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M1 Garand grease.....NECO-MOLLY vs Lubriplate
kidthatsirish
Member Posts: 6,983 ✭✭✭
Ok....Im greasing up an m1 garand....which is better and why?
Comments
Just to bore everyone to death with some more useless information: The yellow Lubriplate dates from WWII while the greenish-brown color product is always post war.
www.garandgear.com
Mark, speaking of the little grease pots; weren't they supposed to have contained the perfect amount of grease for an M1?
As envisioned by John Garand the M1 cleaning equipment would be carried on the soldiers belt and a canvas pouch with two snaps and measuring a little over six inches in length was developed for that purpose. The pouch (which is extremely hard to find today-- I don't have one [V]) could hold the rifle's cleaning gear and few additional small parts. The butt stocks on the first M1s were more or less solid and had no trap for cleaning gear with the early butt plates forged of solid steel and lacking the now expected trap door. In 1940 the design of the butt stock was changed to allow for the carrying of cleaning equipment inside the stock through the use of two large holes drilled into the wood and a new cast metal butt plate with a trap door was introduced to allow access to the interior of the stock.
Prior to the end of the Korean War there we no cleaning rods issued with the M1 rifle. There was however the M3 Barracks Cleaning rod which was a one piece steel rod 30 inches long with an aluminum T-shaped handle. One of these M3 rods was supposed to have been issued to each 8-10 man squad for use in the barracks. Carrying a 30 inch cleaning rod along with you out in the field was impossible so these rods tended to stay put, however there are a few period photos which show troops wading ashore with the M3 rods sticking out of their rifle barrels; their exact plans for carrying around such an item on the battlefield can only be guessed at. While very effective for use inside the squad bay, the M3 cleaning rod was simply not suitable for general issue and instead a soldier equipped with an M1 rifle had some rather basic, but also quite specialized cleaning gear.
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Basic cleaning gear on early M1s was a brass oiler which was nickel plated and just under six inches long. There were two compartments in the body of the oiler; one which held a small pull through for cleaning the bore and the another compartment which held about three ounces of oil. The cap on the oil operation had a long dipper attached to the inside while the outside of the cap on the pull through portion was coated with rubber (later plastic) to help deaden any sounds from the oiler moving inside the stock. The pull though was a 30" piece of wax or lacquer coated twine with a weight on one end and a threaded patch holder which could accommodate the cleaning brush on the other. Originally the metal parts on the pull-through were made of brass but in early 1943 brass was replaced by blued steel and finally in late 1944 by parkerized steel. The bore brushes could be either brass or a synthetic bristles with the black synthetic be more common during WWII. The M3 series of combination tools was developed specifically for the M1 Garand it its features changed over the years based on differing requirements. The most common versions had a large brass chamber brush on one end with a screw driver blade and a tool blade on the other. The tool blade could assist in stripping the bolt, removing a stuck case, use as a pin drift and to perform a couple of other handy features. The M3 tool remained very popular and stayed in service long after it was supposed have been replaced by the "improved" M10 tool. The final item in the M1s butt stock was a little tub of Lubriplate 130, which was a waterproof plastic grease developed specifically for the M1 rifle. During WWII this was yellow in color but the product tended to seperate and after the Korean War the composition was changed so that it had a more conventional brown grease-like appearance.
In mid 1942 the brass used on the oilers was declared a critical war material and a new plastic oiler was developed which has basically the same features as the original but much lighter in weight, easier to produce and much less costly. With the exception of the new oiler the remaining cleaning gear remained unchanged and would serve until the end of the Korean War.
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At the close of the War In Korea it became clear that the old twine pull through was simply obsolete and that something better was needed. A fresh look was also taken at the M3 combo tool, which had been in use for nearly 15 years by that time. The result was the introduction of the M10 cleaning rod and it's accompanying M10 Combination tool. The M10 rod was a four section jointed rod made of parkerized steel which came with a slotted patch holder and brass cleaning brush packed in a canvas or rubberized cloth pouch. The M10 combo tool served as the cleaning rod handle as well as performing the maintenance/repair functions of the old M3 tool. The M10 tool was sized specifically to fit inside the oiler compartment which had previously held the pull through and bore brush. There was now no longer any room inside the butt stock for the chamber brush so it was carried separately in the soldiers gear.
