Alternative to Ballistol?

[dyl]

My wife thinks it smells like wet dogs.
I've been shooting my BP revolver more.
This is a problem.

Has anyone tried adding something to Ballistol to make it smell better or smell less?
Any alternatives?

I think people like it for Black Powder shooting because it can easily be mixed with water which is useful in washing out the perchlorate salts. And if I don't dry all the nooks and crannies first before applying BAllistol again it's okay.

[rodwhaincamo]

I’ve been trying to figure out how to add it to my toothpaste, deodorant, and aftershave... I’d add it to my coffee if I thought it might taste good.

Unfortunately I don’t know of anything else with the same characteristics or else I’d try it too.

[Hawg]

To me it smells like licorice and I hate licorice. I clean with soap and water. There are no perchlorate salts in black powder. Once it's fired the potassium nitrate leaves a salt residue behind.

[Jim Watson]

Water soluble cutting oil might work for you.
Pentrite brand is advertised as low odour.

[Nodak1858]

Can go to NAPA and get this 765-1526 its water soluble cutting oil. Mixes up with water to make a milky fluid, some guys call it moose milk or some other name. But it works well and it doesn't have the Ballistol smell to it. And it's cheap, under $10 for the 16 ounce bottle of oil. I think I did 1 part oil, 4 parts water, don't remember, I made it in a big jug and haven't had to make any more in long time.

[TBM900]

Windex Multi-Surface, best bang for the buck
M-Pro 7 works a bit better but is a bit more pricey

[bamaranger]

I have only recently discovered Ballistol, and find myself using it a good bit on with both muzzleloaders and modern firearms. I especially like that I can treat leather with it as well, boots and slings, scabbards, holsters. I am still experimenting with Ballistol down the bore.

But for a long time prior, and still do, I clean my muzzleloading rifles with hot soapy water, dry, and then treat the bore and metal parts with a product called Wonder Lube. I still use Ballistol on the lock internals, since it's a liquid, I think it gets in the nooks and crannies better as mentioned. Same for the nipple threads, and the cleanout screw and drum on percussion rifles so configured. Wonderlube is a paste, and I treat a patch or clean toothbrush and apply it on surface metals that way, and of course, a treated patch goes down the bore on a rod.

Wonder Lube has a natural, orange (y) smell that is not offensive at all.

[thallub]

IMO: Ballistol is an stinking ancient concoction. There are much better products available.

[Pahoo]

I think people like it for Black Powder shooting because it can easily be mixed with water which is useful in washing out the perchlorate salts

It really is good stuff and rather than cutting it with water, I cut it with Mineral Sprits. I 50/50 for range use and three to one on indoor use. It will cut down the odor. ...….

IMO: Ballistol is an stinking ancient concoction. There are much better products available.

That may be right, especially when you look at it's history. When you locate a good sub, share it with us when you find it. …..

Be Safe !!!

[Hawg]

IMO: Ballistol is an stinking ancient concoction. There are much better products available.

It does stink and I wont use it because of it but I doubt there's anything better. You can even eat it if you wanted to. If they took the anise out of it so it didn't stink so bad I might use it.

[Driftwood Johnson]

IMO: Ballistol is an stinking ancient concoction. There are much better products available.

As you say, that is your opinion.

I have been using Ballistol for close to twenty years.

The aroma of Ballistol is so pungent that it makes my eyes water and makes me sneeze.

Frankly, there are better solvents for Black Powder than Ballistol. I use a water based mixture when I am cleaning my guns after shooting them with Black Powder.

An alternative is to mix Ballistol into water at a ratio of about 1 part Ballistol to 10 parts water. In CAS this is known as Moose Milk. Being watered down like that, the Ballistol is less likely to make me sneeze.

When I am cleaning my guns after shooting Black Powder, the Ballistol only comes out at the end. I swab the bore and chambers with straight Ballistol, then follow up with a dry patch to mop up the excess, only leaving a thin coating of Ballistol behind to keep the bore and chambers oiled.

This way, I don't open the container of Ballistol until the end of the cleaning session, and I am only breathing it in for a short time.

Much more pleasant.

[4V50 Gary]

Moose Milk - home made.

1/3 Murphy Oil
1/3 Hydrogen Peroxide
1/3 Rubbing alcohol.

We used that at Whittington Centre.

[Carriertxv]

Been using Ballistol for many years and the smell doesn’t bother me at all. Wife doesn’t really like it but I don’t stink my house up with it and she shoots everything that I do.
I always wipe and spray a little on my guns when done shooting. Last time I was at indoor range there were some metrosexual millennials that sure got their panties in a knot because of the smell.

[dyl]

When I am cleaning my guns after shooting Black Powder, the Ballistol only comes out at the end. I swab the bore and chambers with straight Ballistol, then follow up with a dry patch to mop up the excess, only leaving a thin coating of Ballistol behind to keep the bore and chambers oiled.

It's the last part at the end of my black powder cleaning that gets me in trouble. After the bore and cylinder is clean, I use it as a rust preventive on the outside, in the bore like you, and each chamber, and also down each nipple hole (so far hasn't affected first shots at the next range session). So my hands smell. "Dinner time!" Then I wash my hands and my wife mentions something about wet dogs. So I wash my hands again. And again.

Can go to NAPA and get this 765-1526 its water soluble cutting oil.

- There's a NAPA auto parts in town. I might just have to try this as a replacement for Ballistol. Ballistol is supposedly non toxic, so it won't have that advantage, but maybe for it's miscibility in water it would be good enough.

Wonder Lube has a natural, orange (y) smell that is not offensive at all.

That sounds nice. Maybe I'll make the last step a different flavor.

