Does Bore Butter Rust?

[Elbert P . Suggins]

This has probably been answered in other threads and am sorry to post this question if that is the case. But after cleaning my BP I have been finishing with a clean patch of bore butter down the barrel and cylinder. Is this wrong and am I looking at a rust problem. I haven't seen it in 2 years so is it something that others have seen to exist? And if it is true what are you using besides petroleum base products to coat the bore?

 

[1858rem]

i dont know if it was the bor butter but i had my 45 inline breech rust shut and rust in the barrel, it may been due to the bore butter an maybe not but now i just use rem oil an it works fine.... its called bore butter 1000 cause it takes at least 1000 shots for any "seasoning" to take effect... just what a friend told me anyone, else hear this before?

 

[mykeal]

You 'season' a cast iron skillet. Rifle barrels are steel, not cast iron. Bore Butter does not 'season' a barrel.

It also does not rust, or cause rust. However, as a rust preventative it does leave a bit to be desired. If there is any water left in the barrel when you apply the Bore Butter it will likely remain in place and cause rust. Bore Butter won't replace that. It does not displace water. It's sole rust preventative feature is that it coats the steel to prevent oxygen from reaching the surface; if there is water present it can prevent the Bore Butter from coating the surface in that area and thus rust can occur.

I've used Bore Butter for years with no ill effects, that is, no significant or discernible rust. However, I've seen cases where rust occurred with other people's guns. In those cases they've all said they took no extra effort to remove water beyond running a dry patch after cleaning; I think that was not sufficient and the Bore Butter was thus applied on a wet surface and thus was not fully effective.

BTW, I now use Ballistol full strength and am pleased with the results. Mineral oil based solvents such as Ballistol and Butch's Bore Shine do not exhibit the problems associated with petroleum based oils.

Others use olive oil or other vegetable oils; these are short term however as they can turn rancid over the long term.

 

[Pancho]

My experience is the same as Mykeal. Ballistol is my answer, it is so hydrophilic that it will capture any latent moisture. I was never completely happy with borebutter I would rinse my guns with alcohol after cleaning, letting them throughly dry and then coat with borebutter only to find them slightly rusty when I inspected them later. That has not happened with Ballistol.

 

[frontiergander]

All of the barrels i stored with bore butter always were rusted within a few days. Switched to rem oil and no problem-o.

I only use bore butter on my shooting patches for the traditional rifles.

 

[Elbert P . Suggins]

Ballistol must be a product that you have to order because I have not seen it on any BP shelves including Cabelas. I can't give up on Bore Butter entirely because the odor of it is intoxicating to me. In fact I can get cross-eyed over the green stuff in the BB tube.

 

[mykeal]

Put the Bore Butter behind both ears, and for good measure smear a little Gorilla Grease on your fingers - she won't be able to leave you alone.

Ballistol also has a unique 'fragrance', but it doesn't draw raves at the cosmetics counter. Many mail order houses sell it, and some well equipped local gun shops. I'm sure I've seen it at Cabela's in Dundee, but I know it wasn't there the last time I stopped. It's also used by many fishermen to keep rods and reels working, so you might find it at the local hardware or rod/reel shop.

 

[Pulp]

This was the first website to come up on Google:

http://www.firehawktech.com/

I don't know anything about them, just the first on the list.

 

[1858rem]

i jus put the thing in about seasoning to see if anyone else heard about it taking a thousand shots or more.. an i probably didnt dry the barrel well enough to make bore butter work correctly lol anyhow, just a few patches, rem oil works good an i wipe it off before i shoot so for none ill effects.

 

[Voodoochile]

http://www.firehawktech.com/ is a good company I get my Ballistol & a few other things from them from time to time.

I've never seasoned a bore with Bore Butter & only used it as a bullet/patch lube but otherwise it's not much for anything else.

If you really want your rifle or pistol clean & know it's moisture free, use some WD40 in & around it & wipe it down then lube as usual the WD40 will displace the moisture along with dry patches & once you use your preferred lube it shouldn't rust due to moisture left behind.

BTW I'm one that'll use Virgin Olive Oil as a parts lube & rust preventive if I know that within 7-20 days I'll be shooting that piece but otherwise I'll use Ballistol as my parts lube & Rust preventive.

