* Mods Please Forgive the Double Post - It's a story worth being in two forums*
As many of you know, the last year has seemingly taken a bit of a nosedive around the forum in terms of divisiveness. Great members have left because of it, others have left and come back, some have been kicked off, and others have just checked out. At times it's become a bit depressing, so I thought I'd share a real good story to show how awesome this forum, and the people on it, can really be.
Sometime last fall, one of our resident stock refinishers, Hunter1602, ran a contest to offer a free stock refinishing to a deserving person. Long story short, I had a rifle that was owned by a young man who just started hunting with our crew. He was a wild teenager, had not the greatest upbringing I am guessing, made many poor choices along the way, but turned his life on the straight and narrow (for the most part), and got his HD mechanic ticket. After last season, I told him to give me his beat up old Model 70 and I would try to refinish the stock, which I had never done before. I saw Hunter1602's contest and I entered, telling a bit about this great young fella's story. Hunter1602 selected his rifle to do. Bonus! I send down the rifle, and shortly thereafter, I get a pm from Gitrdun, saying he wanted to be involved and play a part in blessing this young man, so he was gonna Duracoat the rifle. Well, you can imagine how stoked I am about things now. Time goes by, things are progressing nicely on both ends, but then things take a left turn. Hunter 1602 has one last coat to put on the stock, he climbs up the ladder, and the dang thing gives way. He falls off the ladder, thankfully not injuring himself seriously, but he lands on the stock, which unfortunately breaks beyond repair. I get a pm immediately, with Hunter1602 feeling mortified, but instructing me to pick out a stock from Boyd's, and he is going to pick up the dime. At this point, I KNOW I am dealing with a quality dude. We order up a Boyd's Prairie Hunter in pepper laminate. Hunter1602 now has to drive out to High River to meet up with Gitrdun to check the spacing on the action screws, as this is an older Model 70. The stock arrives just before hunting season, Gitrdun gets the rifle together and puts her in the mail. I got it this past week, and it's gorgeous! Simply beautiful job done on the metalwork by Gitrdun, who had told me to make sure I was in a quiet room when I opened the box, as I would hear angels singing, it is so pretty. He was right. I throw a scope and rings on her, and take her out to get sighted in on Friday. The young guy is gonna crap his pants he is gonna be so happy. The only thing I still need to do is bed the rifle. I have glued the odd gun together in the past, so if anyone in the Edmonton area wants to be a part in this feel good story, fire me a pm, and we can get the gun glass bedded too, but we'd need to do it this week, as hunting season is approaching and I have to turn the gun over to the young fella for the big reveal
He's very excited as you can imagine.
I wanted to share this, as AO, in spite of some rough patches, is still a great place because of the many, many wonderful people who take part!
If you have the chance, I would highly recommend using these two great guys' services. They deserve it.
Here are a few pics I just took...
A Story to Restore Your Faith in AO Members...
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