Little Advice and Tips please on M4

Hello I am a specialist currently deployed in Baghdad, Iraq as an upgunner on the humvee. I had a few questions and tips to things I am currently doing regarding weapons maintenance feel free to comment on things I am doing and what I should or should not do. I don't think I am doing anything wrong because I am a pretty good shooter only qualifying sharpshooter once and the rest expert, but if you think something can improve my accuracy regarding weapons maintenance please post, thanks alot I appreciate it.
1.) CLP in chamber? I put a dad on a cutip and swirl it around the chamber, is a little lube in the chamber good?
2.) Soapy Water mixture on heat shield of M4, buttstock and hand guards, anything bad about this?
3.) Remington Dry Lube for bores and bullets. I spray it in the bore to fill in microscopic cracks in the barrel I also coat my bullets in it because it dosent attract sand and allows very smooth action through my weapon.
4.) Glass on ACOG 4x, I brush it off first to remove and particles and then wipe with a microfiber cloth any advice?
5.) M9 Mags, suck! lol anyway to keep them feeding better rather than cleaning them twice a week.
6.) CLP on the firing pin good or bad I've heard mostly no so I do not lube it, any opinions?
7.) Any 240 gunners out there? thats my primary weapon so if theres any little pieces of advice out there for keeping that in tip top shape let me know.
8.) Is there any type of good cleaner for the outside of my weapons that does not attract sand?
Thanks alot for the help everyone hope to hear from you soon.
-Specialist Hensley

Hey DJ, Welcome to the forum !

You might want to check out this thread, as it covered a lot of maintenance issues both in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

Please also take a minute to introduce yourself here.

Regards, Stan

A better thread can be found here:

http://m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=31

I recently took off a couple months from this forum, and immersed myself in all things M4/M16. What I've learned so far:

1. Run your M4 wet with lube. Even in a high dust/sand environment.

2. Get shoot-through caps and use them, all the time. It prevents dust/sand from getting down the barrel to the action.

3. Always, always keep your dust cover closed.

4. If your chain of command requires you to NOT have a magazine inserted, get a mag-well plug and use it. There's some real cool ones that you can clip onto a loaded magazine, and it will keep a mag handy, plus it will prevent garbage from entering the action.

5. Re-lube as necessary. Always keep a little container of lube, and if you fire your weapon, re-lube it at your earliest, safest opportunity. CLP is good, but there are some better products out there. If you can get away with it, use a non-ammonia based cleaning product to clean, a lubricant to lube and a preservative to preserve. CLP is just mediocre at doing all three at the same time.

6. Don't forget that there are places you grease, and that you can put lube oil over grease to make the lube oil last longer.

7. Don't lube your ammo. Just don't.

8. Graphite and ammonia will eat aluminum like nobody's business. Your M4 is made mostly of aluminum. Always check your clean/lube/protect products for those two ingredients and stay the hell away from them.

I think you'll find with proper lube, your M4 will be always reliable. If you have regular internet access, get on that M4carbine site that the lube instructions are on, and read the hell out of it. Those guys will steer you right.

On the M240, I am a big fan, from my armor days. Just lube them IAW the lube order in the -10 and let 'er rip.

I don't know if it's an Ole Sarge myth or not, but my personal M240s tended to like to run a little dirty. Most malfunctions (of which there were damned few) occurred immediately after detailed cleaning.

OBTW, on weapons cleaning, keep the action clean, but don't overclean. It doesn hurt to have a little black oil oozing here and there. And the carbon build up on the tail of the M16/M4 bolt doesn't really hurt anything, at all.

Mobil1 synthetic 5w-50 weight motor oil. I suppose any synthetic will work since the multi-viscosity will thicken especially on high temp parts (it won't gum up like peanut butter, just get a little more traction). Also, the synthetic lubes have a higher cook temperature so they won't start smoking as much if you used too much. ie down the barrel/chamber, up into the gas tube and out around the bolt assmbly---and then around your face.

This is coming from a training-only experience viewpoint, I haven't been to Iraq or Afghanistan yet.

