What? it smelled a lot like honey!
And the reason we didn't get to fire the live shells that often was the cost, Smoke and illumination were used a couple of times, the HE once and the anti-tank once.
The wartime HE shell was pretty advanced, it had a zone fuse containing an option for time-delayed detonation, while the anti-tank shell was programmed prior to fiering and would use IR to home in on the target that most accurately matched a combat vehicle's heat signature and then detonating a shaped charge against the top armor.