Ballistol fumes?

I use Ballistol for Moose Milk and straight oil. When I spray it or drip some on a patch, I get a slight burning sensation in my nose and throat. I don't mind the odor, which to me is a lot like licorice, but that irritation in my throat is annoying. I try to use it outside. Anyone else notice this?

The burning sensation could be the thinner, solvent, or propellant in Ballistol.

The odor comes from Anethole.
Anethole is the essential oil from the seeds of Pimpinella anisum L., a shrub which grows around the Mediterranean and in South and Central America. Anethole is the key compound in the odor of star anise, which smells like licorice.

Ballistol contains:

Mineral Oil
Potassium Oleate
Ammonium Oleate
Oleic Acid
Benzyl Alcohol
Amyl Alcohol
Isobutyl Alcohol
Benzyl Acetate
Anethole
Isohexane (aerosol only)

The stuff smells like dirty socks to me. Works good but stinks bad.

I have not noticed any burning. And I like the smell.

It smells like vomit to me. I switched to Hoppe's Black Powder Lube and Solvent. It works as well or better and smells like Hoppe's #9. I've liked that smell since I was a little kid watching Dad clean his guns.

After it seized up my guns so bad I needed tools free them I don't use that junk anymore. So the smell doesn't matter. I don't recall if I threw out an almost full can or if it is hiding at the back of one of my shelves somewhere. Awfullest stuff ever.

Thanks Carbon 6. I probably have an allergy to one of those ingredients. I wonder how many others do as well.

Rifleman1776 said:

After it seized up my guns so bad I needed tools free them I don't use that junk anymore. So the smell doesn't matter. I don't recall if I threw out an almost full can or if it is hiding at the back of one of my shelves somewhere. Awfullest stuff ever.

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How can that be? A lubricating oil seizes up your guns? I don't get it. Please explain.

N.Y. Yankee said:

Thanks Carbon 6. I probably have an allergy to one of those ingredients. I wonder how many others do as well.

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I'd guess that you are just hyper sensitive to one or more of the ingredients. You probably have a good sniffer and a lot of taste buds.
It's always fascinating the wide variance in smell and perception that people have.

There are lots of good alternatives to Ballistol out there.

I use it and like it. Smell is no big deal, of course I don't go around stiffing the bottle. Grew up on a dairy, my nose buds been burn up long ago.

N.Y. Yankee said:

I use Ballistol for Moose Milk and straight oil. When I spray it or drip some on a patch, I get a slight burning sensation in my nose and throat. I don't mind the odor, which to me is a lot like licorice, but that irritation in my throat is annoying. I try to use it outside. Anyone else notice this?

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That burning sensation you are experiancing in your nose and throat, maybe due an allergy to one or a combination of more than one, of the ingrediants in the Ballistol, irritating your mucos menbranes. DANNY

It does the same thing to me...only worse. I get a cough that lasts for hours. I quit using the stuff. I only had it to try Dutch's "dry patch" system, but that stuff would kill me. Allergic reaction, perhaps. I have NO known allergies to anything else and never had, but that stuff certainly has some kind of reaction with me.

Rifleman man is nuts. I used it for over 30 years on high end Browning, CZ, STI to low end Savage and Mosins. Its wont seize up any gun and works in freezing weather.

Rifleman1776 said:

After it seized up my guns so bad I needed tools free them I don't use that junk anymore. So the smell doesn't matter. I don't recall if I threw out an almost full can or if it is hiding at the back of one of my shelves somewhere. Awfullest stuff ever.

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Poppycock.

I don’t know what you’re talking about, but BALLISTOL (ballistic oil) has been in use for DECADES as THE premiere black powder muzzle-loading cleaning and piling fluid. I’ve never heard of it “seizing out” a BP arm...

Smokey Plainsman said:

Poppycock.

I don’t know what you’re talking about, but BALLISTOL (ballistic oil) has been in use for DECADES as THE premiere black powder muzzle-loading cleaning and piling fluid. I’ve never heard of it “seizing out” a BP arm...

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I think Rifleman was referring to Hoppes #9

Carbon 6 said:

I think Rifleman was referring to Hoppes #9

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Nope. Ballistol.

N.Y. Yankee said:

I use Ballistol for Moose Milk and straight oil. When I spray it or drip some on a patch, I get a slight burning sensation in my nose and throat. I don't mind the odor, which to me is a lot like licorice, but that irritation in my throat is annoying. I try to use it outside. Anyone else notice this?

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Your not alone friend. I'm not to crazy about the smell either. It works but if I can smell it then the animals can too. I'm going to try Birchwood Casey's Barricade.

If the animals can smell your gun oil, then the animals can smell YOU!

it was developed by the GERMANS in forever ago, and was the only thing that was approved for a centaury! cant be all that bad?

toot said:

it was developed by the GERMANS in forever ago, and was the only thing that was approved for a centaury! cant be all that bad?

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Well I guess they were better at developing a gun lube than at winning the last few wars.