If you train with firearms, cleaning them is a fact of life. There are few firearms cleaning tasks that are less enjoyable than removing the caked up carbon from your weaponlight.

Removing the weaponlight before training is a simple solution. However a weaponlight can alter the way a firearm handles. It can also affect how the handgun fits in a holster. If you carry a weaponlight, you should train with your weaponlight attached. That begs the question, how do you prevent the mess?

There are several products on the market to address the problem. Most take the form of stickers or lens caps. All of them cost money. Thankfully, you probably already have something in your range bag that can solve the problem.

My regular Monday morning range training session uses approximately one hundred rounds. That is sufficient to reinforce some skills and diagnose any issues for future work. It is also sufficient to carbon up the lens of my X300U pretty well.

This week I decided to try a new trick. I grabbed the test bottle of FrogLube from the range bag and smeared a drop on the lens of the weaponlight. I used enough to leave the lens damp and did not wipe it off. Then I rolled into a round of “Dot Torture” and some work on the plate rack.

Once my shooting session was over, I inspected the lens of the X300U. As I expected, It was black with carbon. However, instead of soaking it with solvent and scraping, I just wiped it off with a rag.

While this little test used FrogLube, I have been told that many other gun lubricants will work as well.

The very light film of lubricant is light enough that it won’t reduce the light output much, making this a good option for night fire training.

There is a caveat. The Surefire X300U uses a high-quality glass lens. The glass should be resistant to most gun cleaners and lubricants. If you are in doubt, contact the manufacturer of the solvent/lube. If your weaponlight has a polymer lens, use caution with this technique.