Rifle oil / solvent smells that trigger memories.

[Float Pilot]

When I was a kid there was a Winchester collector who had a gun shop at the end of our road. So I used to get off the school bus and then work there cleaning up his shop and cleaning every gun for two or three hours every day. After a few years of tutoring, he set me to doing various gunsmithing projects.
He had a really neat gun oil that he had brought back from Germany shortly after WWII. He called it "Banana Oil", and it really had a super nice smell.
Every now and then I smell something like it and I rush back in time and see myself sitting in that shop. I can still see a Mauser rifle sitting on the bench in front of me as a pile of parts as he explained each one.

So I went through the oils and solvents I have now to see what was triggered.

1. Corrosion X heavy duty: Smells like the candy store at Knotts Berry farm during the trip we made in the mid 1960s.

2. Tetra Gun lube: Smells like the mildew in the wet trunk of my Mom's 1964 Rambler. It had flush fold-down seats that led to many an adventure.

3. Hoppes #9 : Reminds me of the Sgt's office at the second Police Dept I worked .

4. Penn Syn Reel Oil: Has a clean citrus smell, that makes me think walking through an orange orchid. A special treat for a guy from Alaska.

5. Old mil-spec bore solvent: Makes me think of extra duty for being late, hung over or both.

6. Three in One oil: Makes me think of my first bicycle, An Ithaca 22 lever-gun, a box of old 22s, a hot summer day, a dirt road and racing the mosquitoes with snow-shoe hares tied to the handlebars.


ANYONE ELSE?

 

[tundraotto]

Ballistol - makes me think of watching Hickok45 youtube videos while I hold my nose from the stank....
G96 - Makes me think of my first RRA rifle - everything was so perfect - even the smell!
WD40 - Makes me think of work, and why it exists in the first place! lol

I'm not old enough to think of any cool ones.....

 

[Float Pilot]

Yeah G-96 does smell pretty nice.
Ballistol has a smell that makes you wonder if it has some sort of expired shelf life. Plus a bunch of old rifles I had lubed up with Ballistol still managed to get little rusty spots.

 

[matrem]

Myself and most folks I've talked to about it agree that smells can bring back memories as well, and in most cases better than visuals.
The only gun solvents / oils that stand out to me (from way back) are Hoppes #9.
That one still takes me back to early 1970s with me cleaning the guns while dad was working, hoping he was impressed enough with my effort to want to shoot right away.
Didn't always work though... Something about him being tired or hungry..or something..
Dang!

 

[adelbridge]

I stocked up on Remington Wonderlube when it was discontinued 15 years ago. Its probably crappy oil but it reminds me of my first gun. I still use it from time to time.

 

[Jaxondog]

G-66 Gun Treatment make's me think of an Ice Cream parlor

 

[MachIVshooter]

Isn't it funny how the olfactory system can conjure memories like no other sense?

 

[oldpapps]

To me the smell of Hoppies Number 9 is the closet under the stairs to upstairs in the hall way to the kitchen in my grand-pa's house on the farm. All of his guns were kept there and the smell of Hoppies was strong.
My grand-pa died in 1963 and he had moved to town a few years before that. So, that must have been 1954 to 56 or so. Good memories.

 

[Jeff F]

I got some of these
http://www.hoppes.com/products/ca_air_freshener.html

 

[Driftertank]

Not a gun-oil smell, but I think it's kinda funny.

Was hanging out at a bar with a friend, and decided to try a new stout, think maybe it was called Shakespeare by Rogue brewery? Anyway, had a glass, cold. Dark and a little bitter, but when i swallowed it, my nose and tastebuds were hit by the aftertaste, which was quite bitter with a bit of sulfur to it. My brain searched, and found a match: when me and a buddy from highschool used to take his SKS out shooting, and stop to buy Wolf 7.62x39 for $2/ box on the way. The aftertaste on that beer smelled/tasted like smoke from Wolf ammo! LMAO

Thought maybe it was just me, but one of friends (who's used Wolf) tried it and said the same.

