Okay, so I picked up some gun grease from the store the other day and put a little bit on the rails of my P229 and beretta px4. I went to the range today and encountered numerous jams from the px4 and even a few from the p229. Neither of these guns have ever jammed before. Is it possible that the grease is to blame for these guns jamming. I don't see any other reason why they would have as every other factor remained the same from previous range sessions: ammo type, etc. So, I brought the guns home and cleaned all the grease off and re-applied some rem-oil. Hopefully I'll get to the range tomorrow to see if everything is okay. What do you guys think? The grease wasn't THAT heavy. I didn't think it would be so extreme as to cause all of my guns to jam up. Frankly, I'm a little disheartened because I feel that this takes away from SIG's reliability. Anyway, what do you think?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DBEAU,

I use grease on the rails and barrel locking points of all my center fire autos and have no problems at all. This has been my experience for a long time. Are you shooting in extremely cold weather?

The temperature at the range was probably in the 60's. So no, I wouldn't say it was extremely cold. I didn't change anything except for applying grease. I don't get it.

I use liberal amounts of Shooter's Choice grease on my 226 for USPSA and have no problems at all. The only time I've been able to attribute jamming problems to grease is when I tried some on my .22. Not enough energy in a rimfire to cycle with the grease, so I switched back to oil.

What kind of grease was it?

It's called "Militec-1"

The front of the little tube says...

Militec-1
Synthetic metal conditioner
Grease

Having only switched to grease a few years ago I don't have a lot of experience with it, but in using two different greases I haven't experienced any related stoppages. I'm in the early stages of trying a third grease.

It is certainly possible that grease could be an issue...however I'm more inclined to look at other potential causes like ammo.

What kind of ammo were you shooting? Did you switch ammo brands/weights between the previous range sessions and this one?

Also, "jams" is pretty non-specific. How 'bout more detail on the type(s) of stoppages you experienced with both guns.

The ammo that was used in the beretta was the same as always (remington 115gr. 9mm)

The p229 was using a different weight bullet form usual. normal (federal 180gr. .40) Jams=(georgia arms reload 165 gr.)

The jams were the same for both guns. The bullet simply wouldn't load fully into the barrel and would get hung up.

quote:

grease off and re-applied some rem-oil. Hopefully I'll get to the range tomorrow to see if everything is okay. What do you guys think? The grease wasn't THAT heavy. I didn't think it would be so extreme as to cause all of my guns to jam up. Frankly, I'm a little disheartened because I feel that this takes away from SIG's reliability. Anyway, what do you think?

I had the exact same thing happen to me today on two sigs while testing out some Slide Glide. I tested slide glide lite and standard. They both caused malfunctions as you stated. After field stripping and cleaning out the grease the jams dissappeared. I also did not have any issues when testing with the 357 sig round since it has a much higher slide velocity.

So far the best grease I can find that has disirable lubrication properties for sig firearms and results in no malfunctions is the Weapon Shield grease.

I am confident if you clean out the grease and properly apply a suitable lubricant the FTF's will go away.

I've only seen jams from grease when using a lot of Lubriplate (its really thick) and it was around 0 degrees out.
I run more grease on guns than most people think possible and it doesn't cause me any problems...

i was shocked when Flork showed me how much grease you were supposed to run in a sig during heavy use. here's a photo of what he recommends: http://sigforum.com/eve/forums...1935/m/908103701/p/1 i used to run much less, because it was a duty gun subject to a lot of dirt and grit in a duty holster.

i've never had it cause a failure to chamber. as a matter of fact, i've only seen failures to chamber from careless reloads and riding the slide down.

i care too much about my rails to put Rem-Oil on them...proceed with caution

Slide-Glide comes in different viscosities for different temperature ranges. The Lite is for 30+ degrees F, Standard is for 60+ and Heavy is for 80+.

I'm thinking that your grease may be too thick for the temperature you were shooting at. Thick grease will slow down the slide.

I've used Militec-1 grease before, and never had any trouble with function. The Militec-1 grease is pretty thick though, and I've always used it very sparingly. I haven't used it in a while, because I find the smell nauseating. Lately I've been using Tetra or or TW-25B grease.

quote:

Originally posted by Rln_21:
I've only seen jams from grease when using a lot of Lubriplate (its really thick) and it was around 0 degrees out.
I run more grease on guns than most people think possible and it doesn't cause me any problems...

There's a few different varieties of lubriplate. I use one type of lubriplate on engines during rebuild, but another type on rifles. But I wouldn't characterize any of it as 'really thick'. What lubriplate did you use?

I doubt it was the grease but you never know. I have used grease for years on my handguns and rifles and never seen a problem. I put alot of grease on my guns before hitting the range or a match. Wipe off any excess and go.

Have always used FP-10 and never had a problem. I have personally never used any grease on my guns in over 25 years of firearm ownership.

Thanks for all the great replies! I'm going to hit the range soon so I'll keep this updated as to how everything goes.

Another vote for the Weaponshield grease. I put a ton of it on my range SIGs including my 220 in 22 caliber. Never an issue but will see as it gets colder. So far so good when temps are in the 30s. On brand new SIGs treated only with the WS grease there is very little wear showing on the rails/barrel exterior. Bill.

Definitely use grease for your range use. Just give your gun’s action a good dozen racks before your initial loading. This should loosen and warm up the grease enough to prevent malfunctions from slow slide velocity. You can also get those little hand warmer packets (the kind that hunters use) and throw one or two in the case that you take your gun to the range in.

I took my P239 (357 SIG) to an outdoor range yesterday where the temp was in the upper 40’s. I wanted to test my self defense ammo (Federal HST), but I didn’t want it to beat up my little gun too much so I compensated by lubing with a good amount of heavy Slide Glide, a grease that’s only recommended for 80 degrees or warmer. But having a couple hand warmer packets in my gun case as well as the mentioned racking before loading and I had no problems at all...just fun (made quite a boom). When I became comfortable that my new self-defense ammo was good to use in my gun, I switched to my practice ammo (Speer Lawman Clean Fire) and continued to have no problems. I did notice that the Lawman had noticeably less recoil than the HST, though. (The HST felt like I was getting a good shove when I fired it and the Clean Fire reminded me more of how a 9mm feels but a little hotter).

When I carry, I use TW25B.

**UPDATE: I just got back from the range and here's the story.

The beretta PX4 shot flawlessly. Not a single jam out of almost 200 rounds. I used the same ammunition as I did yesterday. Therefore, the only conclusion I can come to is that the grease was causing the FTF's

As for the P229... I encountered a few FTF's. BUT, It was definitely a problem with the ammunition. Out of 200 rounds I encountered about 5 FTF's. 3 of the bullets were actually defective. The tip of the bullet actually got pushed back into the casing upon feeding and caused it to jam. The other few rounds just caught the feed ramp because the tip was soft and deformed a little bit. It seems that I encountered more jams yesterday so it may have been a combination of the ammo and grease but I think it is safe to say that the ammo was mainly the problem.

I believe I can logically come to the conclusions that:

1. the beretta's FTF's were caused by the grease. (Militec-1)
2. The P229's FTF's were caused by ammunition. (Georgia-arms "canned heat" .40 reloads)

I've never had any problems using grease. The only thing I can think of is make sure to remove all traces of the previous lubricant with 91% isopropyl alcohol before applying the new grease. Or it's underpowered ammo.