How bad does Ballistol smell?

[kazaam]

"Come on man!". We've been reading your posts. You still haven't received your fist pistol. A small order of Frog Lube, or any lube or cleaning product for that matter, will probably last several years for the average shooter with just one gun. You'll never notice the cost of your lube/cleaning products compared to the other expenses associated with shooting.

Quibbling over a couple of bucks for lube/cleaning products is just silly economy. You're buying a $600 pistol. A box of range ammo will cost you $15-$20. Quality defensive ammo will cost you $25-$30 (for 20).

When can we expect the post looking for that $20 holster to put your brand new $600 pistol in?

Ok ok, you're right! I decided I'd like to try weapon shield and got a sample of that! I won't harass you with holster questions. (no promises)

Everything really is expensive when it comes to guns, though. Didn't really take in to account all the accessories I'd need.

 

[Bozwell]

The initial expenses are pretty high, but you only need to buy cleaning supplies once, and then it's just the occasional replaced brush or extra bottle of solvent that you need to pick up later. As for holsters, if you get a quality one that fits you to begin with, you won't need to go buying a second, third, fourth, etc. for quite a while. However, if you start shooting a lot, it's the ammo/range costs that'll really add up. Especially if you start to branch off into other areas of shooting...

My advice is to never try clay shooting. That's my new addiction and makes my handguns look cheap in comparison.

 

[rodinal220]

It doesn't smell bad to me.Smells a little like licorice. Hoppes #9 has a more potent smell to it,but I like it!!

 

[Skribs]

I've never used the stuff, but just wanted to take a moment to say nya-ha to all you folks with a sense of smell. I'm anosmic; nothing ever smells baad

 

[ku4hx]

I always end up scratching my head when. after a series of posts trying to buy the optimum self defense gun. an OP asks where to get the cheapest magazines. If you going to spend hundreds of dollars on a gun and ammunition to protect your life why quibble over a marginal cost increase to buy high quality magazines? My hide is just worth more to me than the cheapest available anything.

 

[ku4hx]

Everything really is expensive when it comes to guns, though. Didn't really take in to account all the accessories I'd need.

All "hobby" activities can be very expensive. But "expensive" is a relative term and buying the cheapest of anything is seldom a good investment.

I remember when I first started shooting. For years all I had was a gun, an Outers cleaning kit and ammunition. I drooled over many things I read about in the various gun magazines, but when it came right down to it, all I needed to have a whale of a good time was just those three things.

I didn't even have a gun case. Kept my Ruger Blackhawk .357 Magnum in its original box for a long time.

 

[Shoot66]

I have Ballistol. I do not find its smell unpleasant.

 

[Walkalong]

For me it neither stinks nor smells good. Works great.

 

[MR2Aaron]

On expense:

Shooting one, or even two, pistols doesn't even come close to the startup cost for some other hobbies. Go price out the set of gear you'd need to get into competitive road cycling, or amateur auto racing, and suddenly shooting pistols seems like a freakin' steal.

For those unaware: To get started with road cycling, you're looking at spending at least $3K, assuming you get a half decent bike.
To get started in auto racing, you can expect to spend a lot more than that - $10K at least, and race tires will cost you about $1K a weekend, even on a small car like a Miata.

$1000 worth of 9mm ammo would be like 5000 rounds. I think my arms would fall off before I got through 1000 rounds if I tried to do it all in one sitting.

This all leads me to my point that, I can't possibly imagine any cleaning product for a gun costing so much as to be prohibitively expensive to someone who can afford ammo and range fees. I think I paid like $3 or something for a bottle of Hoppes #9, which seems like it would last forever.

I haven't used Ballistol, but Hoppes seems to work pretty well, and doesn't smell terrible.

 

[cbo111]

Try buying a small aircraft. Insurance, hangar fees, fuel, annual inspection. Yikes! I cannot find Ballistol. Looked at Bass Pro shop, walmart, two gun shops. Nobody carried it. Do you have to order this stuff online?

 

[HOOfan_1]

Try buying a small aircraft. Insurance, hangar fees, fuel, annual inspection. Yikes! I cannot find Ballistol. Looked at Bass Pro shop, walmart, two gun shops. Nobody carried it. Do you have to order this stuff online?

My LGS carries it. I order mine from Midway though

 

[Jaymo]

It smells fine to me.
Tetra Gun smells like butt, but works great.

You don't want to inhale mineral oil mist. MO is nontoxic, unless inhaled.

 

[JTQ]

cbo111 wrote,
I cannot find Ballistol. Looked at Bass Pro shop, walmart, two gun shops. Nobody carried it. Do you have to order this stuff online?

If you can find some black powder shooters, they should know a local source.

As mentioned, MidwayUSA sells it.

Brownell's has it http://www.brownells.com/gun-cleani...rotectant-oils/sportsman-s-oil-prod22502.aspx

 

[bikerdoc]

I do not like the smell, but it works.
I prefer Hoppes # 9 and rem oil.

 

[KAS1981]

It smells funny, not particularly bad. Kind of a weird licorice smell, with something else I can't place. I've heard the aerosol carrier is butane so maybe that's it.

 

[JohnKSa]

I bought some Ballistol awhile back and finally got a chance to try it tonight.

It seems to be an effective cleaner, along the lines of a good CLP. That is, while it was a good solvent/cleaner, it was pretty messy. It seems to be a decent lube although I haven't used it long enough to be able to say if/how it performs significantly differently from any other products I've used.

The smell was strong. It's not something I was able to ignore and I had some minor issues with the fumes. I do my guncleaning indoors and while I might use Ballistol for some cleaning/lube jobs, the smell and fumes are a problem.

The smell is not a good smell, at least not in my book. I found it to be ranked near the top of the list for objectionable smelling guncleaning products. Right up there with GunScrubber and Hoppes Benchrest cleaner--not the standard stuff, the stuff that contains ammonia. I typically won't use GunScrubber inside, and I replaced Hoppes Benchrest cleaner with other cleaners that work just as well and don't smell as bad, if that tells you anything.

By the way, I had a Ballistol wipe as well as an aerosol can, so I'm pretty sure that what I'm describing is the smell of the product, not the aerosol propellant.

The wipe was very handy and made short work of the basic cleanup, but I wouldn't want to use it if there were no chance of cleaning up afterwards. As is typical of CLP type cleaners, the stuff gets everywhere and you want to be able to at least have some rags or paper towels to get rid of the excess when you're done.

I'll keep using the Ballistol from time to time to see if I can see any difference between it and the other products I use, but it's going to have to really perform brilliantly to make up for the smell. I have other products that do very good jobs of cleaning and lubricating and have very little smell and no objectionable odor at all.

If you're looking for non-toxic cleaners that don't smell bad, Hoppes Elite GunCleaner and MPro-7 are excellent. If you want lubricants that don't smell bad, take a look at the following link.

http://www.lubrikit.com/

 

[Texan Scott]

I use Hoppes #9 for everything, always have. If you like a product, and use it fanatically, you'll find the smell becomes comfortable and familiar. If my guns smelled different, I'm not sure I'd feel quite right...