I never would have started a business with @Flamingo let alone met him. P-F has directly contributed to my well being both mental and financial over the past 2 years in particular.
I am fortunate to have also met and trained with multiple P-F'ers including @Totem Polar, @Clusterfrack, @marcin, @Guerrero - All of whom I would happily welcome into my home. There are of course the guns, gear, etc. all of which I appreciate.
But frankly nothing will top the people.
You get this group of shovelfuckers singing and we'll never get 'em out of here!Originally Posted by MistWolf
I would have never known how to be elitist to my peasant shooting buddies cause they aren’t on PF and I am.
That's the winner, right there.
"The victor is not victorious if the vanquished does not consider himself so."
― Ennius
I have a good friend (who also happens to be my only real non-family gun buddy) who I keep pressuring to join here and he hasn’t so far. I think y’all are intimidating or something.
Mother of God. I don’t even know where to start on this one. I mean, I’ve been into this stuff for a long time… LFI-1 1 in ‘94, and I was teaching Goju Karate for my hometown’s D.A.R.E. program (remember that?) when Royce was doing his thing in the original UFCs, so I at least knew about BJJ. I had a weight training class in HS; used to hit the gym with dorm bros in college… which just made me the weight lifting equivalent of that guy in the gun store “who’s been shooting his whole life,” though I digress.
*Everything* I now consider a pastime/hobby/lifestyle beyond my profession stems from this place. Absolutely everything. @SouthNarc was/is a HUGE influence—he, Tom, and the rest of this forum (including @john johnston and the old ballistic radio podcast) were the impetus for me flying all the way out to nowhere Ohio to do PeP3, where I met a ton of regulars here. That event, and @Cecil Burch’s “chokes” blocks—mostly the way he taught them, mind—set me on my current training path.
I drank so much P-F (and TPI) kool-aid that I often conflate classes. I am still not quite sure how many ECQCs I’ve taken, because they sort of blend with EWO and IAJJ in a compressed time period, immediately pre and post-pandemic. I think it’s 3 ECQCS, 2 EWOs, and 3 IAJJ—two of which I co-hosted—since mid-2017. Also William April’s weekend. And some other P-F adjacent classes in there.
I’m just a different person. Craig has mentioned that the people that actually come back for a second ECQC typically come back lighter, stronger, more serious… I can vouch that the shivworks POI—across multiple instructors—has literally changed my body and my mind (arguably from a mild-mannered classical musician to a Machiavellian demon with bad knees…) .
@Cecil Burch absolutely got me onto the BJJ mats; he’s a tremendous resource. @SouthNarc absolutely got me back into the gym, and he’s been my mentor by proxy there, as well—just by posting and sharing his own journey—into powerlifting and working with an awesome coach.
I’ve made some great friends along the way; I learned to hunt black bear from a LE buddy that I met at ECQC #1, and I’m in constant meme and signal contact with another great friend that I met at ECQC #1 (and IAJJ #2, and EWO #1) who is also a member here. I count several of the regulars here @Clusterfrack, @RevolverRob, @Flamingo, et al) as meatspace friends and sometimes training buddies. I have a huge soft spot in my heart for @Maple Syrup Actual, who I met the first time when he rode a moto guzzi griso all the way from Canada directly into my open garage coming to the first north Idaho ECQC. I know I’m forgetting several long time posters; it’s Christmas, and I’m in a bit of a rush (eg. @Cookie Monster, @marcin).
When my wife was bed ridden for almost a year with a freak neuro incident, there were people here who lent support. And that’s just the big, neon sign stuff. The daily grist for mill topics over the last decade or so; the input from vetted SMEs ( @Mas, @DocGKR, @Chuck Haggard, @Odin Bravo One, et al) as well as the regular members who are SMEs in their own lives (@BBI, @blues… @JRB, @TGS… @GJM, @JCN, @everyone… hell, @Clusterfrack finally let slip a clue, in passing thread context, that he may well be the top guy in his arena, outside of all of this P-F stuff…) If I have a question about wagu beef or generators, or chasing down dashboard light codes on a Lexus, someone here will have the answer.
And let’s not forget the original January 2020 Covid 19 thread. (Or the living meme thread, for that matter)
The reason that it’s so hard to quantify what the P-F assemblage has meant to me is that the forum and the lifestyle is so inseparable from the fabric of my being at this point. If I’m reading about made-to-measure shirts, or air fryers (or law), there’s probably a genesis in a buried coterie thread somewhere, along with an expert for guidance.
I mean, it just doesn’t stop. Products? I can’t even do a complete list there, either. I still have one of the first 9 gadgets that Tom gave away when they finally (soon™️) hit production, as well as one of the recent Langon iterations. JMCK and Dark Star? Check. Mastermind/Graith/whatever? Like, 6 of them?
And don’t even get me started on the reverse edge methodology and tools. I’m a whore for reverse edge knives at this point, while simultaneously still devoted to the seminal clinch pick (2 OG, a gen 2, and a trainer).
It’s true that the forum as a whole has shifted from the early training-centric posting, but the major reason (IMHO) is that the crowd-endorsed POI has been hashed out to a large extent, and the forum has matured past its adolescence, as so many early members have matured in their training, passing through many of the consensus POIs and leaving less of import to debate. It’s still the best gun club in town.
So, yeah. Hats off to P-F for educating those with the inclination. Merry Christmas, gang.
Last edited by Totem Polar; 12-25-2023 at 07:12 PM.
”But in the end all of these ideas just manufacture new criminals when the problem isn't a lack of criminals.” -JRB
Where do I even begin? I’ll get to this later this week. I’m having a nice Christmas Day with Mrs. CF in front of the fire. Cheers friends!
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
All of you!
But seriously, even after deleting social media a few yeara ago, I kept PF. I'm on here almost every day and don't see that changing. I came here in 2019 as a gear and drill obsessed tactical Timmy who found PF through my childhood love of Berettas being rekindled by the Elite LTT on the 'gram, YouTube, and P&S. Watching 92 stuff of YouTube brought me to Langdon, which brought me to the FAST Test (the first actual timed and scored shooting I did and my entry towards actually quantifying shooting performance) which brought me here. Since then, I now have 2 kids, a lot more maturity and sense, and lost the excessive gear obsession and no longer even own a Pistol Light or pistol optic, but i sure can shoot a lot better and I actually shoot competitively now.
PF is where I escaped from the vast quagmire that is believing that buying that next gun will successively improve your shooting performance, rather than quantified and guided practice, especially quality dry practice. Ironically, PF is still my main outlet for gun related gear obsession, but it's with the self awareness that that is just a fun hobby and escape not directly linked with actual skill and performance. As a younger shooter who used to be heavily into the social media gun world, that paradigm shift is huge.
Pistol Forum and what is represents in my life is really one of the bigger components of my life behind my religion and theology and my family. I dont have the time or money to be a big training junkie (the heart is willing but the wallet is weak) but I'm a huge believer in guided self teaching and PF exemplifies that ( @JCN) along with sources on YouTube. I'm also a no one but simply enjoy sharing the shooting journey(with a side of enjoying gear) with everyone here, such as the people posting in this thread.
Last edited by Noah; 12-25-2023 at 08:59 PM.
Memes…. nobody said anything about the huge learning experience from reading memes.
Without PF....
It's a lot, you folks are my uncles and brothers for when I have a question about anything, solving gun problems, to digital caliper choices, to moving, to whatever.
Hopefully, we get a chance for some more meat space interactions.
Be well.
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