The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

ukrifleman wrote: I think it is one of the most versatile cleaning/maintenance products available for firearms.

Where else can you find a product that lubricates moving parts, loosens fouling, feeds leather and wood and is safe to get on your skin.

ukrifleman.

Youngs 303 does all that and then some without the stink, fumes and cough.

I have had loads of SOWR parts through the dishwasher in the past, it does a superb job of moving 100+ years worth of crud from bolts and receivers and woodwork comes out OK as well.

Wonder where you got that daft idea from?

I like the smell, we used to get issued it and sometimes that smell takes me back to the first time I tried to clean my service rifle.

As a side note, people used to believe that drinking a tot of ballistol would cure the squirts.
Never tried it myself.

Also, according to a US based shooting buddy of mine, Ballistol has additional virtues.

He says it's is the best thing for removing lime scale from shower screens plus, his wife can't stand the smell and never comes into his reloading room when he is using it.

ukrifleman

dromia wrote:Wonder where you got that daft idea from?

Yup, absolutely ridiculous idea to put parts of a SOWR in the dishwasher.

Thanks Adam

I used to use it years back on revolver calibre Marlins shooting lead bullets. It was one of the few things that removed the lead based crud from the throat area. I'm pretty sure there will be better products around now though given all the introductions in this field. (Or ... maybe not, given the EU's determination to remove every ingredient of chemical compounds that actually work on health & safety grounds!. Surprised Ballistol hasn't been banned too - being old, it's bound to have something in it that's carcinogenic if fed a half-pint daily to a lab rat for six months.)

I always had to take the rifles outside to clean them though - the other half wouldn't let me use 'that stuff that stinks like rotting cheese' in the house. Since it's an organic compound that originally came from the vast 19th century chemical industries based on distilling coal, I'm not surprised. Those of us old enough to remember most towns having a coal gas plant, can still recall the noxious fumes and stinks that emanated from various outlets and vents in these factories. The poor b*ggers who worked in them likely all died in their 50s and 60s from horrible cancers, and the ground usually can't be built on forever more without vast amounts of soil being carted away due to its being made permanently toxic by poorly controlled run-offs.

If you like Balistol then you'll just love Young's 303.

snayperskaya wrote:Anyone else find using Ballistol makes them feel nauseous?

Only when I drink too much of it. Apart from that, I've been using it for longer than I can remember, and I've never had a problem with it.

Even Youngs 303 ain't what it used to be.........the old red stuff in the white can contained, if I remember correctly, methyl salicylate.
The current offering smells entirely different, and is more brown than red.

Pete