Use only oil and not grease ?

It looks like the lockdown will be here for quite a while so today I completely stripped re-cleaned and oiled my guns and have put them away until we can shoot again.

The process got me thinking about grease, I don't use grease but another thread on here made me think again so I got out all of my manuals and every one said only use oil for chokes, hinges, pins and any other bearing surfaces.  The 'oil only' directions were for Miroku, Browning, Benelli, Franchi and Mossberg. So I have not used grease but added a little bit more oil than usual and stored them barrel down. I will check them periodically and and wipe away any excesses before the next shoot.

So my question is -  do some gun manufacturers advise the use of grease and if not why do people use grease? 

Thanks

Metal to metal contact area's under high load such as knuckle of an shotgun are far better lubricated with grease. It's what grease is designed to do.

Opinions differ about gun maintenance now Perazzi recommend a bit of their grease on all metal to metal surfaces.

It's an eternal debate I think - there is a concern for guns stored conventionally i.e. stock down/barrels up that oil drains in a southerly direction through the firing pin holes and into the stock, which over a period of time softens the wood.

I note that when my Perazzi came back from Tim Greenwood after having the stock refinished that the knuckles etc were lightly greased (where as I had always sparingly oiled them). 

Conversely the downside of grease (over oil) as a lubricant is that it's more of a sticky dust trap, oil tends to flow and take the debris with it.  Can't win can we?

Bear in mind there are many types of oil with viscosity being one of the main variables. The oil that Beretta supplies in the little blue bottles is fairly thick so probably okay-ish for the trunnions and knuckles, but IMO it's neither one thing nor the other in that it's too thick for the ejectors, much too thick for lubing the action pivots and too thin for the load bearing surfaces.

I use grease as described above by Chippy, Wilco's Handy Oil for ejectors etc. and machine oil in minute quantities inside the action.

Personally, and after a lifetime of working on mechanical stuff, I've never noticed grease to collect more debris than oil. The difference, and probable origin of the theory, is that for most applications, grease remains in place much longer than oil, but with shotguns we clean the lube off and replace frequently. Don't we? :good:

Always worth remembering that with oil especially, use it sparingly as too much will migrate to places you really don't want it.