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On the whole, the M10 cleaning rod had some advantages but also had some unexpected consequences. With a cleaning rod available at all times many bored GIs spent considerable time getting their barrels "squeaky clean" and ran the cleaning rod through the bore far too often. The fact that it was steel and jointed in four sections (making it very flexible) caused the M10 rod to be very abrasive and proved quite hard on the rifle's bore. I would never use an M10 rod on one of my Garands. To prevent damage to the crown of the barrel from the M10 handle hitting it a small plastic muzzle protector was provided, but I have seldom found an original M10 cleaning kit that still had this little device inside it and quite a few M1 barrels show considerable wear and nicks on their crowns. The M10 cleaning rod would continue to serve on with the M1 rifle until the end of it's service and also was standard issue for the M14 rifle with only a change from the M10 combo tool (useful only on the M1) to a simple handle. No WWII or post war M1 rifle is complete without the proper cleaning gear stowed inside it's stock.
Shortly after depleting my small supply of Lubriplate, I was given an old can of graphite grease, and used it from then on in my M1. A little more messy, but it worked good. Much like Lubriplate, a quart can of it would probably last two or three lifetimes.
Mark, speaking of the little grease pots; weren't they supposed to have contained the perfect amount of grease for an M1?
35WC: If by perfect amount you mean for one application, the answer is no. The amount of lubriplate in the small container is enough for several applications. Use a Q-tip to smear it on all areas where metal rubs metal.
quote:Originally posted by 35WhelenClassic
Shortly after depleting my small supply of Lubriplate, I was given an old can of graphite grease, and used it from then on in my M1. A little more messy, but it worked good. Much like Lubriplate, a quart can of it would probably last two or three lifetimes.
Mark, speaking of the little grease pots; weren't they supposed to have contained the perfect amount of grease for an M1?
35WC: If by perfect amount you mean for one application, the answer is no. The amount of lubriplate in the small container is enough for several applications. Use a Q-tip to smear it on all areas where metal rubs metal.
Correct. Obviously The Corps taught you right and you are still too afraid to forget! There is no need to lay the grease on like cake frosting; just a light application is the specified areas is all that is needed. The M1 was designed long before CLP and the other wonder lubricants and while these will work fine in non critical areas, the M1 needs some good old grease to stay running smoothly.
quote:Originally posted by kimi
quote:Originally posted by 35WhelenClassic
Shortly after depleting my small supply of Lubriplate, I was given an old can of graphite grease, and used it from then on in my M1. A little more messy, but it worked good. Much like Lubriplate, a quart can of it would probably last two or three lifetimes.
Mark, speaking of the little grease pots; weren't they supposed to have contained the perfect amount of grease for an M1?
35WC: If by perfect amount you mean for one application, the answer is no. The amount of lubriplate in the small container is enough for several applications. Use a Q-tip to smear it on all areas where metal rubs metal.
Correct. Obviously The Corps taught you right and you are still too afraid to forget! There is no need to lay the grease on like cake frosting; just a light application is the specified areas is all that is needed. The M1 was designed long before CLP and the other wonder lubricants and while these will work fine in non critical areas, the M1 needs some good old grease to stay running smoothly.
[:D] Well, they drilled it in to the old brain housing group pretty good, Mark! [:D] And, during boot camp, we had to give the old bore 100 strokes with hoppes and the brush, before using our patches. Overkill, yes. Excessive wear on the bore from metal to metal, but after boot we'd only hit it about 8 to 10 strokes. I kept my M-1 for over 2&1/2 years and was still shooting expert with it when I tried to turn it in. The armory would not take it, since our regiment had already switched over to the M-14, and they had wiped their hands clean of processing anymore M-1 turn-ins, so my old Platoon Sergeant got a free M-1; I had kept my M1 to use on the battalion rifle team, while maintaining my M-14 as well.
Just to bore everyone to death with some more useless information
anybody whos bored by your posts can go crap in their hat and pull it down over their ears.
between whats for supper, bitching about ammo prices etc; its nice to see a informative useful post by an undisputed expert. popcorn threads are fine, but they are empty calories for the brain. a little educational material is a nice change of pace.
I guess it's no wonder I always ended up with a facefull of grease when shooting my M1, then.[:D]
Yep! I was just thinking that might have happened to you, but hey, it's happened to most all of us! [:D] That's a sure fire way to know you have applied too much. On the other hand, you do not want to apply a little bit and rub it too thin. It's been so long since Ive done any active shooting that I can't say exactly how many applications that a tub is good for, but 3 to 4 would be my guess.