Ballistol

[French Colonial]

Interesting that the one pamphlet says not to mix it until ready to use. Most everyone stores it premixed.

It will separate in time, and I don't care where it comes from, it works great, never had the mysterious sludge problem and that is ALL I need to know. Let the chemists argue away, I will keep doing what works.

 

[Reno]

You know regardless if the instructions I just use it and it works. It works well on bores fir cleaning. I used it on a freshly browned vRrrll after using Rig. The Ballistol works very good

 

[Omahkapi'si]

If your firearm is rust free and goes bang when you want it to, whatever you are using works just fine. Mine is Ballistol. Shoot & enjoy.

 

[bigted]

Amazing !!!

 

[Erwan]

Ballistol has petroleum in it.

It is not water nor natural based.

Petroleum + burnt black powder = sludge

No, there's no petroleum in Ballistol: the active ingredients in Ballistol are naturally occurring. Its base oil is pure white oil in the medical sense. Ballistol is free of resin and acid and is unaffected by aging. All aerosol containers are biodegradable and environmentally friendly...
Ballistol is resin free because of its components. It is authorized and used for the lubrication and maintenance of equipment and machinery, especially in the food industry, for its pure components, in the pharmaceutical sense of the word.

I use 7/1, and it works well...

 

[OhioHawkeye]

Interesting that the one pamphlet says not to mix it until ready to use. Most everyone stores it premixed.

Yea they have always said that.. I know friends who store it too.. I tried it for the first couple of months, but I noticed it didn't perform as well.. that was the 50/50 mix. I imagine the current 25/75 mix recommended on the can, it is even more important. I wonder why the change of ratio though.


PPS. Something I forgot about and was just reading the MSDS on it..."Ballistol is fully compatible with all metals including aluminum. However, Ballistol dissolves traces of copper, zinc, lead and tombac and can, therefore, be used to clean brass, bronze and silver."
It is Medical grade, i.e. pharmaceutical.. Mineral oil.. and at least was a petroleum distillate. It is non toxic and not a carcinogen though. Here is the MSDS.

It will separate in time, and I don't care where it comes from, it works great, never had the mysterious sludge problem and that is ALL I need to know. Let the chemists argue away, I will keep doing what works.

Agree. In the MSDS, it says under Kinematic Viscosity; "Due to anti-oxidants contained in it Ballistol will not easily harden or gum up. It retains its lubricity over extended periods of exposure.......As an emulsifying oil Ballistol does not lose its capability to lubricate in the presence of water."

 

[user 34300]

"No, there's no petroleum in Ballistol: the active ingredients in Ballistol are naturally occurring."

Not true. Mineral oil, the main ingredient, is refined from crude oil (petroleum). "Naturally occurring"" , I'm not sure that hat is supposed to mean. Everything is "naturally occurring" humans can not create matter, So, yes, is naturally occurring. Medical grade mineral is made from highly refined crude oil. It is not magic unicorn juice, it is just oil.

Petroleum (/pəˈtroʊliəm/), also known as crude oil and oil, is a naturally occurring,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum

 

[OhioHawkeye]

No, there's no petroleum in Ballistol: the active ingredients in Ballistol are naturally occurring. Its base oil is pure white oil in the medical sense. Ballistol is free of resin and acid and is unaffected by aging. All aerosol containers are biodegradable and environmentally friendly...
Ballistol is resin free because of its components. It is authorized and used for the lubrication and maintenance of equipment and machinery, especially in the food industry, for its pure components, in the pharmaceutical sense of the word.

I use 7/1, and it works well...

Ummmm please read the MSDS

 

[Rfp10000]

I'm afraid you are complete wrong about Ballistol. It contains NO petroleum products & even contains some plant extracts. The medical grade mineral oil in Ballistol is rendered from paraffin not petroleum.

Where does paraffin come from?

 

[Erwan]

Ummmm please read the MSDS

As the base oil is a product of coal, Wilhelm Klever started to manufacture coal grease and even bought several mines for this purpose. His son Helmut Klever invented the Ballistol and there are still no petroleum products (strictly speaking) in the Ballistol, but there are pharmaceuticals which, if misused, are quite toxic. For now, Ballistol contains liquid kerosene, which is often mistakenly considered a pure petroleum product:
The word kerosene comes from the Latin parum affinis, "that has little affinity." It is not a distillate of petroleum refining as it is sometimes called, but a product extracted from solid petroleum residues - hence the name "mineral grease" or "ozocerite grease".