[Deltadart]

Here is a link to a formula for making a Ballistol like product. May be worth trying.
https://casualshooter.blogspot.com/2...ballistol.html

[Deltadart]

I use some Cornhuskers Lotion as a barrier cream and then some of the latex gloves from Harbor Freight. Both are pretty cheap and it does help to keep the Ballistol from getting into the skin. Kinda like getting ready to stain some wood project.
Just a thought.

[darkgael]

Moose milk....ask ten shooters for the recipe and you will probably get twelve answers.
Basically you use a water soluble oil (Ballistol is one. Cutting oils are another), a detergent (Murphy's is very popular), and water (mostly water).
There are other additions...like alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, ammonia. Each presents a problem _ alcohol and H2O2, both deteriorate ( the H2O2 releases oxygen, not the best thing if you want to avoid oxidizing the steel) and household ammonia, can attack the barrel steel. Ammonia as found in a cleaner like Sweet's is a different animal.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

I don't own a B/P pistol but I do own a B/P rifle and use Ballistol for their long term storage. Ballistol does stink but since my rifles are cased in nylon and buried back in a closet "out of sight out of nose applies."
No I have not thought about diluting Ballistol's unusual barn gutter smell to one more pleasant. But when one or the other rifle is uncased no doubt that rifle is thoroughly re-cleaned with Dawn Soap and water butt plate to muzzle's end.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Moose Milk - home made.

1/3 Murphy Oil
1/3 Hydrogen Peroxide
1/3 Rubbing alcohol.

We used that at Whittington Centre.

That is Murphy's Mix, not Moose Milk.

I popularized the name Murphy's Mix in CAS.

Moose Milk got its name because it is milky in appearance.

10% Ballistol/90% water is milky in appearance.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Moose milk....ask ten shooters for the recipe and you will probably get twelve answers.
Basically you use a water soluble oil (Ballistol is one. Cutting oils are another), a detergent (Murphy's is very popular), and water (mostly water).
There are other additions...like alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, ammonia. Each presents a problem _ alcohol and H2O2, both deteriorate ( the H2O2 releases oxygen, not the best thing if you want to avoid oxidizing the steel) and household ammonia, can attack the barrel steel. Ammonia as found in a cleaner like Sweet's is a different animal.

I have been using Murphy's Mix, 1/3 Murphy's Oil Soap, 1/3 drugstore rubbing alcohol, 1/3 drugstore Hydrogen Peroxide for close to 20 years.

The Per Oxide concentration is so low, only about 3%, which then gets diluted to 1% when combined with the other ingredients, that it does not cause any rust. If it caused any rust I would have seen it by now. Kept in a sealed bottle the alcohol does not deteriorate, it stays in solution.

The point of this is that the water in the mix: 80 or so percent of the alcohol and 97% of the Per Oxide does the actual dissolving of BP fouling. The Per Oxide just gives it a little bit of fizz to help lift stubborn BP fouling deposits, and the alcohol helps the mix evaporate faster. Once the water evaporates the oil soap remains. BP fouling saturated with oil will not absorb moisture out of the air, so whatever BP fouling remains becomes inert and will not cause any corrosion.

Why go to all this trouble when plain old water will dissolve BP fouling?

Because you don't have to get the water out. I just leave the oil soap down inside the mechanism of the gun. No rust. So detailed disassembly is not necessary. I have taken apart revolvers that had not been cleaned inside for several years. Plenty of black, oily guck inside. No rust.

Here is a Colt that I took apart for the first time in a few years. Plenty of black, oily guck.






Here is the same Colt cleaned up and ready for reassembly. No rust.





Been doing this for close to 20 years.

It works.

[44 Dave]

Listen to Driftwood!
I can't weigh that long, the Winters here "Up Nort" are toooooooooooooo long and I need to play with my guns.

[dyl]

What percentage of rubbing alcohol (I can get several strengths at Walmart) do most use?

I don't even know if there are differents strengths of H202 but I don't think there are... This Murphy's oil soap seems appealing if I can just leave it in the mechanism.

I was interested in the cutting oil but I wonder if the cutting oil actually would do a good job of preventing rust or has properties more suited for lubrication (being a cutting / drilling oil).

[maillemaker]

That is Murphy's Mix, not Moose Milk.

I popularized the name Murphy's Mix in CAS.

Moose Milk got its name because it is milky in appearance.

10% Ballistol/90% water is milky in appearance.

You're both wrong. The 1/3 mix is called Possum Piss!

I made up a huge batch of Possum Piss 9 years ago and I'm still using it up. I have switched to Ballistol and now only use Possum Piss as a field cleaner in between courses of fire in competition. At home I clean with soapy water, dry with compressed air, and then follow up with a wipe-down of Ballistol.

Once I've used up the Possum Piss I will only use Ballistol.

Hydrogen Peroxide is bad for wood and can cause corrosion. Ballistol is good for wood and cannot cause corrosion.

[Driftwood Johnson]

What percentage of rubbing alcohol (I can get several strengths at Walmart) do most use?

It does not matter. I have a bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol in hand right now that says 91% alcohol on it. Some Rubbing Alcohols are only 70% alcohol. It does not matter. The balance is going to be water.

The Hydrogen Peroxide I have on hand is only 3% H2O2, the rest is water.

As I said before, it is the water that does most of the cleaning. So 97% of 1 Quart plus however much water is in whichever alcohol you buy will be fine.

This is not rocket science.

As far as the H2O2 causing corrosion, as I said before, when 3% H2O2 is combined with the other ingredients, the H2O2 content goes down to 1%. That is not going to corrode anything. I have been doing this for close to 20 years, Murphy's Mix does not cause any rust when left deep inside the guts of a firearm.

[44 Dave]

I sometimes spray and "pre-clean" the barrel and cylinder when leaving the range with aerosol Ballistol (which doesn't have much smell), but at home I use the 3 part solvent.