Ballistol experience?

[BeeMan]

I recently picked up a can of Ballistol to try as a multipurpose cleaner and lube. I've tried quite a few other solvents and multipurpose concoctions. Solvents include Shooters Choice and SC copper remover, and years ago Hoppes 9 and Hoppes BR. Multipurpose types include Eds Red (ER), Breakfree CLP, milsurp CLP, EEZOX, and Kroil.

Most of them get at least some part of the job done. Unfortunately several are also rather rough on my skin. ER works OK on powder, but even without acetone my finger tips suffer when using it. Milsurp CLP does a decent job of protection in our humid coastal NC climate.

On to Ballistol - my first impression is it loosens powder crud and minor leading rather well. It seems to wipe off the very fine rust that readily appears on blued steel here. Last, a cleaning session left no unpleasantness on my skin.

Does anybody else use Ballistol, and what are your experiences? Does it have any staying power for preventing surface rust?

Yes, I know it has an initial unpleasant odor, isn't homemade, and is not the least expensive option. Not irritating the skin makes it seem worth pursuing though.

Sound off...

BeeMan, on a search of the magic potion:castmine:

[trooperdan]

Beeman, where in NC are you? I'm near Southern Pines, in the hot, humid and hazy (normally) sandhills. For me, the best protection I've found has been Eezee-Ox.

I'll tell you a tale; I had disassembled a Swiss K-31 for initial cleaning a week or so ago. I do that outside, in order to promote and protect my domestic tranquility. I had the bright idea of using the picnic table under a screen house I have set up in the yard. I broke it down and cleaned averything with the Ezee-Ox and left the parts laying on sheets of newspaper on the table. OK, I forgot about them when I went out of town for the weekend. We had one heck of a freak cloudburst that Friday evening; the wife said it was raining sideways. The sections of newspaper were still soaked when I retrieved them, days later, about 5 I think it was. There wasn't a bit of rust on anything! I am now a believer in this stuff! Those parts had laid on damp paper for days with no ill effect from my stupidity!

I'm thinking of becoming a distributor for this stuff now! :)

PS Are you a beekeeper? In other words, do you have beeswax for sale? :)

[13Echo]

I'm using Ballistol on my Springfield Trapdoor and double barrel shotguns. It is supposed to be OK on wood (and leather) and will not cause wood to deteriorate like mineral oils so it seemed particularly appropriate for an ancient full stocked rifle and for carefully inletted lockplates. From what I've read it will give good protection with reasonable care and storage but it is not as ultimately protective as something like CLP or Eezee-Ox. If you are very careful about cleaning and storage Ballistol will be good and it is not harsh on skin as you've discovered. If you shoot and throw your piece in the back of the closet to clean sometime next month then it won't be suitable. I'm pretty compulsive about cleaning and my experience, so far, is quite satisfactory and I intend to keep using it on anything with wood stocks. I have no experience using it around salt water.

Jerry Liles

[straightshooter1]

My experience is somewhat limited with this product. It seems, according to the literature I got with it, to do almost everything but zero your gun. I had purchased two chrome-plated '98 Krags which had been Legion guns and which had been used with black powder blanks. The bores were excellent, but there was black powder residue caked all over the bolt and magazine area. I used it and it worked quite well, removing the old black powder. I also cleaned the bores and got lots of residue of some kind of the excellent appearing bores. When I was done, a few strokes with a tight patch and J-B Bore Bright made them shine like new (almost).

Later I shot my Pedersoli Sharps with BP loads and cleaned it with Ballistol, thinking that the job was really easy. Then I chickened out and followed it with hot water just to be sure I was rid of all the bad corrosive salts.

Limited experience, but, so far, it seems okay. Hope someone has info on using it alone after BP or maybe corrosive Mil-Surp ammo.


Bob

[13Echo]

Straight Shooter
Ballistol is miscible with water and is used by some shooters diluted with water to clean BP rifles. I clean my Sharps bore with patches wet with distilled water with a bit of Prestone antifreeze. Works well and the Prestone seems to protect the metal, especially the action which sometimes gets dosed with a bit of cleaning water. Probably overkill but I've never had any rust on the action. Remember to pick up all the patches - antifreeze poisioning is a terrible way for an animal to die. For my Trapdoor I clean with water till the patches are clean then follow with dry patches then with a water displacing oil like WD40 to get residual water out of the small pits in the barrel and then follow with the Ballistol. No rust there either.
Jerry

[BeeMan]

Trooperdan,

I'm just north of Wilmington, in Pender county. We are having those thunderstorms here today, complete with dime size hail. I suspect our challenges are similar. The guys out west in the desert are spoiled. [smilie=1:

EEZOX definitely works. I used it to protect some reloading tools kept out in the shop and was impressed. It seem more like a preservative than cleaner or lubricant. Maybe I'm using too much but it seems to leave a sticky coating. You hit on another problem - it isn't available in this end of the state.