According to a December 2002 specification:

Pharmaceutical white oil: CAS RN 8042-47-5
Oleic acid : CAS RN 112-80-1
C-5 alcohols : CAS RN 78-83-1 ; CAS RN 137-32-6 ; CAS RN 100-51-6
Different essential oils to perfume Ballistol

According to the 2013 safety data sheet:

Mineral oil (liquid kerosene)
Potassium oleate
Ammonium oleate
Benzyl alcohol
Amyl alcohol
Isobutyl alcohol
Benzyl acetate
Anethole

 

[Mike Suri]

Well I have to through my 2 cents in. I mix Ballistol 20 % with 80% water into a pump plastic bottle and have no rust issues at all.
The only complaint I might have is the smell. But when mixed with water, it really hinders the smell. Love the stuff !
But I still run a patch of rubbing alcohol down the bore before loading with BP.

 

[GriscomRun]

View attachment 84241

Yeah you right.
I'm thinking even with a chem-science paper from a reputable source with several notables experienced in black powder we might still be having this discussion. Ha, especially after reading it and then all the opinions expressed here.

 

[kansas_volunteer]

Where does paraffin come from?

Paraffin is pumped out of the ground along with crude oil. I guess you could say it is a component of crude. As I said before paraffin here in Kansas comes up as a nasty looking black stuff. It is gooey. It settles out in tanks. It is heavier than crude but lighter than water. Measures are taken to separate it from crude, but some of it makes its way into the pipelines. So, paraffin Is petroleum based. It is also natural in that it is created by naturally occurring processes deep in the earth in what was once ancient oceans. I don't know why so many hard heads can't get it through their thick skulls that mineral oil is refined from paraffin, and both are petroleum based products, and therefore Bollistol contains petroleum based components.

 

[toot]

If your firearm is rust free and goes bang when you want it to, whatever you are using works just fine. Mine is Ballistol. Shoot & enjoy.

ROGER THAT!!

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

There are so many guys here that feel they must prove themselves correct. Anyone remember the original question without going back to look at the OP?

 

[smoothshooter]

No it doesn’t. It’s mineral oil. Nothing petroleum about it.


It also says contains a “Proprietary petroleum distillate”. But I have never had it leave a sludge no matter how it was used or what concentration. Using pure Ballistol as a patch lubricant I can shoot all day without swabbing. If that’s sludge I’ll take more of it!

Let’s be sure we are comparing apples to apples.
Ballistol comes in “ pourable “ form ( in a can) and aerosol can form.
Is it possible that only the aerosol version has a petroleum-based “ vehicle “ that helps it to spray out of the can?

 

[Sudsy]

So far I've found plain room temperature water with a drop of Dawn to be the best BP cleaner I ever used.

Hot from the tap water about a tablespoon (ish +/-) squeeze of Dawn
Then a good rinse with more hot tap, get it dry and oil it down

Recently switched from Ballistol to FrogLube Extreme.
Very happy with the FrogLube

 

[wb78963]

Funny my can of Ballistol says to use a mix of 25% Ballistol to 75% water for black powder cleaning. That's what I use and it seems to work just fine, but I real new to BP so I could be wrong.

that is what I have been using for a very long time. I had guns in storage for over a year (long story) that had been cleansed with 1:10 Ballistol/ distilled water and they were still clean, oily, and rust free when i got them back and checked them out.
That is my experience.
Bunk.

 

[OhioHawkeye]

As the base oil is a product of coal, Wilhelm Klever started to manufacture coal grease and even bought several mines for this purpose. His son Helmut Klever invented the Ballistol and there are still no petroleum products (strictly speaking) in the Ballistol, .....

So, you are saying the MSDS is wrong? Interesting.

For those who have not read the MSDS, It clearly says Petroleum Distillate n.o.s. ID UN1268, Hazard Class 3. It is however, non-toxic and is not a carcinogen.

 

[OhioHawkeye]

that is what I have been using for a very long time. I had guns in storage for over a year...

as have I. My oldest stored one though is m grandfather's skeet model /94 It has 100% Ballistol on it though and has been sitting in a controlled environment for 34 years now.