.38-40 Test With 3F Swiss & Vectan PFN2 (3F).

[Driftwood Johnson]

After my rusty muzzleloader I was instructed to use oil such as Ballistol to soak into the fouling leaving no room for moisture. I tested this during the summer in my central Texas garage with both revolvers (stainless and blued) for 4 days and found it works like a charm. I don’t rely on this but now I know if it comes up again that I don’t have time I know what I can do to buy more of it.

I’ve only ever had rust after cleaning, it doesn’t take long.

I have done that for years.

Black powder fouling is very dry and will soak up moisture out of the air.

However if you apply an oil such as Ballistol to the fouling, it behaves like a sponge that has been soaked with water. The sponge cannot absorb any more water.

When I am done cleaning firearms that have been fired with Black Powder, the last thing I do is run a patch soaked with Ballistol down the bore and chambers. Then I follow up with a dry patch to soak up most of the Ballistol, leaving behind a thin coat of Ballistol. If I did not get quite all of the fouling out, the Ballistol will soak into what fouling is left and prevent it from absorbing any moisture (water) from the air.

In fact, I used to think that every last molecule of fouling needs to be removed from a bore.

This becomes difficult with old, pitted bores.

These days, particularly with antiques that may have old, pitted bores, I clean out the majority of the fouling with a water based BP solvent. Then I follow up with some Ballistol. Any small amount of fouling left behind in the pits of the bore absorbs the Ballistol and cannot absorb any more moisture from the air.