doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The scent of just fired paper shotgun shells

There is nothing like stepping in the bed of a rutting moose or elk that slipped out without you seeing it. The smell is base and rough but meant to get the female pheromones going. I think it gets the testosterone in us males going. Maybe it harks back to primitive times and the challenge over a mate or perhaps its the speculation of the hunt, that elk or moose is just a few trees ahead.

Don't forget youngs 303 oil(the original black stuff)not sure how good an oil/cleaner it was but open a bottle and it takes me straight back in time.
I dont let a bottle pass me by when I find it.

GDU

For me there is nothing that brings back hunting memories like the smell of a charge of Herco just fired out of a Federal Gold Medal paper hull. If I could just be standing knee deep in a South Dakota duck slough the two scents would likely put me in a swoon. Though I haven't loaded this load for 50 years I believe it was a new Gold Medal hull,33gr. of Herco, a Ljutic wad, 1 1/4 oz. of 5's roll crimped. Still got some Ljutics somewhere in the loading room, think I'll see where I can pick up a can of Herco this weekend. South Dakota will have to wait 'til next November.

Steve

Some time ago I was able to get my hands on some new old stock purple Federal paper 16 gauge shells. Loaded with a light charge of Unique the fired empties erase 60 years. I start every bird season with a pocket full of these shells. The next most enduring smells that erase the years and brings back memories of days gone by are walking into a saddle shop with the aroma of fresh leather and the smell the tac room of a horse barn with the smell of horses mingled with neatsfoot oil and fresh prairie hay. What memories they stir.

A couple of years ago, I took a buddy to hunt preserve birds (I know...) because he had never gunned for pheasants in his life. The first bird that loafed into the air was dropped by a shot from my Smith gun- using one of a handful of old Winchester paper shells I brought along for the occasion. Naturally, I had to take a whiff of the spent shell, which prompted my buddy to ask for a whiff too, so I tossed it over to him. As we were standing there smelling spent shotshells, another bird went up from between us. All we could do was look at each other and laugh at ourselves.

The smell of varnish on the Eley paper hulls always takes me back in time to my younger days. Federal Gold Medal papers smell good too

Mike, you guys have an importer for Eley in Canada now?

I'm down to my last couple boxes and awaiting someone to step up and import that brand.

Grand Prix is a great load.

Sixty years ago you could walk up and down the trap line and pick up all the paper hulls you could carry. Those were the days! To my nose the Winchester/Westerns were far and away the best, followed by the intriguing Remington/Peters. As good ad Federals smell to me nowadays, back then they weren't in the running.

I still have a small cache of Winchesters, many just once fired, and every 3-4 years I load up a box just for the aromatic hit. Kind of like every once in a while ponying up to that rare bottle of 20-year Talisker

Wet leaves on the ground in the fall. This fall when I went north to hang deer stands I stepped out of the car at 11:30 pm, my first breath was overwhelming, it was the scent of grouse hunting past. I just stood there in the dark taking it in.

To me the smell of Summer is DDT and Fall is cotton bales in the Depot warehouse.
Mike