Ballistol is great for use in (and on) Black Powder firearms to prevent rust in the bore during storage. I also clean my muzzleloaders with it 50/50 solution with water. I remove it from guns I'm taking in the woods to hunt because of the strong smell. The smell isn't horrible, but I wouldn't want to smell it more than I had to.
I’ve come to realize the smell doesn’t really bother me anymore. Used a lot of it today after cleaning up some tools w/ Evaporust. Before I would almost gag if a drop was used. Now I barely notice it. The lingering smell from rags in the waste basket is usually when I notice it the most.
your nose has died!Originally Posted by dragon813gt
It hasn’t. I don’t notice it due to exposure over a long period of time. Every other human will do the same thing. When you walk into a barn you notice the smell. If you stay in be barn the smell is present but you don’t notice it anymore. I mention that because I hated helping a friend out on his dairy farm. The smell of the barn when I walked in was putrid. But five minutes later I didn’t notice it any more.
I was a chemist in a previous life, so most smells don’t bother me.
I was also an experimental scientist, and had to design experiments to prove various things. I read that “exhaustive Internet test” of gun cleaner/lubricant/preservative offerings and found the test conditions were ridiculous. The only relation they would have to gun maintenance is if you’re worried about that gun on the foredeck of your WWII submarine.
My gun safe has no salt spray mister (I ordered the basic package; no frills). Downgrading a cleaner/preservative whose function is to form an emulsion in water because one finds to one’s surprise and shock that it doesn’t stay on a surface under a constant spray of water is like saying a strike-out pitcher is no good because he only bats .150.
Here’s a “torture test” for a gun cleaner/preservative: a small-caliber muzzleloading rifle. There’s essentially only one outlet, and the internal volume is small. Any moisture left from cleaning will stay in there from lack of air circulation and wind up on the cleaned bore. I used to clean with dish soap and water, dry with acetone and swab the bore with whatever cleaner and preservative was touted, from Hoppe’s to RIG. Whatever I used, if I didn’t check in a day or two, there would be red on the surface of a cleaning patch; a bloom of fine, red rust.
I now clean all blackpowder firearms with Ballistol/water followed by Ballistol. In the case of the muzzleloader, no red ever shows up on patches any more. Nor on any other gun. After the normal cleaning of barrel and cylinder, I can spray the straight stuff into the mechanism of cap&ball revolvers and only take them completely apart for cleaning once a year, and the “mud” of Ballistol mixed with black powder fouling found inside doesn’t affect the springs, sears and surfaces at all.
So to me, the smell of Ballistol is the smell of a well-cleaned black powder gun that I don’t have to worry about, even if it stays in storage for a year before I get back to it. As Harry Pope said about his favorite cleaner, “There may be a better product on the market, but LET GEORGE USE IT!”
I have seen numerous statements about the German Army use of Ballistol.The book Rifle and Carbine 98 by Dieter Storz has a section on the cleaners and preservatives used by the German Army.Ballistol is not mentioned.
i kinda like it to.,,
It's an acquired smell. At first I didn't like it at all, now I do + it works very well.
I am a firm believer in Ballistol. Works well for all sorts of things. Metal, wood and leather.
After a life of using and abusing a lot of petroleum products, mostly diesel, I have developed an allergy to them. I am very sensitive to the smell and if I get some on my hands, (petrochemical products) I can quickly taste it in my mouth. It’s strange how your body can change with age.
Ballistol was developed before the first WW. At that time petroleum wasn’t used much. It is a mix of natural oils. That’s why it is said you can drink it. It doesn’t bother my petroleum allergy at all.
I also use castor oil to lubricant my guns and other machinery for the same reason. It’s all natural too and works great.
Perhaps you do not read the labels of every prescription med you consume. Almost everything has some effect on you if you touch it, drink or breathe it. Got an allergy? Wash you clothes with soap? Handle fired brass with primer residue? Have a case tumbler? Breathe the essence of gun powder?
Expose your skin to the sun? Get X rays? Smoke cigarettes? Drink alcohol?
Witches brew? Come on read the definition of mineral oil.
Mineral oil is any of various colorless, odorless, light mixtures of higher alkanes from a mineral source, particularly a distillate of petroleum.
Perhaps you have not read the MSDS of many products including Ballistol.
Ballistol contains medicinal grade mineral oil, alkaline salts of oleic acid, several alcohols, Benzyl Acetate and an oil from vegetal seeds. The mineral oil is unchlorinated and conforms to the specifications of US Pharmacopeia XX.
Ballistol aerosols contain A-70 (a Butane, Propane blend ) as propellants. The pressure inside the full can is 7-7.5 bars. Ballistol aerosols contain 14% Isohexane as a thinner.
I am pretty sure the mineral oil in and isobutyl alcohol is also absorbed through your skin.
You might want to stop at Harbor Freight and invest in several boxes of nitrile rubber gloves.
EDG
Sorry but you need to read the definition of mineral oil. It is a petroleum distillate- meaning it come from the distillation of crude oil just like diesel, gasoline and kerosene and many other things. It is not correct to say it is natural unless you consider crude oil natural too.
