14 September 2009
I think I took my first armorer training course from Sig Sauer way back in 1988 when they were still headquartered in Virginia. Across the years I took more to include Beretta, Glock, Colt and a couple others. Inevitably I built up my own armorer's kit that contained the items I most often needed to work on the various handguns and shotguns that I would work on. No matter what type or caliber gun it is, there are a few common things you need to maintain them. The same can be said of necessities to maintain tools and knives. Sentry Solutions has put some of those common items together into convenient kits.
Something we should discuss because it plays an important role in the Sentry Solutions products is the challenge faced by hunters, soldiers, cops... heck, anyone who uses guns, knives or tools: maintenance includes oil. Oil attracts and holds dirt and grime. So, how to clean a weapon, lubricate it and not have that lubrication end up eroding the very cleaning work you've just done? The answer is what is called "dry bonded" lubrication. Additionally, oil-based lubricants can negatively affect performance of your tools that have metal moving parts when the temperatures get below freezing. For soldiers and police officers - and, indeed, the hunters - who go out into weather where seasonal termperatures are reasonably expected to go below freezing, how smart is it to keep using lubricants that get THICK when it gets cold out?
Keep those thoughts in mind as we take a look at the Sentry Solutions Kits. The lubricants have names that all either start with the words Dry Lubricant or they are rated to function normally at temperatures down to -65 degrees and up to 650 degrees F (obviously I haven't been able to field test them to either extreme).
Let's take a look at the Armorer's Kit first...
The Armorer's Kit includes:
- Smooth-Kote Dry Gun Lubricant and Bore Treatment (one big and one small bottle)
- BP-2000 Powder Dry Lubricant Trigger Tuner and Bore Treatment
- TUF Cloth
- Hi-Slip Grease (in a syringe applicator)
- small cleaning brush w/ metal handle
- Point applicator for small bottle of Smooth-Kote
- Accessory pack that contains:
- gloves
- pipe cleaners
- 3 different sizes of swabs
- cleaning patches
- 2 alcohol swabs
These items, minus a bore brush and whatever other tools are necessary, are sufficient to clean most weapons. Certainly I can clean a handgun with what's in this kit - including the barrel if I use some of the larger swabs that are in the accessory pack.
So, I set about doing exactly that. I trust my Glock pistols to work even without any lubrication at all, so I used my Glock 19 as the "test platform". Stripping it, I cleaned it using the Sentry Solutions materials and then lubed it before reassembling it. It function tested fine and felt like it was running smooth so off to the range I went.
200 rounds of ammo later I was convinced that the weapon was running fine. I had experienced no failures to feed, misfires, misfeeds, failures to eject, etc. The slide wasn't sticking (I have never seen a Glock slide stick or be slow going into battery). After clearing the weapon I took it back home and repeated the process of disassembly, cleaning, lubricating, reassembly and function test. It was still moving smooth and I was satisfied. I should note that - the first time around - although I had just cleaned my G19 about a month ago, when I cleaned it with the Sentry Solutions products I still got more dirt / carbon off of it. Of course, you can clean weapons forever and probably still find some speck of carbon someplace but I was impressed that I got the weapon even cleaner.
Moving on, let's take a look at the Sentry Solutions Knife & Tool Care Kit. Delivered in a handle little black nylon hook-n-loop closed package are:
- TUF Cloth
- TUF-Glide (tube w/ point applicator)
- small swabs
- sharpening device
The TUF Cloth itself, along with the small included swabs are sufficient to perform surface cleaning to your knives and tools. The sharpening device is big enough to sharpening virtually all your knives, but not quite big enough for hatchets and axes (although it could, it would be difficult).
Using this kit I went over several of the fixed blade knives I commonly use for my outings and cleaned them up. I dressed the edges and was pleased with the results. I wiped them thoroughly with the TUF Cloth and was happy with that as well. The Dry Lubricant technology feels a bit funny but it's hard to argue with success. It works.
Find more information about Sentry Solutions online.
Happy Trails!
