Ballistol to clean cosmoline?

thegrandpoohbah

thegrandpoohbah

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My new JW-25A just showed up today. I did not realize it would be coated in cosmoline. Will Ballistol be effective at cleaning it off? Or am I better off with the hair dryer and some towels? My wife would KILL me if I try baking the stock in the oven...
 
Get a basin of some sort, break down the rifle and just pour hot water over everything.
Then hit it with compressed air and re-lube with some g96.
Done.
 
I've used a bit of ballistol on my sks, but it is only good if you want to remove a bit of cosmoline residue after cleaning the bulk of it off, and I mean residue like can't even see it but feel a very slight stickiness on the service
 
The cosmo was pretty fresh so the Ballistol worked. It did however take me about 4 hours. We will see if the stock sweats anymore out as the weather gets warmer. And there is still some in the bolt that I can't get at. Couldn't figure out how to take the bolt apart. Tried blasting it with canned air but that didn't get it all. Would it be safe to soak the bolt in varsol?
 
The bolt should be stripped as far as you can, all the cosmo will be dissolved by varsol. Do it outdoors as there are vapours emitted. Get a light film of oil back on the metal asap as the varsol strips everything off.
 
I just wipe mine off - it's just oil.


if it was cosmolene the entire gun would look like it had been dipped into a vat of ear wax
 
Using Ballistol in this way will work but MAN what an EXPENSIVE option! ! ! ! A gallon of low odor paint thinner from the local paint store works far better and is about 1/8 the cost. And likely less than that since you would need less of the paint thinner.

The hot water and detergent will work as well but I'm not a fan of dipping rifle wood into water if I can avoid it.
 
Yeah, you guys are correct. It likely isn't cosmoline, not waxy enough as far as I understand it. I just sprayed Ballistol on some paper towels and wiped, and wiped and wiped... Got it all eventually. Whatever it was they were very liberal in its application.

And I figured out the bolt so it's all good now.
 
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