beatledog7 said:
There ought to be a smilie for applause.
Wow, oh my! Well, you are all very welcome!
But the credit really belongs to someone else. When I started match shooting USPSA as a newbie, I had a coworker who shot Bullseye matches and he mentored me on reloading and match shooting. I was just mainly interested in loading cheaper than factory rounds but he taught me the virtues of consistency in reloading and match shooting. He spent countless days and evenings showing me how he reloaded and why on single stage press, Dillon 550B and yes, Lee Pro 1000.
Whenever I offered to pay for the time and components used in my learning, he simply smiled and said he is just "paying forward" information that was provided to him by someone else and asked that I "pay it forward" when the opportunity presents.
Over the years, I met other reloading and shooting mentors. They were local/regional USPSA match shooters, range officers, PD/SD/SWAT instructor who gladly entertained my never-ending questions and happily showed me how to shoot better and shave stage times. I thought I was doing OK but when they taught me to video record my match stages (remember VHS-C?), I was shocked to see all the mistakes I was making that wasted precious seconds. And they freely shared their information and time without asking anything in return.
When I started using lead bullets, I met a local caster at a gun show and he showed me the ropes on how lead bullets are made using different alloys. He supplied cowboy action match shooters in several counties and we spent countless happy evenings and nights working on various loads that produced accuracy and minimized leading in my pistols never asking for anything in return. When he retired in 2000, he provided me with 10 year supply of lead bullets at below cost!
More recently, I met blarby through some trades we made on THR and he graciously casted me some great shooting and accurate tumble lubed bullets (6000+) just before the component shortage. When he started the "Pay It Forward" thread during the shortage panic when many were simply not able to find reloading components/equipment, it was awesome to see the "High Road" spirit expressed by so many people! When a friend and his sister made a retirement look around trip near blarby 14+ hours away, I had the friend deliver two Texan progressive 12/20 gauge reloaders as my "pay it forward" to blarby (the cost of gas alone would have been several hundred dollars). See how things work out?
Fortunately over the years, I have been able to pay forward by helping other shooters with their shooting techniques and new reloaders with their equipment/components. My support for various THR threads is an extension of my "paying it forward" that's been extended to me by many others in past years. I have participated in other gun forums but found the "High Road" mindset on THR to be refreshing and consider this forum my home base.
As seen in the movie
Pay It Forward (2000), the generous act of paying it forward really does work! Although I have paid forward without expecting anything in return, I have been rewarded several more times the time and money I spent far beyond my imagination.
So, you are all very welcome and in actuality, thank you all very much for the "pay it forward" opportunities you are creating for others!
