Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage red gun oil bottle question

We used 3 in 1 on our guns in the 1950's and 60's. I remember a distinct odor that modern gun oils don't have. I wonder how many deer got scared off by the odor.

Are yours like this?
3 in one oil manufactured for Savage?

3 in one oil

Fug has these to add in.

If you are referring to the bottle with the label...no. If you look close the name at the bottom is Three in One Oil Company which is a later bottle. Mine is like the left one in the artical i linked to above.

Most of the bottle side shots are of the Three in One embossed side which is the same on all the cork top bottles. Its the other side that identifies the production period.

The article indicates that the company did a lot of advertising. Wonder if there are any early bottle pictures out there?

PS... Note Foglio's front labels show "1 FL OZ NET" but they look like 3 oz bottles.

Foglio's bottles are as good or better than the one that won the contest plus all three have different back labels. BUT they are Three in One Oil Company marked which is 1905 or later.

I still have not found a photo of the earlier G.W. Cole version with a label other than the Savage catalog.

So is it safe to assume that G.W. Cole was the manufacturer of Savage's Red Oil ?

I don't know. Looking at the labels on Foglio's three bottles I don't see any patent info. So, did Savage made something similar and cut out the middle man? I do see that the grease states "Manufactured by Savage Arms" but the Red Oil does not so sounds like they were buying from someone.

While re-looking at the labels on the above 3 in 1 bottles it appears that the right one is the earlier as it states that is was the G W Cole Oil Co. (after 1905). The middle one shows a label print date of 7-25 (July, 1925) and the other would be in between.

When the Red Oil was cataloged the grease name was changed to include the word Red. I wonder if the grease was red in color...was the original grease red? Where are all the grease tubes???