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!”