I kept bees on a small scale for several years, but don't have any now. Sold some honey but never had enough wax to bother. Check your PMs.

BeeMan

[straightshooter1]

Thanks, 13Echo-I am too afraid I will do something stupid with the antifreeze and hurt my dogs. I heard that antifreeze is sweet and I know the dogs always like to try to lick where the water has dripped after I park the SUV-keep on them not to do it.

I have tried all the "fads", windex with vinegar, etc. Water, especially hot and funneled through the bore seems to work best for me. I am convinced (and Ithink I have read all the threads on various forums) that it is the water that kills the corrosive salts. I may try following the water with the ballistol, but I have had no problems with plain old gun oil.

I might try mixing it with water, but I do like funneling nearly boiling water through the bore. It has always worked.

It would, of course, be neat to find some product you just spray on or run through the bore on a patch and it cleans corrosive primer residue and/or black powder, but, except for water, I don't know of a real sure thing.


Thanks again,

Bob

[13Echo]

Bob
For breech loading rifles with good bores just plain old water wet patches suffice to clean the bore. If you have a good lube and use a blow tube the fouling stays soft and cleans up easily. No need to use boiling or even hot water. You are correct, for black powder water is still the best solvent, and really the only solvent you need. Just make certain the bore is dry before you oil it and if it has pits like my trapdoor, use a water displacing oil and wipe again then oil and put away. I haven't used hot water on my Sharps or Trapdoor and the bores are clean and there is no rust and it is damn humid here in Louisiana. Clean up is actually easier than for my centerfire smokeless burning rifles.
Jerry

[BeeMan]

Straightshooter and 13Echo,

Windex with vinegar seemed to do initial cleanup faster than plain hot water on the muzzleloader. I hot water flush to faciltate drying before wiping down inside and out with bore butter. No rust at all. With cleanup this easy and fast, I hadn't even considered Ballistol for muzzleloading.

BeeMan

[straightshooter1]

My experience with the Windex was that it was no quicker than water. I liked to take it to the range. I used to shoot replica cap and ball revolvers (1860 Colts, etc.) and they would begin to bind up quickly. A spray or two with the Windex would get enough fouling off to shoot a couple or so cylinders full again.

I also use the very hot water to dry to bore, then oil it. I just turn the rifle muzzle down in a five gallon bucket, stick a funnel in the breech, and pour hot water from the tea kettle through the barrel.

I have seen guys do that as the first step in cleaning, then a few patches, then more hot water. I don't do it that way, but I've seen that it works.

I try to keep the water off the stock and lately I have sprayed the action area with the Ballistol, then wiped it off.

I don't have as much time to shoot the Sharps replica but, just discussing cleaning it, makes me want to load up some rounds, take tomorrow off and....

Problem is, I just can't take off. Bummer.

[Bent Ramrod]

I've used Ballistol for several years, mainly on cap&ball revolvers and BPC rifles. Sometimes on my .32 muzzleloader, but not as often.

A 10% emulsion of Ballistol/water does a good job of getting the BP fouling off the bore, chambers and outside surfaces of C&B revolvers and BPC rifles. After this treatment, I wipe the outside and patch the bore and chambers with pure Ballistol. You are supposed to be able to let the emulsion evaporate--the water allegedly goes away and the Ballistol remains on the surface of the metal, inhibiting rust, but I haven't tried that. I have the spray Ballistol as well as the regular liquid, when the surfaces are wiped with Ballistol, I spray the stuff into the action and put the gun away. Using this treatment, cleanup of BP pistols and BPC rifles is very like cleanup of smokeless powder firearms. About every 5th cleanup, I take the gun completely apart and wash it in dish detergent/water. By then, the lockwork (especially the revolvers) is full of a sort of black mud composed of BP fouling soaked with Ballistol. The Ballistol has always prevented any rusting effect by this gunk, but it could build up enough to eventually clog the mechanism. I do live in the desert, so I don't know how a moist climate would affect the gun.

My muzzle loading rifle is a different story. The barrel is so long, and not open at both ends, so the moisture seems to be retained in it more. I have to reclean it with Ballistol a couple days after the initial cleaning, just to make sure no rust is forming. If I'm really worried, or won't use the gun for a while, then it's dish detergent/hot water, and then RIG grease.

All in all, though, Ballistol is a really great product. Before it showed up, I had to take everything apart every time, clean each part, dry it, oil it, put it back together and then go take a shower myself. The smell I've gotten used to and rather like anymore; it's an acquired taste, like Hoppe's.