Months ago I started a test on the new Frog Lube CLP. I put it against the Breakfree CLP I’ve been using for years. I started the test by using it as a Preservative (complete test here). It worked great on a piece of untreated steel in my back-yard garden. It worked better then the usual CLP I use (both preformed pretty amazingly).
I was then interested in how well it would work in the real world on a real gun. I used my Glock 19 Gen 3 that I’ve had for years and probably have about 30,000 rounds through it (yes it’s the Glock I broke a while back, and then broke it again). I used it as a range gun for a while and then started carrying it everyday. I have a little over 1200 rounds and 3 months of everyday carry to show for the test.
Above is the slide to my Glock 19 at about 600 rounds (when I decided to start carrying it). As you can see it started to build up crap in it. I wiped it down but did not put any more lube on the gun.
A couple months and 600 rounds later I cleaned my gun again and found the same build up of crap in the gun. The Frog Lube seems to be sticky and/or attract gunk to the inside of my gun. During the 1200 rounds I had not one failure of any kind and had no problems to speak of. The gun didn’t even slow down or feel like it was getting dirty. With other lubes I can tell when the gun is getting this dirty because the cycle rate seems to slow and the gun doesn’t feel like it’s running smooth when I work the action. Of course with a Glock “smooth” is a relative term.
I also used Frog Lube as a cleaner. Not really that great a solvent. Breakfree worked way better and easier. The Frog Lube also had a minty smell that was pretty overpowering. My wife normally makes me clean guns outside, so I thought the Frog Lube’s non-gun smell would work inside. Not really, it’s too strong and I still found myself on the back porch cleaning my guns. Then it took longer because the stuff wasn’t working all that great.
Final Thoughts:
I’m not going to be using Frog Lube on my carry guns anymore. While it worked great as a lubricant and preservative, it didn’t do so well on the cleaning part. It also attracted more crap then I would expect my lubes to. I only put a tiny amount of lube on my guns to prevent this kind of build up. Even with just a touch of lube on the gun the Frog Lube seemed to attract everything and anything to the inside of the gun it came in contact with. I did a long-term test on Breakfree before just to see how well it worked. I never had the build up of crap and it wasn’t until about 1100 rounds that the gun started to cycle pretty slow and then failed to go into battery (but I was shooting 95 gr/super light bullets, which makes a difference). I didn’t have anything to clean it with at the range, so I just wiped it down with a rag and it started running just fine.
The Frog Lube is going to be used for my safe hangers. The guns that rarely come out and rarely get shot. With the extra thick layer of protection it should be nice so I can keep the rust down.
Bottom line is that I’m comfortable with cleaning my gun every 1,000 rounds with Breakfree and only 500 rounds with Frog Lube. I’m lazy and don’t want to do that much work, plus the Frog Lube is harder to clean with and I really don’t want a bunch of different cleaners in my cleaning kit I. I just want one.
Next I’ll be trying a couple different products. American Gun Oil sponsors Bob Mayne’s show and he says it fabulous. But he also says that Militec works great and I was less then impressed with it when I used it.
I also want to try Rand CLP. One of my friends from the gun shop turned me onto it. It’s a CLP that has no smell. He was using it the other day, and there was in fact no smell. It also seemed to stick a little different then normal CLP. So I’ll be getting a bottle.
Stay Safe,
Ben
UPDATE:
Frog Lube did not do well trying to apply it in the cold on the range one early morning to a couple different rifles and pistols. It was the only thing I had in my bag and ended up asking someone else to borrow some CLP because at 30 Degrees it was like waiting for old school Ketchup to come out of the bottle.
I have tried this lube and it does the job well. Does lump and it stick well to the barrel.
I’m having those same flecks of yellow in my gun. Doesn’t slow it down at all, though. I’m wondering if since FrogLube is an organic compound it’s growing some kind of mold. Which would be cool in a nerdy way to have the first bio-symbiotic firearm. Haha!
I have been having great results with Frog Lube. I suspect those who complain about problems have not cleaned the gun properly with Frog Lube’s cleaner to get rid of the old petroleum based lubes; and then seasoned the gun with a three cycle heat, Frog Lube CLP, and cool down. After running the three cycle seasoning all future cleanings are simply done with the Frog Lube CLP, no cleaner or heat now needed. I have been using Frog Lube for over two years on guns fired every week and guns that sit in storage.
That’s great. Maybe I’ll think of the heat treatment. It was hard to clean just using Frog Lube without that.
Thanks for the feed back. Has it turned to jell on you in any of your long term storage guns?
In my experience, it hasn’t turned to gel or anything like that. Froglube’s been great. I “seasoned” all my defensive handguns and my 22s, and they’re working better than ever. They come out of storage just the way I put them in, regardless of temperature.
