I hunt with friends of friends in the fall, one kid I always wind up with is a guy who is 20, works fast food, spends every dime he has on gear, and worships marines. Boots, clothes, gear. Spends the night before each hunt disassembling his CKRT knife, cleaning all the parts, and using a clamp-on knife sharpening system to get the edges on his knives 'perfect'. Like, if he uses a steel or a stone like the rest of us, it may cost him his life.
This year, I asked him when he was going to do more putting up and shutting up, talk to the recruiter and make a plan, he wasn't sure he was ready. I told him it doesn't get any better than now. I told him to think hard and weigh his options, and also told him that when he does it for real he will learn a couple of things. Real-world guys don't spend nearly as much time obsessing about gear as he does. They are too busy doing their jobs to detail strip everything once a week. The guys training you will NOT be impressed by how much stuff you knew BEFORE you went in. They want to see how well you implement it. And as you get into the field and actually do stuff, you will start to make real-world decisions like; if you carry it every and you don't use it, it's weight you don't need to carry. Find one tool that does everything, not a different tool for everything. Your gear will get hammered in the field. Break THEIR stuff, NOT YOURS. They will replace theirs.
He's not a bad kid, and he'll do good if he actually goes out there, I see a lot of the same attitudes that I had before I went in, like reading the U.S. Cavalry Store catalog cover to cover, memorizing specs, and then being disappointed that they don't actually issue you everything that's marked 'G.I. issue'. We all learn eventually that it's about the work, not the toys.
