Ballistol

[meanmike8665]

I live in the Central Valley of California and I use Ballistol in my moose milk about 6 to 1. It works very well. I also think all oils are sensitive to the environment they are used in. I also use Remoil with no problems, however I have a friend in the Bay Area that cannot use it his guns get rusty with the Remoil.

Michael

 

[azmntman]

AZ here. 6% humidity last week. Used WD-40 for YEARS with never an issue. Switched to Barricade per overwhelming praise of the product (don't know why, my way was working).

 

[stubshaft]

I have not had any issues with Ballistol becoming gummy. I have used it as a rust preventative for the past 18 years.

 

[azmntman]

I only have ever used it as a part of the "Dutch" system. Too expensive for rust prevention when a $3.00 can of WD-40 lasts YEARS (and Barricade should too but was $8.00 :shocked2: )

 

[Zonie]

Speaking of Ballistol, I saw my bottle of it today.

There it was, sitting in the back of the "poison cabinet" with a light coating of dust and a few small cob-webs on it.

As I recall, it's been sitting there for over 15 years.

Who knows? Maybe some day I'll give it another chance on one of my guns....

 

[rodwha]

Why did you set it aside for something else?

 

[Zonie]

Many years ago,I had heard of the wonders of Ballistol so I figured I'd try it out.

I bought a bottle of it and after cleaning several of my muzzleloading rifles and drying the bores with clean, dry patches, I wet a patch with the Ballistol.

After running it up and down the bore several times I figured I was finished.

About a month later, I ran a clean patch down the bores of those guns to make sure the Ballistol was doing it's job.

I got patches with light rust back out of the bores on both guns.

Bare in mind, I live in Phoenix and even with the evaporative cooler running the humidity in my house never gets over 50%.

Anyway, the Ballistol went into the poison cabinet and I bought some Birchwood Casey Sheath.
I've used it and Barricade, the stuff BC replaced Sheath with, for years.
Never a spot of rust in any gun I've use the Birchwood Casey protectorates on.

 

[rodwha]

I had similar results for a while in my muzzleloader. I had been using the Pyrodex my father gave me to break it in as I don’t care for the feel of the fouling in my revolvers. Upon getting my second revolver I spent about 10 hours at the range and was late getting home. I had read a couple of CASS guys claiming they could go days without cleaning so I opted to leave my rifle over night. The next day that bore was a nasty mess that took a long time to get cleaned up.

Having read people claiming Ballistol wasn’t suitable for long term storage I decided to check the bore with a dry patch once in a while (maybe 9 months) and found the rifle gave an organish brownish discoloration. The pistols were fine though. Eventually my rifle quite doing that for whatever reason. I figure it had to do with pits in the bore holding bits of fouling or something.

 

[Dr5x]

I think Ballistol reacts the same to one and all. One and all reactdifferentlly to it.
If you are expecting it to be just like another product you are going to be disappointed.
I have never used it and in all reported cases I have heard positive remarks comparing it to water soluble oil.
You can dilute it with water to make it pretty slick with just a bit of water or add a bunch of water, to soak your patching strips with just a touch of lubrication which seems to be best.

I started with NAPA cutting oil till Napa "Improved" it with some glycol product. A subscriber from Gastonia in one of the Carolinas suggested we make the change with a glorious report 20 or so years ago. Recently there has been a field report on a Lennox Oil that replicates the original water soluble pile I strted outwith.

The Germans invented it and whenever have they been wrong when it came to weapons.

Dutch Schoultz

 

[Dr5x]

Zonioe,
I'm not pushing Ballistol, but the story you tell indicates that you first cleaned your barrel with hot soapy water which got into the metal, The ballistol application merely sealed that water in which created the rust. Callistol didn't cause your rust, the Hot soapy water did.

I asked the group if anyone had used the Lennox Oil someone had discovered but so far, havenot heard from anyone.

Dutch

 

[Jimbo47]

Zonioe,
I'm not pushing Ballistol, but the story you tell indicates that you first cleaned your barrel with hot soapy water which got into the metal, The ballistol application merely sealed that water in which created the rust. Callistol didn't cause your rust, the Hot soapy water did.

I asked the group if anyone had used the Lennox Oil someone had discovered but so far, havenot heard from anyone.

Dutch

1. Hot soapy water.
2. Rinse, allow to dry, followed by dry patches
3. WD40 for water displacement, followed by dry patches.
4. Ballistol for final bore protection.
5. Shoot, repeat steps above.

50 years ago I discovered WD40, and have used it on all my guns since.
It's purpose is water displacement, and used with a good cleaning and final application of a good gun oil, you won't ever worry about rust.

 

[rodwha]

The way I’ve heard it explained, which makes sense to my limited sense of logic, is that the water will mix with the Ballistol but eventually will evaporate leaving behind just the Ballistol.

 

[azmntman]

Yep. Thus a "dry" Patch

 

[rodwha]

I used WD-40 initially as I was afraid of water in places I couldn’t quite get to. I read that using it over a period of time would leave a gummy residue and then switched to Ballistol as it got rave reviews and was also water soluble.

After cleaning and rinsing I swab dry and use Ballistol instead and have great results with no rust issues.

 

[Dr5x]

If you can get away with water and not pull rust, way to go.

You've removed all water as best you knowhow, then seal it with WD 40 and then pull rust a day or two later,Where did that rusk come from?
It came from the water that got in amongst the Steel molecules where it busily did to the steel what it is supposed to do. It rusted and some of that rust gotout.

I don't care what you clean with so long as you don't pull lovely russet colored rust or corrosive black powder reuse..

Dutch Scwartz

 

[Tom Compton]

Similar experience to mine. I’m so far not mad enough at any one to give them the remainder.

Water and WD-40.

 

[Zonie]

Maybe my story indicates I washed the barrels with hot soapy water but that was not the case.

I use cool tap water with just a touch of dish-washing soap to remove any of the oils my patches might have left in the bore followed by multiple rinses with plain cool tap water to remove all traces of any soap or fouling lurking somewhere in the bores.

The rifles in question all used brand new Green Mountain barrels which are in pristine condition so no, this was not a matter of some area of pitting or old rust buildup.

I don't know why the Ballistol did not protect the bores except to say I don't believe mineral oil which Ballistol is made of is as good as many of the newer protectorates available.

At least the Ballistol did not create the immediate "flash rusting" I got when I tried using TC number 13 bore cleaner.
That manure got thrown about as far as I could throw it after I finished removing the rusting it caused in the bores of several of my Cap & Ball pistols.

 

[Adui]

This thread looks like a good reason for me to NOT change what I do in cleaning. I'll stick to my method and be happy with clean, rust free guns.

 

[SgtMaj65]

:thumbsup:

 

[Jimbo47]

This thread looks like a good reason for me to NOT change what I do in cleaning. I'll stick to my method and be happy with clean, rust free guns.

:thumbsup: