Deadly WD-40

Guns Magazine, April, 1999 by Massad Ayoob

A friend of mine recalls a long-ago day on a big city subway. He was licensed to carry and was wearing a Smith & Wesson Model 36 Chiefs Special revolver. He was alone in that particular subway car when it was boarded by a perpetrator who suddenly menaced him with a knife. He drew the .38, aimed at the antagonist's face and pulled the trigger.

Click!

God was looking down protectively. On the other side of the gun, the perpetrator's face took on an expression of horror. His eyes rolled up into his head until only the whites showed, and he keeled over on his back in a dead faint.

A post-mortem of this incident with a happy ending revealed the problem. Proud of his finely made revolver's rich blue finish, my friend frequently sprayed down the gun with WD-40. Wanting clean ammo too, he had sprayed the case heads and primers as well. WD-40, of course, is a metal penetrating oil. It had killed the primer in each and every chamber.

Our Chiefs owner is now much older and wiser. He carries a Colt .45 auto he custom-built himself. And he keeps his powder -- and his primers -- dry.