in country. This was in the days before the military issued enough proper cleaning and maintenance supplies for the guns (later remedied after a congressional investigation). It must have served him well, because his lube of choice after was engine oil (15 or 20w50 and stp mixed at about 50/50). I tried it once, and it certainly stuck in place well and had a pretty heft amount of anti wear additives. I think it would be a good range lube, although I am sold on the Wilson Combat universal lube or grease now for my carry pistols.
"LSA" was the stuff that worked, although wrongly labeled as an OIL rather than a light grease, which it is.
In the early days lube, cleaning rods, etc were all in very short supply. The armed forces bought into the Colt hype that the platform needed much less maintenance than previous guns like the M14 and Garand. I have pics of soldiers with cleaning rods taped to their gun (pre trapdoor buttstock days) so they could knock out stuck cases in dirty and corroded chambers. Lots of problems in the pre 67/68 guns and the men had to improvise. Yes, LSA helped a ton, along with cleaning rods and brushes when they started arriving in sufficient numbers, as well as some platform improvements.
