Trevor and I at the range today.

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
My wife loves the smell of Hoppes ; says it brings back childhood memories of her Dad cleaning his rifle on the kitchen table when he came home from hunting!
 

Ian

Notorious member
Many years ago I read an article about scents triggering memories. There was an ordered list of most recognizable scents included, I remember coffee, peanut butter, and crayons topping the list. Also, crayons seemed to trigger the most childhood memories in the most people. I'd have to include Hoppe's #9 in there too, if you smelled it when you were a kid, it sticks with you forever.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Yep, Hoppe's #9 does seem to have a certain addictive property. It really does seem
like smells connect directly with some memories and trigger them at a more intense
level than just thinking about it.

It may be a survival deal. When I was 16, and AFAIK had never smelled a bear, I was still
hunting deer, about 30 yds from a friend, moving very quietly down a sandy fire break in
foggy weather. Suddenly, there was almost literally a flashing neon sign in my brain that
said, in tall yellow letters, "BEAR!". Nothing like, "Hmm, what is that smell, not sure what it is,
I wonder if that is a bear." Nope, pure, instant 100% certainty - BEAR! I froze and looked at my
friend when he moved from behind a clump of palmettoes. He was fully alerted too, and mouthed,
silently, "Bear", and I nodded. I literally didn't even conciously smell anything at first, eventually my
dumb modern brain noted a 'funny smell, not idenfied.' Either I had smelled one in a zoo when too
young to remember, or that particular warning is layed down in the DNA from 1,000 generations ago
when knowing the bear was near was a critical, life or death issue. Talked with my friend, about 9 years older
about it later, he had exactly the same 100%, instant certainty that there was a bear around.

We saw tracks a few minutes later, never spotted the bear.

The sense of smell is different, for certain.

Bill
 
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smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
Trevor is dog-goned lucky to have a Grandpa like Ben. Ben, hopefully, at some point in time, you and Trevor can do a re-stock job on one of his rifles. Another extremely worthwhile skill and talent that you are so very well qualified to pass on to him.

Leather, Hoppes and gunsmoke all cause flashbacks to good times during early childhood.
 

mattw

Active Member
Tell the young man... good work! I so wish we could use pistol round rifles in Illinios. When I retire, I am going somewhere that will let me hunt with my Marlin 357 or 41, maybe even a AR in 300 bo.