I strongly suspect you’re leaving too much Froglube on the gun, which is why it’s collecting dirt and seeming like it’s thick. In the tests I’ve seen, once Froglube is baked into the metal, its lubrication effect is maximized when there’s almost none left on the gun. The coefficient of friction is lowest when the gun is nearly dry. I’d recommend wiping the gun down until you think you might have gone a little too far, it should be 98% dry. Over-lubrication is almost the worst thing you can do to a gun, it attracts dirt and your gun spends energy throwing lube around rather than moving metal past metal.
How did you do the back in process. I’d like to try that on a shotgun because I have a high round count class to go to next month and that sounds like it would be a great test and if it worked, I’d like to not have to work to clean my gun.
If you don’t mind sharing I’d like to take your advice and do it on my shotgun.
It’s pretty simple. Take the gun down as far as you can, and clean all the gunk and petroleum-based oils out of it using the Froglube solvent. Then, get all the metal parts very wet with Froglube CLP, and heat them with a hair dryer or a space heater. They don’t have to get burning hot, but you want them to get pretty warm. I stuck my parts in front of a heater and left them there for about thirty minutes. They were just hot enough to where I could touch them bare handed, but not for long. Once they’ve been good and warm for a few minutes, let them cool down. Once they’re cooled down, get some clean dry cloths or paper towels and wipe almost all the Froglube off. You want them to be 98% dry. Keep going until you think you’ve almost wiped too much off. At this point, you’re done, the Froglube has soaked into the metal and left an invisible coating. You’ll notice that even though the gun seems pretty dry, it will feel smoothly lubricated and dirt will wipe off easier than it did before. In the future, just use a little Froglube CLP and wipe the dirt off. If you switch back to normal oils and degreasers, the bake-in effect will be destroyed pretty much immediately.
Thanks for the info. I’m going to break down my shotgun and try it. I think I’ll use it on my Desert Eagle too. I found some rust on it today. It needs a little more love.
I use the paste. Degrease the whole gun from all other products. Then i use a heat gun (cheap at harbor freight) or a hair dryer. I warm the parts up untill i can barely handle it bare handed. Then i use a small paint brush to wipe it on (the metal being hot, when the paste touches, it turns to a liquidity gel) put it all over the gun(except inside of the firing pin chamber or on the firing pin). Then i let it cool off and set for atleast 30 min. Then i come back and wipe the excess off with a micro fiber cloth. It feels/looks almost like there is nothing on it. Then i reassemble. After each range visit you only have to use a micro fiber cloth to wipe off any crud, debris, carbon. Ever so often repeat the process.
Thanks for the how to! I have a couple guns that are going up for long term storage. I wanted to use frog lube on them because of the rust. I’ll use your technique and see how it works.
Ultra lube is something new to me, it is also plant based, has anyone tested this ? It can be found at Lowe’s !
Try M – Pro 7 LPX. It is their CLP. In my opinion, LA and FrogLube are the best on the market. I’ve been happy with FrogLube on my carry pieces. I wipe as much off as I can and don’t leave a thick film though. LPX blows FrogLube out of the water as a cleaner and preservative. Works very well on copper too. I just prefer FL for carry because I don’t need to leave as much product on the weapon and it isn’t an oil that can find its way to my clothes.
The should be LPX not LA. Auto correct fail.
LOL! I hate when autocorrect messes me over!
I’m testing FireClean right now and not sure if it’s going to be any better or worst then anything else. But we’ll see. They sent me a free bottle to test. I’ll check out Pro 7 too. I’m just looking for that all in one solution because I don’t want to carry or stock more then one thing.
Hey Ben,
Frog lube is going to kill guns that sit. My dad just had to clean every gun he had used it on in his safe. When left to sit it dripped off the FCG and turned into nasty honey like garbage. It slowed things down to the point that an ar would not have had a good strike on the bolt. He had it on 1911’s and glocks. All were crap and likely would have failed if he had not cleaned it out. Tw25b or slip or mobil 1 work much better. I have heard lots about fire clean and hopefully that works for people. As for frog lube it is all going in the trash along with an email to the company.
Thanks for the advice. I’ll keep an eye on the stuff. That sounds like a lot of other cleaners I’ve used that becomes a jelly after a while. If I find it I’ll let you know. Thanks for the heads up.
You’re almost certainly leaving way too much Froglube on the gun. Most lubes work best when there’s hardly any left on the gun, the gun should appear to be nearly dry. Wipe the Froglube off until you think you’ve almost wiped off too much.
Hope ! You haven’t thrown it in the trash ! Please send it to me.
My email is: unlimited salez@Gmail.com, I’ll give you an address.
Unlimitedsalez@gmail.com
Nope, I’m still keeping it and trying other things with it. Seems wrong to toss it when so many people love it.