Man, I'm setting at my desk spraying BALLISTOL on the leather handle of an old Case bowie knife cause this stuff works well on leather but it STINKS!! My guys love it but to me it smells like liquorice which I also hate. We sell lots of lubes and cleaners and most work well enough but some of it smells awful. Why can't it all smell like Hoppes 9 ?? That smells GOOOOOD!!!

A buddy who has a gunshop sold me a big bottle of Cleanzoil, told me how great it is, use it on everything, etc. didn't mention that pine-tar, Rosemary , liquorice stench.....And I like liquorice !
I've tried to get over the smell but just can't. That anise-rosemary -Pine-Sol smell is just off putting, it reeks!

One product I think smells good is Hoppes Elite Gun Oil, I can use it on a gun , set it on the night stand and my super scent detecting wife doesn't say a word. Now-That's saying a lot !
I don't care how effective a product is, if I don't like the smell , I'm not going to use it.
Gary

I was at the BAR of America in Truckee, Ca. with a very young cocktail waitress I was dating when I lived in Reno. She would order shots of different stuff and if she didn't like it she would pass it over to me and I would down it. Everything was good till she passed a shot of OUZO and I threw it back and thought I was gonna puke. That mess tastes like liquorice on steroids. That was an interesting night as I passed out and and she had to drive my Jeep home. I woke up as some headlights hit me in the face and I looked back to see a car going through the median to turn around which I knew was gonna be the POPO. Asked her if we were still in Cal. or had we made the Nevada state line and she didn't know. Back then in 1984 the cops in Nv. were much more forgiving than the ones in Cal. We were both pretty drunk but the Nv trooper had seen her in the show at the Hilton where we both worked and let us go with a warning. Man the things you do when you're young and dumb.

I'm a smelly gun cleaner.

Ever try Colombian Aguardiente? Also sort of a strong anise-licorice flavor. At least in Colombia it's 120 proof or more.

I always thought someone could make a fortune by coming up with an aftershave lotion that smelled like the old Hoppe's #9

I like the smell of Eezox.

Maybe I'm a little strange, but I LIKE the smell of Ballistol.

But it sure drives my wife nuts when I'm cleaning guns, even though I'm in the detached gunroom.

I'm pretty much under a ban from cleaning guns in the house. I'll do it on a day off when the wife is at wirk

I heard somewhere that the sweat smell in Hoppes is from banana oil. You can buy the banana oil extract on eBay. I've wondered if it was added to other cleaners if they would smell like Hoppes, too.

Lately, I've been using a Lubriplate food grade oil on my guns. It's USDA approved for air compressors used in food productions faculties. It's so benign and odor free it's considered edible.

Yet, it's also designed for preserving machinery that's washed down daily with hot water and caustic chemicals. So it "clings" and it highly resistant to oxidation, even in wet environments. I think it's the perfect gun oil.

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~ S&W aficionado in training ~

I think the original Hoppe's #9 contained both Amyl Acetate and nitrobenzene, and those provided the distinctive aroma. I don't know what the new H9 formulation contains.

I had a lady "friend" who liked Ouzo, would do shots of the stuff. Clear , anise, liquid fire...comes from Greece.
She was the only person I knew who could drink more than one shot. One was all I could take too. That stuff would make you dance on the table and then have to ask someone the next day if you got naked or not. We had some good parties back then!
I haven't thought of that foul, nasty tasting stuff in a long time!
Gary

I've always used Hoppes and never a complaint from my wife. I always made sure not to do it when the house was not open. That's most days down here. I have a covered porch and a cool shop to do gun cleaning and such the other 11 months of the year.

I guess beer gas was higher on her list of obnoxious scents.

I just thought of this one,

I was cleaning some guns on the dining room table one day. A friend had stopped by. Needless to say he has to touch every thing in sight and makes me nervous as hell with his fidgeting.

Somehow the bottle of Hoppes cleaner got knocked over on the table and etched into the finish. I thought I was gonna die.

I managed to get the finish looking pretty good again with some old english and a few prayers but it still stunk like crazy in the house for a few days.

It turns out my friend had took a rag to it when I wasn't looking and threw it in the garbage can in the kitchen and that was the source of the odor.

Thank God my wife was in Germany at the time.

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Dum vivo cano

My lgs recommend this stuff that came in a white plastic bottle that they said was good at removing the copper in the barrel from jacketed rounds. I used it & the next time I opened the brush container to clean my gun the brush was pretty much dissolved. It smelled fine though.

Isoamyl Acetate is another name for banana oil.

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~ S&W aficionado in training ~

That's one thing I like about Break Free, to me it has no odor, and does a fine job for light cleaning and lube.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I get the same bad time at my house. Mrs always busts my chops when I use Ballistol.

In Greece ouzo is cut with water and it turns thin milky white. Don't help the taste of it none.

So, I'm not gonna even mention Frog Lube then.

It's the smell of FREEDOM

You talk about STINK. Find a can of WWII-era G.I. bore cleaner. That stuff would puke a buzzard.

When I heard that Hoppes was going to change the formula of #9 years ago, I bought a lifetime supply - two huge bottles of the old stuff. A few drops behind the ears for aroma - Old Spice can't compete. Nostalgia in a bottle.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

I don't know if I would trust a gun cleaner and/or lubricant that did not have a strongish smell to it. The smell kind of goes along with effective cleaning and lubing.

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Can my S&W Mdl 10 shoot +P

The smell doesn't really indicate anything about how well a bore cleaner performs. Plain old mineral spirits (paint thinner) works just fine for almost any gun cleaning task (even bore cleaning) and is far cheaper. The famous home brew "Ed's Red" bore cleaner is mainly a mixture of mineral spirits and ATF. Some add other ingredients such as acetone, which may not be a great idea, as it can damage wood finishes, and kerosene, which is not chemically very much different from mineral spirits.

All things being equal, if I absolutely had to I'd rather take Metamucil than castor oil !

Although I'm reluctant to use it on blued guns, I hose my 629 and stainless 1911 as well as the Sig 2022 out with carb cleaner. A light brushing and everything's gunk free and clean as a whistle. Cheap and doesn't stink. Eezox is just plain nasty and I don't like the new Hoppe's either. I like anise smell and taste, so will eventually try Ballistol, maybe.

ETA: The MSDS on Eezox is kinda hair-raising, too.

I use G96 and like the sweet smell that it has. I have found that it works well for general gun cleaning.

Ballistol is the only cleaner I can use in the house without repercussions. But then, I like ouzo and anise cookies.

I insist that my wife takes a shower in morning and evening,I
don't like smelly gun cleaners either. I like ouzo & anise flavored
stuff to, must be Ohio thing.

Smells like victory������������

You think Ouzo is bad...try Strega

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Forum consigliere

When it comes to gun cleaners, I always figured the stronger the smell, the better job it was doing.

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Can my S&W Mdl 10 shoot +P