 

[Voodoochile]

duplicate please delete

 

[Voodoochile]

Please delete, #@%& connection

 

[WARDER]

wash your barrel out with very hot waterand some bubble bath soap dry out with a swab then spray wd40 inside ,dry out again and use a good quality gun oil on a patch to preserve the bore .

 

[Mike 56]

I had no luck with bore butter. Started using W-D40 after drying then apply a thin coat of bore butter no more rust.

Mike

 

[Elbert P . Suggins]

Warder, can you still use gun oil as the final application because it is known and been said that petroleum based products are not conducive to good cleaning in BP weapons because of what occurs after running BP thru it?

 

[WARDER]

hi as long as you clean the bore really well with water and mild soap , dry it well swab with wd40 and then, i use army light machine gun oil in the bore .i have a harpers ferry musket that sits in the safe most of the time and after months the bore is still shining and lubed not dried up .a lot of guys over here use 50-50 car anti freeze and water to clean their bore then dry and qil as i said no problems at all .Dont forget your not cleaning with oil your storing with oil .

 

[catman]

I also use military machine gun oil in my bore for storage, never any problem and it's cheep.

 

[mykeal]

The issue isn't the use of petroleum based oils during storage - they're fine for that. The issue is having the oil in the bore and then shooting the gun with black powder. That's when the problem occurs. You can certainly use petroleum base oils for storage, just be sure to thoroughly clean it out with soap/water, alcohol, or bp solvent before firing it.

 

[WARDER]

the only way i clean mine out before fireing is with a dry patch i've been doing this for nigh on 30 years and never had a problem as a matter of fact if i was honest i have never even heard of some of the things talked about here using petr. based oil,i still have some of my guns from when i started and can honestly say the bores in them are great.GOOD cleaning after use is the most important thing

 

[the-ghost]

if its gonna sit season to season like rifles do at times ballistol is the best i've found and works well for about 6 months at a pop, then you must reapply. bore butter works great for sealing chambers and lube for patches. i've used it before to store rifles by adding a thick coat to the bore but it doesnt hold up for nearly as long as ballistol. where they came up with the "seasoning" stuff i dunno but it's bs.

 

[Smokin_Gun]

Seasoning a Barrel 101

Well now I gotta add a lil' sumfin to that...seasoning ain't BS. It was done is done and can be done.
To season a barrel is to wipe it clean of fouling with patch and brush and load it back up, and not to scrub the bore with hot soapy water. It was done by using Bear grease or lard goose grease or beaver fat you choose. But they did not scrub with soap, solvent or anything...and barrels became naturaly seasoned. Just like you treat an iron skillet...don't add water.
Some of you must be Historians or have tried that while in Camp hunting or Rondy...I am quite surprized.

Oh and you can do it with Bore Butter but get the moisture out first or BB will seal that rinse water in and it surely will rust in a closet or safe dehumidifier or not.

SG

 

[Lt. B]

I would recomend Getting a copy of TC,s instructional DVD. Some good info about all this as well as some good hunting videos. It covers seasoning, bore butter, WD 40, and all kinds of good stuff. Just my 2 cents

 

[mykeal]

Well, there's a bit of a difference between the metal in an iron skillet and a rifle bore.

Must be I don't understand metallurgy and the characteristics of iron and steel as well as I used to. Would someone care to explain what 'seasoning' is and what the physical process is? Seeing as how TC's video doesn't go into that...(by the way, they sell the stuff - is it possible they are taking a little marketing license in the video, hmmmm - no, they wouldn't do that, would they?).

 

[Elbert P . Suggins]

I remember in the early fifties when growing up that mom would always use here cooking grease which most of the time was bacon grease to season her pans which were iron. Dad bought her some new fangled steel pans and she tried to make him take them back to the store six months later because she couldn't get them to season properly and she went back to her old stuff. She said it was easier to control temperature and have better cooking results and also easier to clean. Besides, that's the way her grandma did it. I'm guessing that iron is more porous then steel thus allowing Crisco, BB, or whatever to permeate more so. Wouldn't the early gun barrels been made of iron which seasoning could have been accomplished? Just don't know!

 

[1858rem]

as far as i knew it was just to keep metal slicker, like before mentioned.... easier to clean less friction all around.... i wonder if you could get enough oil/bore butter permeated into the barrel to semi waterproof it... or some of that waterproofing stuff for tents lol