Mberry Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 (edited) I'm relatively new to 3-gun and was never a shotgun guy prior to getting in to the sport. I've learned a lot through trial and error and by spending a ton of time reading old threads. Hopefully someone else finds this method useful. ***Edited to add- this technique worked for me. Obviously from the posts below from more experienced shotgun guru's, this isn't the only way to run an M2. If you're having problems and looking for remedies, this is a method that worked for me. My M2 was acting very sluggish. I was getting a lot of failures to feed where the bolt was not going fully in to battery. I clean my gun about every 300 rounds and finish by applying a few drops of Fireclean on the contact points. I assumed it was my recoil spring causing the problem as it has been in the gun for a few thousand rounds now. I had the same problem towards the end of last season and was able to get my gun running again by pulling the recoil spring and making sure it was clean and dry. I was a little overzealous with the lube a few times and it leaked down in to the recoil spring causing it to gum up and act sluggish. Replacing the spring helped a little, but it didn't fully cure the problem. The problem was noticeably worse when the gun was cold, so I thought maybe Fireclean was too temperature sensitive. A friend of mine told me Benelli's should be run very dry, I don't exactly run mine wet, but it wasn't dry either. I decided to completely strip all the oil from the receiver with some acetone and give it a try. After cleaning with the acetone, I put some very light oil on a q-tip and ran that on the rails and bolt, just enough to where the metal didn't look "thirsty". The results are pretty easy to see and the gun runs like new again. Lesson learned on my part! Before: After: Edited January 24, 2014 by Mberry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarpau Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Running my M2 wet has never let me down. I've run WAY more than 300 rounds between cleaning and never an issue. My recoil spring is original and it has multiple thousands of rounds as well as me racking/dryfiring it. Some very experienced Benelli shooters have verified that they like to be run wet. Every gun is different. Hope yours functions perfectly going forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 This may be the perfect answer for your gun, but I will tell you that if you don't lube the cam pin and cam pin slot in the bolt with some fairly thick oil or good quality grease, you will either break the cam pin, or round out the flat spot on your bolt and then it will bounce out of battery intermitently. I take the other tact, I run mine very wet, If it doesn't drip out a little it is too little! I don't know about all these wizz bang cool new lubes, but any good oil will work great...5W-30 Mobil 1 is great, as is FP-10 or Brownell's oil. Don't run a Benelli real dry, it accelerates wear greatly...I mean you wouldn't take your brand new Corvette and drain out most the oil and expect it to last.....don't do it with an expensive shotgun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mberry Posted January 24, 2014 Author Share Posted January 24, 2014 Well... Crap. Thought I'd done something right and was pretty pleased with the results. I'll put some grease on the cam pin, thanks for the tip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KY1911 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Kurt: can you explain a little more on the cam pin lube? I'm guessing not the section down in the bolt where the FP moves through, but rather once assembled a dab of grease on the top of the pin before bolt goes back into shotgun. Is this correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I grease (Molly paste from NECO, but ANYTHING will do) the slot that the cam pin rides in, and a little dab on the back of each locking lug. I also lube the heck out of the inertia spring and the bolt tail that goes into the bolt carrier.....don't forget to clean the heck out of the locking lug receses in the barrel extention...tooth brush and q-tips. Once a year I pull apart the recoil spring and scrub the inside of the tube and lube up nice and wet with any good synthetic oil. Oh yeah, and don't forget to put a drop of oil between the shell latch lever and the carrier and the shell release tab on the trigger guard....a place very few folks think to oil...but it IS very important!!! Over the years I have heard all sorts of tales about how to lube or not lube M1/M2 shotguns. Two of the best have been to run them absolutely dry, and "NEVER" lube the inertia spring or inside of the bolt carrier. IT IS AN INERTIA SYSTEM!!! anything that impeeds the bolt collapsing the inertia spring and then throwing the bolt carrier back WILL cause problems and that means oil to help it all work! My orriginal M1...which I still shoot quite a bit now has over 220,000 rounds on it and it is still running great! If you don't lube them the service life is more in the 75,000-100,000 round range. The only things I have had to replace were one bolt carrier which rounded out, and one cam pin...back when I didn't grease it @ 68,000 rounds. Two shell latch lever roll pins and One barrel extention, where the lower locking slot got hammered out...but it still ran fine except with low recoil slugs. I have replaced the recoil spring 3 times, the carrier spring once, and a bunch of mag tube springs...and it is still in spec. Try that without any oil! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Smith Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 (edited) Been using my M2 since 2007 & always followed kurts advice on lube as detailed above, I got the grease & FP10 he reccommends shipped here from the USA & my gun runs sweet & always has. However many of my fellow countrymen have had various problems & some have since switched to the Beretta 1301 instead. I cant help thinking that if they had followed the advice kurt has given above, they may have saved themselves the cost of a gun. N Edited January 27, 2014 by Neil Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chargerarms Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 I have always soaked my bolts in the ultrasonic cleaner. I will be using the heavier grease now where Kurt recommends. I got to keep this old HK running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 MBerry, I just ran accross this on another competition forum. I thought you would like to know. I think your cleaning with acetone was the propper step for getting all the "Fireclean" out of the action! So you were well on the way, now just use good synthetic oil instead and you should be good to go. Between the both of us we are going to get these here Benellis running like a clock!!! Here is the quote. "has anyone had any issues with fireclean. The stuff worked great all summer when out was nice and hot, but now that it is cold my guns shoot like they are full of syrup after 100 rounds or so. Just curious if this is my culprit or if anyone else has noticed anything similar." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mberry Posted January 28, 2014 Author Share Posted January 28, 2014 Thanks Kurt, I think you're probably right. I had the same problem with my pistol yesterday. About 200 rounds in to some practice and it was done. Full of syrup is a very good description. I spoke to a Fireclean rep at the FNH match last year and he said it was a common problem for people to use the product too liberally as a lubricant. His advice- Apply heavy for cleaning, then wipe it off and re-apply sparingly for lube. During the summer, no problems, in fact it's great stuff. Feels like an action job in a bottle and makes clean up a breeze, but... "Apply as directed" is certainly good advice for Fireclean users. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jk_nh Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 Does anyone have experience with using Lubriplate 105 to grease the cam pin and cam pin slot on a M2? I ask because I've read about it being used to lube M&Ps and Sigs. Just wondering if it would be an appropriate lube for an M2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Lubriplate is an outstanding cam pin grease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gondo Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Ha I thought I was the only person that used lubriplate for guns. I had some in my shop for work and one day I was looking for something to put on the slide rails of my xdm.... And it just seemed to work well so I have always used it on pistol slide rails ever since. Might have to try a little in the benelli now. I have always had good results by using clp, rem oil, synthetic motor oil and lubriplate only in my guns. I just haven't found a need for anything else yet.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacMan Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 (edited) I grease (Molly paste from NECO, but ANYTHING will do) the slot that the cam pin rides in, ... Same goes for the AR bolt/carrier...the new cam pin doesn't show the wear pattern typically found in heavily used ARs I use synthetic oil in all firearms. The current one quartz of Mobil 1 synthetic (5/30) is on its 8th season of shooting and is only 1/2 empty...cheeep! Edited March 11, 2014 by PacMan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZombieHunter Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 MBerry, I just ran accross this on another competition forum. I thought you would like to know. I think your cleaning with acetone was the propper step for getting all the "Fireclean" out of the action! So you were well on the way, now just use good synthetic oil instead and you should be good to go. Between the both of us we are going to get these here Benellis running like a clock!!! Here is the quote. "has anyone had any issues with fireclean. The stuff worked great all summer when out was nice and hot, but now that it is cold my guns shoot like they are full of syrup after 100 rounds or so. Just curious if this is my culprit or if anyone else has noticed anything similar." Yep, I quit using FireClean a while ago. It started gumming up ALL my guns BAD, including a Beretta 390 shotgun which never had issues until I put FireClean in it. I went to Mobil 1 5W-30 and haven't looked back since. Everything works MUCH better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowrider Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 (edited) About the best weapons lube you can get is a synthetic motorcycle specific motor oil mixed with a synthetic ATF. Mix about 30% ATF with the balance motor oil. Yes it might cost $20 +/- for the two quarts, but you end up with over 40oz of lube. Edited March 11, 2014 by Shadowrider Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Wait, WHAT???? What ever happens to Diesel fuel and 90wt?... geezers Shadow you change with the wind! :), Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowrider Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Wait, WHAT???? What ever happens to Diesel fuel and 90wt?... geezers Shadow you change with the wind! :), LOL! What can I say I'm a closet tribologist! For the record, I'm using Frog Lube a lot lately and seeing some of the same as with the Fireclean. It wouldn't surprise me to find that the base chemical is the same in them. I'm going back to the oil/atf and grease for lube and I'll stick with the Frog for corrosion protection. It is outstanding for that and it's not slimy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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