Speaking for myself, I am not deterred by the posts that some find troublesome. I will say I like coming here and enjoy the group. That is not my primary motivation for coming here. I come here to learn. I come to this site more than any other site because I learn more here than any other site. I even learned something from this particular thread. One thing I will say about learning is that it can be painful. There is a gunsmith I use and aside from doing great work, I like him because I learn from him. He has a lot of knowledge of vintage firearms and on top of that, he has a great eye. A really great eye - that comes from decades of experience. Let me give you an example of learning equals pain. I went out to his place to pick up a couple rifles. I usually bring a couple along just to show off. He has a great appreciation of vintage stuff and he enjoys seeing some of the odd/special stuff I have. I brought one piece out (a non-Savage lever rifle) and he oohed and ahhed over the high percentage original finish, the multiple special order features, the rarity and so on. Then (yes, there is a shoe dropping here) he said, a really great gun except for those extra holes in the metal.... Me: "there are no extra holes in th metal." And, I am in fact correct, there were no extra holes in the gun. But then he clarified, "there used to be extra holes in this gun." And of course he was kind enough to show me where they had been. CRAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!! That day was not a good day for me. But, I did learn. Sometimes I wish I never would have brought that gun out there, but then again, that chances that I would make the same mistake twice. This experience reminds me a lot of this forum. When I handed my gunsmith that gun I didn't say, "see if you can find anything wrong with it." But, I did hand it to him and he's going to look it over and comment. I went back and looked over the comments made about LBK's rifle. I thought they were quite diplomatic and posed in the context of trying to gain a better understanding of what each person was seeing. I have posted photos of many rifles I have, some titled to the effect, "Boltman shows one off" and believe me, it is not without some trepidation. I'm not worried anyone is going to be mean but I do worry someone will see something I didn't. And if they do, it's not going to make my day. I'd still rather swallow my lumps and keep on learning.