1) I've always shot my M16 variants with just a small amount of CLP in the chamber, but keeping wet in the sand is probably the right thing to do.

2) Nope.

3) Sounds good.

4) Yes.

5) Yes. The best way to feed a 9mm mag is to feed it into your duffle bag and leave it there for the rest of the deployment. If you're already crewing an M240 and carrying an M4, your M9 is dead weight.

6) If the firing pin is not fixed, lube it.

7) Keep a spray bottle filled with CLP with you at all times. The M240 is uber reliable, but keep the chamber soaked and you'll never have a problem. Really soak the damn thing. If the chamber is not leaking scalding hot CLP onto your hand during firing, it's too dry. In the rear, make sure the gas regulator is clean and you know how to operate it. (Very important) If you have a fixed gas regulator (this may be an M249 only thing) try to trade it in for a normal one. Make sure to take the bolt all the way apart and clean every little piece. Do all that and you'll never see a misfire. (BTW: all this info goes for the M249 as well.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xenophon

This is coming from a training-only experience viewpoint, I haven't been to Iraq or Afghanistan yet.



5) Yes. The best way to feed a 9mm mag is to feed it into your duffle bag and leave it there for the rest of the deployment. If you're already crewing an M240 and carrying an M4, your M9 is dead weight.

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I just wanted to comment on this portion of your post.

While I don't disagree with your assessment, i think it is important to note that decisions on what to carry on a mission should be situational.

For example, I did a month long field op supporting marines, lots of walking in the mountains. I brought my M4 and left the M9.

When I was doing more urban stuff in a hmmwv or NTV (i.e. not having to hump everywhere) we carried our sidearms, yes even my turret guy.

As one of my NCO's used to say, "I'm not gonna die for a lack of shooting back"

my .02

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Beowulf

I just wanted to comment on this portion of your post.

While I don't disagree with your assessment, i think it is important to note that decisions on what to carry on a mission should be situational.

For example, I did a month long field op supporting marines, lots of walking in the mountains. I brought my M4 and left the M9.

When I was doing more urban stuff in a hmmwv or NTV (i.e. not having to hump everywhere) we carried our sidearms, yes even my turret guy.

As one of my NCO's used to say, "I'm not gonna die for a lack of shooting back"

my .02

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Agreed. There have been times I've been very glad I've had the M9. I'd rather lug the extra weight and not need it than not have it and wish I did. If you maintain it correctly you won't have problems. I brough extra magazine springs. Never had a single issue either year I was in Iraq.

I also used graphite lube for both my M9 and M4. Never had a jam with either, though you need to watch how liberal you apply the graphite to the M9. Graphite, dust, dirt, and grime can build at the bottom of the lower reciever near where the hammer spring recoils. If the dirt, grime, and dust collects enough, the hammer spring won't compress and the slide will not recoil far enough to cycle a round. CLP to loosen the dirt and pipecleaners to take it away works, but if your unit armorer can take out the hammer retaining pin, it makes the process much easier (this is a armorer level job).


BLUF: If you don't clean your weapons at least once a day (twice during shmall season) you're negligent. Weapons maintenance should be the first priority of work after you return from patrol, lest you need to go back out, not going to see what's at the chow hall.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RTK

Agreed. There have been times I've been very glad I've had the M9. I'd rather lug the extra weight and not need it than not have it and wish I did. If you maintain it correctly you won't have problems. I brough extra magazine springs. Never had a single issue either year I was in Iraq.

I also used graphite lube for both my M9 and M4. Never had a jam with either, though you need to watch how liberal you apply the graphite to the M9. Graphite, dust, dirt, and grime can build at the bottom of the lower reciever near where the hammer spring recoils. If the dirt, grime, and dust collects enough, the hammer spring won't compress and the slide will not recoil far enough to cycle a round. CLP to loosen the dirt and pipecleaners to take it away works, but if your unit armorer can take out the hammer retaining pin, it makes the process much easier (this is a armorer level job).