If you think it has no effect on a human you are very wrong. When it is used for a cutting oil the mist will have a laxative effect on anyone that breathes it. You should not drink it...
EDG
Apparently you have never subjected anything to an accelerated environmental test. You don't test based on your environment at home. You test based on the worst case the test item may be exposed to. That includes a duck blind in a salt water environment. Those tests are for items that actually get used. Sitting in your gun safe is hardly a test environment.
The test protocol in that corrosion test is very similar the testing required by the US government for military items. Since many or most gun designs are related to military development those tests are reasonable for use on consumer firearms. In fact many of the firearms we use were actually military surplus.
How do you think they prove an airplane used on a Navy aircraft carrier will not turn into a pile of corrosion? Most items including firearms purchased by the US military have to be treated with one or more chemical finishes, plating or paint to protect it from the environment. Then samples of the items have to be tested in a 96 hour salt fog chamber at 100°F. There is a standard test protocol for it. The standard is ASTM B117.
You might also want to review MIL-STD_810. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIL-STD-810
The government specifies specific finishes and finish processes for most common materials including metals and woods. The government also specifies how to test for corrosion resistance on the test item. The government also specifies that the corrosion prevention treatment processes be qualified and
re-qualified periodically.
If you want to review the theory behind corrosion prevention check out a copy of Corrosion Engineering by Mars G Fontana PHD.
The late Dr. Fontana was one of the top experts in both academia and industry in the field of corrosion engineering.
https://corrosion-doctors.org/Biogra...FontanaBio.htm
Finally I would suggest that you read a copy of the Ballistol MSDS because there are NO magic ingredients in it.... That was also proven by the rust on the test samples.
I know it might be painful but that is the purpose of standardized tests. It makes no difference what kind of myth you believe in or what your opinion is. The test is the same for all products. It proves some work better than others.
I was a chemist in a previous life, so most smells don’t bother me.
I was also an experimental scientist, and had to design experiments to prove various things. I read that “exhaustive Internet test” of gun cleaner/lubricant/preservative offerings and found the test conditions were ridiculous. The only relation they would have to gun maintenance is if you’re worried about that gun on the foredeck of your WWII submarine.
My gun safe has no salt spray mister (I ordered the basic package; no frills
Here’s a “torture test” for a gun cleaner/preservative: a small-caliber muzzleloading rifle. There’s essentially only one outlet, and the internal volume is small. Any moisture left from cleaning will stay in there from lack of air circulation and wind up on the cleaned bore. I used to clean with dish soap and water, dry with acetone and swab the bore with whatever cleaner and preservative was touted, from Hoppe’s to RIG. Whatever I used, if I didn’t check in a day or two, there would be red on the surface of a cleaning patch; a bloom of fine, red rust.
I now clean all blackpowder firearms with Ballistol/water followed by Ballistol. In the case of the muzzleloader, no red ever shows up on patches any more. Nor on any other gun. After the normal cleaning of barrel and cylinder, I can spray the straight stuff into the mechanism of cap&ball revolvers and only take them completely apart for cleaning once a year, and the “mud” of Ballistol mixed with black powder fouling found inside doesn’t affect the springs, sears and surfaces at all.
So to me, the smell of Ballistol is the smell of a well-cleaned black powder gun that I don’t have to worry about, even if it stays in storage for a year before I get back to it. As Harry Pope said about his favorite cleaner, “There may be a better product on the market, but LET GEORGE USE IT!”
Last edited by EDG; 03-27-2019 at 06:40 AM.
EDG
Admittedly, the only environmental testing I remember doing with metal coupons involved standing them up half their height in solutions of corrosives and measuring the mils lost over time. But this was at least a reasonable model for what we were trying to determine—the extent to which the inside of partially-filled storage tanks would corrode, especially at the interface between air and liquid. A test comprising all of the most severe conditions we could think of inflicting upon the coupons would have proved nothing worthwhile to us.
Most of my environmental testing involved artificial aging of composite materials by various regimens of thermal cycling or holding at temperatures. These tests did little besides assure the military officers and civilian program managers in the audience that something was being done, but they knew as well as I did that life is infinitely stranger than anything anybody can cook up in a lab, particularly if it involves long periods of time. At best, such tests cull out mixtures which should have been suspect by the time they got to such testing, and at worst, they're like the guy who lost his car keys in the dark alley but looks for them under the street light because the light is better there.
So I still don’t see the applicability of that salt spray test in firearm maintenance. (Given, that I am not in a state of War at this time.) Even if I dropped a gun out of a duck boat into a salt marsh, after fishing it out, the cleaning regimen would be fresh water, then water/Ballistol, then pure Ballistol, same as ever. With the same results as ever, as expected.
But hey; I’m an easygoing guy. Just because I don’t insist that everybody else use something that has endured the worst test conditions I can look up in a book doesn’t mean such preservatives aren’t applicable in certain cases. Everybody can decide for themselves, and report what works best for them, as I have. Certainly somebody who loses their gun overboard and decides to leave it in the drink until next hunting season needs the added protection. And some time in the future, if I have need to store my firearms on a beach between low and high tide marks, I will certainly revisit the test and see what is best for those conditions. Until then, Ballistol uber alles, for Black Powder guns, anyway.
