I don’t think it’s ever taken me four months of constant use of a product to complete a review, but this one did. Rogue American Apparel is owned by former Marine and PMC Wes Whitlock, and is heavily staffed by veterans. They shoot, they shoot a lot, and when it comes to shooting, they know what they’re doing.
Along with a clothing line, they’ve sold knives, axes, belts, holsters, and a few other shooting accessories. So I wasn’t terribly surprised when they came out with their own RAA Diamondback Gun Oil. I wasn’t surprised, but I was a little leery. When Wes asked me to review it, I gave him plenty of outs, and let him know that once I start it, the chips fall where they may. He remained nonplussed.
I’m not sure how to do scientific a gun oil review. So for the last four months, every gun I shot got a dose of RAA’s oil. And every time I went shooting — which is still most days — I lubed my guns with it. I got the guns dirty with it, shot them when it was over 100 degrees, and then froze parts of them that were covered with it in my freezer…them shot using those parts.
I sprayed it all over some aluminum foil, wrapped a 92FS in it, and froze it in my freezer for a few days. Not only did the gun run great, but the foil wasn’t stuck to the the gun. I ran it though my Legion P229 that hates everything. It ran great. I ran it through my Wilson Combat CQB Tactical LE 9mm that hates any kind of thick lube. It ran fine. I ran it through my Lone Wolf 19 that really doesn’t care what you throw through on it and would probably run fine on Crisco. It ran fine. Revolvers, ARs, several lever guns, multiple 1911s, suppressed, unsuppressed, you name it. Zero problems, all worked as advertised.
The next test was the impromptu resuscitation of two GLOCKs and an H&K. Late in the summer I attending a shoot with about 20 new shooters, most of significant financial means, run by a team of NAVSPECWAR personnel. Three guns at the event were continually failing. A GLOCK 34, a GLOCK 17 and an HK VP9.
These aren’t, by any means, bad guns and they’re not known to malfunction. But it turns out if you never so much as clean or lube a gun before putting a few hundred rounds through them, even Gaston’s “perfection” tends to choke and die. Someone told their owners (just buy a X) so they did. And that’s all they did. With zero maintenance of any kind.
I opened up the actions and liberally sprayed the Diamondback Gun Oil through them and in no time, all three guns were back in action. No more hiccups.
Then the full-auto fun ensued. We ran a GLOCK 18, a full-auto AK47, a giggle switch-equipped suppressed AR15, and a full-auto suppressed M&P 15-22 (the most fun gun ever). And we ran them until everyone had their fill. The only lube used was RAA’s oil.
The final test was one that took four months of waiting. I packed up one of my tighter-fitting ARs after cleaning it and lubing it with Diamondback Gun Oil. I didn’t take it out of the case again for four months. The final test for me, and the one I’ve learned the hard way with other lubricants, was then just taking the rifle out, charging it, and pouring rounds out of it. It ran like a champ. No gumming over time, no sticking in the action and no mucking up the works. The oil was still there doing it’s job. Outstanding.
I did all of that with one 4oz bottle, and still I haven’t used it all. A little goes a long, long way. The bottle it comes in is a fine mist sprayer, not a dropper, and I’ve learned to trust it. Spray a light coating, work the parts, and wait just a minute. It applies a thin, long-lasting coating that creeps all over. This was one of the few times with firearms that Spray and Pray actually works.
For technical details, the Rogue American Apparel’s website offers very little, save the oil’s extremely impressive temperature range, -85 to 500 Fahrenheit. Given the lack of detail, Wes directed me to the original manufacturer. I was able to verify that this is actually the same gun oil used up in the frozen north by the Canadian navy and has NATO stock numbers (NSN 9150-20-0069068 and NSN 9150-20-001-7107). It’s also a real petroleum oil, no synthetics. And it’s made in Canada. So it’s officially the most polite gun oil you can buy.
Rouge American Apparel’s RAA Diamondback Gun Oil
Price: $14.99 – 4oz bottle
Rating (out of five stars):
Overall * * * * *
If anyone wants to buy me a stocking stuffer, multiple bottles of this stuff for my gun bags and vehicles would be welcome. Because when the End-Times come, you’ll likely see me with a smile on my face, and my guns lubed with RAA’s Diamondback Gun Oil.