 

[Float Pilot]

Today I sprayed my truck tow hitch with some G-96 spray. While I was still outside working on another truck a small cow moose that lives on my property came by and started to lick the ball-hitch. Apparently the interesting G-96 smell was too much for her to turn down.
I had to shoo her away from the darn thing so she would not make herself sick.

Marvel Mystery Oil has an odd spearmint smell, that reminds me of sore muscle rub. By the way it works great to get lead out of the rifling it you leave it in the bore for a couple days.

 

[pbrktrt]

The smell of a just fired paper hulled shotgun shell does it for me.

 

[JimStC]

This is an awesome thread. Sincere thanks to the OP.
I clean a rifle or rifles almost every day because I shoot that frequently.
The room that I do the cleaning is in the middle of the house so my home always smells like Hoppes #9 and Kano Kroil. Just the other day my wife and I commented that those smells bring back so many good memories. It is a very comforting smell and the resulting feelings.
Jim

 

[drsfmd]

I have an old Red Head leather gun case I inherited from my grandfather. I opened it one day and caught a whiff of what smelled like his wood shop. In in an instant, I was transported back to being about 8 years old, sitting on a stool in the shop talking with him as he worked on something. I'm not much the crying type, but that incredibly vivid memory made a couple of tears roll down my cheeks.

 

[Float Pilot]

I was transported back to being about 8 years old, sitting on a stool in the shop talking with him as he worked on something.

With thin curls of freshly planed or chiseled hardwood falling to the floor and giving off that warm hard-wood and oil smell? Oh yeah....

 

[jogar80]

WD-40, reminds me of preparing the guns for hunting season as a boy with my dad and uncle.

 

[tyeo098]

Cosmoline.

 

[Gtimothy]

I use Birchwood Casey Sheath as a final wipe after cleaning my weapons. The smell reminds me of some of the lubes I used on the 20mm Vulcan Phalanx (CIWS) that I worked on in the Navy. Also when I open up a Milsurp ammo can it reminds me of doing Magazine temps and the way Magazines smell (good smell!)

 

[P5 Guy]

The priming used in 10-X rimfire rounds. Not a pleasant odor but shooting rimfire rifles and revolvers come to mind with the slightest whiff.

 

[Rembrandt]

The smell of a just fired paper hulled shotgun shell does it for me.

I agree.....brings back memories of pheasant hunting as a child and putting those paper hulls on each finger. Nothing quite like that "aroma".

 

[pbrktrt]

You nailed it Rembrandt, my grandfather, Freckles the English setter, an Ithaca 20 ga. side by side and a 12 year old boy in heaven. I truly miss all of it. The grouse and woodcock were plentiful and Papa could prepare them like the greatest chef. At least I thought so.

 

[LAK]

pbrktrt

The smell of a just fired paper hulled shotgun shell does it for me

Exactly what I was going to say.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Hoppes #9 always makes me think of my dad and I cleaning guns downstairs while mom cooked upstairs. We'd be elbows deep in shotguns or whatever and somehow mom had it timed to get the smell of bacon or whatever going just as we'd be finshing up.

 

[Buford57]

Since I lost my sense of smell in '97, this is a bitter-sweet post. Every once in a while I have "olfactory hallucinations" when the memory of a smell is strong enough that I think I really smell it. Hoppe's No.9 comes back to me occasionally and is very welcome.

I read something years ago about 2 guys on a bird hunt. One was getting philosophical, so his buddy asked him "What is the meaning of life"? The "philosopher" picked up a freshly fired paper shell, inhaled deeply and replied "I don't know how to put it, but this is how it smells".

 

[Float Pilot]

Back when I had my first .22 , my dad gave me a box of 1941 dated 22 ammo.
Since it was Christmas, it was about 10 below zero when I ran out into the woods looking for Snow-Shoe Hares.
I remember those old waxy 22s had a strong smell as the spent brass casings laid on the hard snow with little trails of smoke whirling out of the open mouths. Back then he made me even bring home my 22 LR brass.
Although a bunch of you are right, they did not smell as neat as the spent paper 12-gauge hulls that my cousin was tossing from his old exposed hammer double-barrel.