Grease on barrel shoulders

[Alex Wheeler]

They are actually talking about teflon tape, like a plumber would use, not the teflon grease which is very good. As long as it doesnt have metal in it and is a good high pressure grease i like it. These barrel joints do not get hot enough to boil the grease out (which is the purpose in the metal in the anti seize).

Your correct thats what he tested in the book, but many people seem to conclude from his tests that you want to increase friction in the joint by staying away from any lubes with a high coefficient of friction like ptfe or moly. Or in this case by degreasing the shoulders before torqueing.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

Your correct thats what he tested in the book, but many people seem to conclude from his tests that you want to increase friction in the joint by staying away from any lubes with a high coefficient of friction like ptfe or moly. Or in this case by degreasing the shoulders before torqueing.

Just about any grease is sufficient. We really aren't beginning to test their abilities in this application.

To use you racing background as an analogy...Big camshafts are not always best, but they always sound good!

 

[WIB3]

I personally use Permatex copper. Copper is actually a very good lubricant for stainless steel. Action is SS along with the barrel. Never had any problems. Works great for breaks also.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

This is what I use. Tried all the other various things out there. These are the best products I’ve used to date. Last on surfaces FOREVER! And always the same performance no matter what temps or weather conditions I can make them encounter.


The Mil-Comm TW25B grease works really good as well

 

[LVLAaron]

My favorite grease....

 

[6MMsteve]

I use the copper antisieze.

 

[Baron23]

Al,
I would not say I have a favorite for accuracy but I do have favorites that achieve what I want. Most of my limited knowledge of fasteners comes from the studying I did on the subject when I was still into drag racing. Knowing that the clamping force of a joint comes from stretching the fastener and we are working with pretty low torque values for the size "bolt" we are dealing with I want a high quality lube that reduces friction in the joint so the torque can actually be applied to stretch the fastener as much as possible. Poor quality lubes or a dry joint is going to limit that. I have never seen anything to make me think the barrel joint was moving. It cant move axially thanks to the shoulder (why I dont like nuts) and it would have to fight the centering force of the 60 degree thread to move radially. So I prefer high quality moly based grease or teflon based grease. However thats more of personal thing I think any decent grease if fine. I do try to keep track of as many things as possible about any rifles that have set records or been exceptional in any ways to try to see if any trends rise up. I can say moly, teflon, and anti seize have all found their way into the record books, most of them teflon based though.

Alex - if using a lube, would you reduce the toque value used?

 

[Alex Wheeler]

No

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

No

Right...because torque specs are either expressed specifically as dry or lubed...or, they are assumed as lubed. There are very few applications where dry is actually spec'd. Most actually use a light oil...rather than any type of grease. I can't recall ever seeing anything with a spec'd torque specifying any type of anti seize! That's NOT an accident. It's also why I have repeatedly expressed against using most any anti-seize as a "preferred" lube in THIS application. Most anti-seize lubes are designed with the INTENT for the lube to cook off, leaving a copper or aluminum coating over fasteners that would otherwise corrode under temp.

Again, more is not always better and we are NOT even approaching the capabilities of most any lube in this application. Don't overthink every single thing about this!

 

[Edd]

Right...because torque specs are either expressed specifically as dry or lubed...or, they are assumed as lubed. There are very few applications where dry is actually spec'd. Most actually use a light oil...rather than any type of grease. I can't recall ever seeing anything with a spec'd torque specifying any type of anti seize! That's NOT an accident. It's also why I have repeatedly expressed against using most any anti-seize as a "preferred" lube in THIS application. Most anti-seize lubes are designed with the INTENT for the lube to cook off, leaving a copper or aluminum coating over fasteners that would otherwise corrode under temp.

Again, more is not always better and we are NOT even approaching the capabilities of most any lube in this application. Don't overthink every single thing about this!

Or maybe the reason is simply because barrels are generally only tightened to about 15% of what a threaded joint that size can handle.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

Or maybe the reason is simply because barrels are generally only tightened to about 15% of what a threaded joint that size can handle.

Well....Like I said, we aren't even APPROACHING what these lubes are capable of. Our application is EASY
! Frankly, you can probably get the cheapest grease you can buy at your local parts/hardware store...and it'll test just as good....IN THIS APPLICATION!