It is interesting to know Ballistol has pharmaceutical mineral oil in it. I would like to know what percent. I can’t see it being that much, since Ballistol is water soluble. I wouldn’t be surprised if the oil from seeds is castor oil or even canola oil. The original plant that canola oil comes from was originally grown to make machinery oil in the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.
I know mineral oil is derived from petroleum. The refinement must be extensive and produce a very pure oil. Mineral oil doesn’t bother me and I have and do use it on guns. I have drunk it several times to cure severe constipation after a hospital stay.
I still feel Ballistol is less toxic than most other gun cleaners and protectants. I also like that it can be used on wood and leather.
^^^ you can get it on your skin. No problem. Good for metal, wood, leather, plastic.
It is the best all around CLP. It does not gum-up. For over a century it has done its duty. Don't like it, buy something else. Most hand-creams and many other skin care products contain mineral oil.
Hickok45 did a lot to bring Ballistol to people's attention.
He has been using it exclusively for 20 years.
Take it, or keave it.
Last edited by jmort; 03-28-2019 at 09:10 AM.
You obviously didn't read the whole test.
In addition to a one-time salt spray, he placed another sample set outside exposed to the elements (rain, etc.) that had NOT been exposed
to a salt spray.
In addition to those 2, he performed a 3rd test where he placed a 3rd sample set indoors in the living area in his house.
This is similar to your proposed "put it in the gun safe" test, however I find it interesting that you didn't mention that
in the midst of your criticisms of his testing protocol.
You can answer many of your own questions by merely reading the MSDS.
The MSDS says the mineral oil content is 30% to 60%.
The oil is nothing but petroleum oil. It is not any sort of plant based oil.
The CAS (chemical abstract service) registry number is 8042-47-5. This is nothing but mineral oil.
This is the EPA file on mineral oil per the CAS number.
Ballistol is not a food product.
This text is also contained in the MSDS so I would not recommend consuming it.
Quote
24.18% of the mixture consists of ingredient(s) of unknown acute toxicity (Oral)
39.24% of the mixture consists of ingredient(s) of unknown acute toxicity (Dermal)
15.06% of the mixture consists of ingredient(s) of unknown acute toxicity (Inhalation (Vapours))
The whole point of the corrosion test is not to find a product you can consume it was to find an effective corrosion prevention material. If you chose to use an inferior product that is your choice but don't chose to use it because you think it is safe to consume because it isn't. Choosing gun care products based on toxicity is sort of ironic. If avoidance of toxicity were your main goals you would not be casting bullets.
I would recommend a box of disposable nitrile rubber gloves from Harbor Freight are more effective for protecting you from gun related chemicals.
Your post contains speculation, assumptions and personal feelings. None of those are as reliable as the facts from the MSDS.
EDG
Actually based on the test protocol it is not the best of anything based on facts and evidence of a real test. You have not proven anything because you have not tested it. The author of the test also tested many other better and worse chemicals at the same time to provide comparative evidence of corrosion prevention.
hickok ran no tests on the stuff. You guys are picking a product based on skin contact yet you are not so fussy about touching lead?
I would not spend money to use a known inferior product. Want skin protection wear nitrile rubber gloves because the following are the facts about Ballistol per their own MSDS. You have assumed it is safe. They are saying the toxicity is unknown....
Quote
24.18% of the mixture consists of ingredient(s) of unknown acute toxicity (Oral)
39.24% of the mixture consists of ingredient(s) of unknown acute toxicity (Dermal)
15.06% of the mixture consists of ingredient(s) of unknown acute toxicity (Inhalation (Vapours))
End Quote
I find your logic and comments contradictory at best. Here you are a proponent of a product mostly because you think you can get it on your skin.
Yet over in Our Town you posted the following about WipeOut bore cleaner products without regard to safety, skin contact or chemical contents:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...pe-out-cleaner
Quote of your post at Our Town
I use most all their products
Great stuff
For copper, lead, plactic wad residue, whatever.
Great products.
Not just Wipe Out and Patch Out, check out their whole line.
End Quote
So what gives?
You seem to have 2 different stories.
[QUOTE=jmort;4611668]^^^ you can get it on your skin. No problem. Good for metal, wood, leather, plastic.
It is the best all around CLP. It does not gum-up. For over a century it has done its duty. Don't like it, buy something else. Most hand-creams and many other skin care products contain mineral oil.
Hickok45 did a lot to bring Ballistol to people's attention.
He has been using it exclusively for 20 years.
Take it, or keave it.
Last edited by EDG; 03-28-2019 at 04:02 PM.
EDG
Some things never change. The battle about Ballistol. Most either love it or hate it.
I use Ballistol for cleaning storage and lubing my rifles, I don't mind the smell, but it does make me cough!
I use it straight from the bottle not in aerosols, so no airborne solvents.
One of the biggest advantages is that is harmless to the skin even it gets into cuts, as it acts as an antiseptic.
ukrifleman
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