Originally Posted by Astro14
I think most guns are simply not picky. They will run dry, they will run with canola oil, with motor oil, with gun oil, or even air tool oil.
Air tool oil looks very thin, I reckon that's because of the high RPM of the air tools. I'm sure it works, even if it's thin.
I would choose oil over no oil, and in a pinch, a drop or two from the dipstick off a diesel HMMV sure beats dry.
But given time, like when the gun is on my bench, I would choose a tailored gun product. I don't want extraneous additives (like those in motor oil, which is 25% additive) that could be potentially detrimental to performance in the long run. I want a viscosity that is appropriate to the conditions.
As I've said before, gun oil is less than 1% of my annual shooting expenses. Saving money on gun oil isn't really saving anything. Why not simply the tailored product?
As Astro14 says, darn near anything will if you find yourself in a pinch. Personally, I don't end up in a pinch very often when it comes to shooting. First, the guns are properly prepared to run when I leave the house.
Second, I've got dedicated bags set up for shotgun clay targets, pistol/rifle shooting and upland bird hunting. Case the guns, add the day's ammunition, and I'm set to go.
Each bag has a pouch of cleaning stuff in it. I set it up so I could break down a gun if necessary and give it a fairly complete cleaning. However, the only kit from my purpose-dedicated bags that actually gets used much is the one in the hunting bag, as I tend to clean that day's firearm after the hunt is done, especially if I'm staying overnight or there's a long drive home ahead. Otherwise, something from those kits more often gets borrowed by someone else having an issue, and what they need is usually something simple ... a brush, a drop of oil, a squirt of Ballistol, a RemOil wipe, a little grease for a choke tube, etc.
I'm with Astro14 re choices for firearm care. If shooting's enough of your life that you've got a bench or table dedicated to it at home, why not use tailored products? The cost is a tiny fraction compared to the other costs, including guns, ammo, gear and even the expense of gas to get to the range and/or hunting spots and back home. Begrudging the smallest fraction makes no sense to me, nor does using a less than optimum product on valuable tools when the net expense of using the tailored product is such a small fraction of the overall cost of the shooting sports.