ballistol

[banus02]

does any one use ballistol rifle cleaner,if so is it really any good and can it be bought at a reasonable price and is it always available. thanks

[MartinB]

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

[banus02]

thank you martinB,i will get some and give it a go ,thank you for your reply

[The Gun Pimp]

It's made in Germany of course.  When I shot black powder, someone recommended Ballistol as a good cleaner.  I had a friend working in Germany at the time and asked her if she could get me some - she did - from the local supermarket - it's sold as a household cleaner over there - bit like Domestos.

[Catch-22]

An interesting chap 'Down Under', who's regularly shooting at 4000m+ with extreme accuracy, only uses Ballistol to clean his rifles. 

He simply patches carbon out of the bore with the Ballistol and forgets about the copper as he views it to be self cleaning.

 

[GarethM]

It will also clean and lube cases. Strongly endorsed by the Accurate Shooter site.

[Brillo]

It’s readily available on e**ay

[bradders]

It's interesting that recent research into gun cleaning products in the US has shown that many of these "products" are merely every day cleaners and lubricants that have been repackaged as "Gun Oil or "Gun Cleaner" and given a substantial price hike. 

Froglube appears to be a fine example of this, and reports say it's nothing more than a track lube used in the catering industry, while "Fireclean" is actually Crisco vegetable cooking oil!! at $15/4oz vs cooking oil which costs £2 for 1 litre at Tescos

Ballistol seems to have been around for ever and does all sorts of cleaning and lubing according to the claims. I'm not going to dispute that as I've never tried it, but there's plenty of similar products available such as GT85 etc that will also do a top job, although their actual performances may vary slightly. But I reckon they probably do a better job in most cases than dedicated firearms maintenance products.

As for their rust prevention capabilities, I think the oily rag was invented many years ago :-)

[bradders]

16 minutes ago, Brillo said:

It’s readily available on e**ay

You can also get it direct from Germany along with another great product, Klever Quick Browning, which is the best cold blue I've ever come across

[overspray]

I have been using ballistol for ages, not really used for barrel cleaning but for case lubing and general cleaning and lubing works great, slippery as a slippery thing   

[furrybean]

and smells great!!

[Re-Pete]

Brunox is another similar cleaner/lube/rust preventer. Kranks had an offer on a huge roll of 4 x 2 plus a can of Brunox a while back.

Re-Pete

[bradders]

21 minutes ago, Re-Pete said:

Brunox is another similar cleaner/lube/rust preventer. Kranks had an offer on a huge roll of 4 x 2 plus a can of Brunox a while back.

Re-Pete

Brunox = every day lube

Brunox Turbo Spray

Brunox Turbo Spray with pic of gun on the can

Here's another new kid on the block....only a fiver at Halfords

 

[VarmLR]

Some big claims made by XCP (Marrott Graphic Service (UK) Ltd) on their website including this little gem ..."beats products like... ACF50 when it come to corrosion protection...".  Evidence of that would be good.

I'm always a little sceptical of claims where the makers bash their competitors in this way but also intrigued enough to try it purely as it's cheaper than the stuff I use for parts cleaning and corrosion protection.  I use ACF50 as I've never found a better corrosion inhibitor for my bike which looks good as the day it rolled off the production line thanks to ACF50 and some elbow grease.  Lets see....a product developed for NASA or one developed for the printing industry...hmmm.  Enough cynicism.  I'm game enough to try it and see if it lives up to the claims (I also use ACF50 fro protecting the external parts of my rifles and shotguns...brill stuff).  

For carbon removal I don't see anything wrong with KG1.  It last ages too so the price is irrelevant.

[Catch-22]

For carbon cleaning, I've just used Hoppes #9 carbon cleaner. For copper when the barrel starts throwing wobblies, I use Sweets 7.62. However I'm sure I have a can of Ballistol somewhere, so will give it a try & see if attacks the carbon better than the Hoppes.

For grease (bolt lugs etc), I use Mil-tec. Lasts a booody long time & seems to do a good job.

For general gun oiling & rust inhibition, I use CorrosionX on the outside and down the bore when going into storage. There are numerous salt water tests on the usefulness of the main so called rust inhibitors and most fail badly. CorrosionX seemed to fair very well.