Well there is always many opinions about such things so here is what works for me.
As for rust a couple of swabs with Evapo-Rust will take out flash rust, if its crusted up good an over night soak will make it disappear. Always remember to clean out the Evapo-Rust real well, I am not sure why but do it as the old gun smith that taught me was always right so I do not want to find out the hard way.
When it comes to keeping rust away I have tried many things, I learned the hard way about Rem oil in muzzle loaders, but still use it in the mechanism and my cartridge guns, on my muzzle loaders I have tried Ballistol and it works OK but I prefer Barricade for normal times between trips to the range and hunting and I use Birchwood Casey Synthetic oil for long term storage.
The reason I prefer these is a combination of reasonable price and the fact that a quick wipe with alcohol will get them off the barrel.

I think Ballistol is by far the best rust preventive!

Denny,
Do you get an orange tint on your patch on the first wipe after storage with ballistol? I changed to it and all of the guns I used it on have the rust colored stain on the first patch down which scares me.I never had this with remoil,breakfree,or just gun oil.I've seen this mentioned elsewhere and some have pronounced it rust and others say its just a reaction between ballistol and steel.It never seems deep and no problems with rust on outside of gun or action.I hope someone knows what this is,because I really like Ballistol other than this.

If Ballistol works good for a person I am not going to tell them to use something else. For a bore protectant I personally prefer Barricade or Eezox both from my own experience and from some tests I have read about.