What would it be? Price is no object. It's available and all you have to do is to go and get it.....
Aw, come on, Glenn! Everyone knows that neither that gun nor that shooter could have done that job!If I was prone to getting an expensive rifle: how about the Carcano that shot JFK!
Dear Hoppes,
I am an avid shooting sports enthusiast, and have been for about 40 years now. I am 48 years old, and have a 14 year old son and 19 year old daughter who also have both enjoyed the shooting sports. Recently, in an online firearms forum, I was reminded by another shooter about how the aroma of Hoppes tends to make one reminisce about good times past; that it brings on a catharsis of sorts. The Hoppes user in particular to whom I refer was brought to memories of his father who had taught him to shoot and care for his firearms using Hoppes solvent. Well I was not lucky enough to have the old man around to teach me about guns - mom and dad divorced when I was 8 or 9, but I was taught about guns - at summer camp. I was a problem child who had to be sent to camp or the nuns were going to throw me out of Catholic school. Can you imagine they sent me to a Catholic camp, where Catholic brothers taught me how to shoot rifles and bows and arrows and taught me survival skills - all here in New York and at a Catholic Camp! I was lucky that way; but can you imagine that happening today - fat chance! Well, anyhow it worked, I am a fine upstanding member of my community, and am employed as a federal law enforcement agent. I even sent my own son all the way to New Hampshire on the Maine border to find the same set up - he didn't really need it - but it was good for him - a like father like son sort of a thing. One of the things about camp of which I have fond memories was the not umpleasent smell of Hoppes 9 solvent on the Winchesters and Remingtons at the rifle range. Hopefully my son finds it as pleasant. As for me, I did not know it was Hoppes back then, but the memory is undeniably a memory of an aroma that is that of the Hoppes of today.
I certainly agree, with the other Hoppes user, about the aura of gun cleaning brought on by the aroma of Hoppes. Gun cleaning with Hoppes does tend to help one push away negative emotion and cognition, and then undoubtedly leads to an ephemeral sort of a spiritual experience in that it usually lasts only for as long as you are cleaning the firearms or maybe just a short time beyond. You know, don't you, just up to the point where you reminisce while remaining in the room wherein wafts that aroma, while you sit back and enjoy those thoughts of times gone by - and dream of good times to come. Those recollections and those dreams do not materialize clearly in the absence of Hoppes - it just is not the same without the heavy scent of amply applied Hoppes #9 floating through the room.
It is amazing, the wide array of memories that can be brought to the light of the basement or garage gun cleaning room, once the Hoppes is opened. For instance: memories of loved ones who taught us to shoot and care for our firearms, our first gun, the first time we cleaned our very own gun, the first time we went shooting, our first hunt, our first successful hunt, the first time and many times after that when we shared the joys of the shooting sports with our children, and the many other times that were not necessarily the first times we did something with firearms - but were something that we loved doing over and over again. I guess that when they made those Police Academy movies there really was something to be said about the scenes in which Tagglebury used the stuff as aftershave. It sure has an affect, doesn't it! Maybe it is not the affect seen in the movies but a marked and good affect all kidding aside.
But back to waxing seriously for a moment, I remember my first successful White-tailed Deer hunt. I remember slowly bringing the shotgun to my cheek as I quivered with anticipation and nervousness. I recall taking a bead on that eight pointer as he followed the doe with his nose near the doe's... you get the picture. What gives that picture clarity, what helps bring it into really sharp focus, is the smell of Hoppes #9 gun cleaning solvent. I remember that, long ago, as I brought the shotgun up to fire, I got a whiff of Hoppes on the gun. Then, I remember, I worried a bit. I prayed the deer would not smell it too, and they didn't because I had set up with the wind in my face and it was only a very faint hint of that wonderful aroma. I remember too as I smelled it that it was a good smell and, it made me not worry so much that the deer would catch the scent but rather made me recall all I had been taught about hunting and firearms in that split second before I squeezed the trigger. It made me think: if I was certain of my target, if I had a good and sporting shot, to take careful aim, if I had taken off the safety, and to squeeze instead of jerk the trigger and then to follow through. It filled me with a certainty that I was about to bag my first buck. That is what Hoppes did for me, and that is just what I did - my first buck was a nice eight pointer.
Hoppes has done something else over the years. It has helped fuse the events of that first hunt into the most secure place in the halls of my memory just as it has done with many of the other precious memories of my life related to the shooting sports. It keeps on reinforcing my memories, just smelling it while cleaning a firearm brings those memories to the forefront of my mind. I can only hope that it will continue to do the same for my son as he grows into manhood and he enjoys our heritage as Americans - the right to keep and bear arms. For this trigger of memories from my shooting past, and for this maker of dreams for my son's future - I thank you at Hoppes. Please keep up the good work and keep on putting out a great product that not only gets the job done, but by way of the memories that it triggers makes the job so much more enjoyable.
I would like to have sent this directly to the CEO of your company, but I am sorry to say I do not have your mailing address or the correct email address for such. Hopefully someone in sales, can pass this letter along to the CEO for me. Thanks for everything.
Sincerely,
Glenn R. Bartley