BLUF: If you don't clean your weapons at least once a day (twice during shmall season) you're negligent. Weapons maintenance should be the first priority of work after you return from patrol, lest you need to go back out, not going to see what's at the chow hall.

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You may want to do some more research on graphite, or dry lubrication in general. It can do a lot of long-term damage to the weapon. I think one of the above links may have more information.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Beowulf

You may want to do some more research on graphite, or dry lubrication in general. It can do a lot of long-term damage to the weapon. I think one of the above links may have more information.

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For what it's worth, I use it on my personel weapons and it worked well with my weapons in both OIF I and OIF III. Haven't had a problem with it after 7 years of use.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RTK

For what it's worth, I use it on my personel weapons and it worked well with my weapons in both OIF I and OIF III. Haven't had a problem with it after 7 years of use.

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I used graphite during OEF I and had no problems. I know many guys that still use it.

But, I have heard that dry lubricants such as graphite won't fill the disparities in the metal and will not coat as well as "wet" lubes. Thus causing more long term wear and tear on the weapon.

I'm having trouble finding any good information one way or the other on the web. The biggest debate seems to be between Militec and CLP, not really any scholarly articles or research on graphite.

I'm not a chemist, but it kinda made sense to me that a "dry" lubricant wouldn't work quite as well as a "wet" one.

Graphite is highly reactive with aluminum, especially 7075 aluminum, which is what the lower receiver of your M4 and M9 is made of. Sucks to be the guy who gets the gun after you, I guess.

Lubricants perform 3 functions. First, they overcome friction. Second, they cool moving parts. Third, they reduce wear and jams by emulsifying foreign matter, and allow moving close clearance parts to "wipe" it off those parts.

Dry lubricants can ONLY do #1. They are worthless at #2 and #3.

There are a couple of good tests out there that show that proper (meaning liberal wet lube) lubrication combined with minimal soldier skills very nearly eliminates malfunctions and abnormal wear on the M16/M4. The DTIC ran one during the development of the M16E2, and there was another one last year, which my good friend (sarcasm) Matthew Cox reported on in The Army Times.

Sorry if I call bull#### on the anecdotal, "But I used weasel ####, and so do all my friends" post, but it is just that, an anecdote.

Here's a link to some lube info: www.m4carbine.net

Corrosion data on graphite v. aluminum is common mechanical knowledge and is readily available on the web. I would look up some links, but why don't YOU do the work and look up links that prove that I'm wrong, instead....

Here are some links. There are more, but I'm too busy with work to do the heavy lifting:

http://m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=31

http://www.vickerstactical.com/Tips/...ubrication.htm

http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Def...nic-series.htm

-I would recommend dental tools for weapons maintenance. They have two little picks with different heads that are perfect for scraping microscopic, unwanted detritus from teeth and WEAPONS. The dental techs have hundreds of these things laying around in little sterile packages... go find you some.

-CLP is not very sexy but it works.

-Outside, bone dry. Inside, "moist." Keep your ejection port closed, keep a mag or a cloth in your mag well and cap your barrel, all the time. These are the entry points for crud in your baby. Keep crap from getting in and you want have to worry about whats coming out.

-Carry two brushes everywhere. A large circular artist's brush to dust of the exterior of your M "whatever," it takes two seconds and saves you soooo much when you do overhaul and a little one, preferably a no joke lens brush with retractable bristles to fleck out the crap from the inner ring of your ACOG (you know what I am talking about). Rags retain the dirt, and are really only feasible in the rear... flip your bristles and your brush is ready to rock rain or shine.

Very bad to leave oil in the chamber. Brass cartridge case is designed to expand and hold or grab the walls of the chamber during the detonation of the powder. One millasecond later the brass contracts releasing the walls of the chamber and allowing extraction. Any oil would increase tremendously the pressure pushing back against the face of the bolt, way above design specifications. Anyone else want to comment?
Clean the chamber as best you can but DON'T LEAVE ANY OIL/FLUID ON THE WALLS OF THE CHAMBER.
S/F
Tipy