Dan Borchers
Arty Bartlett
Before the hot weather really hits and our snowbirds fly back to all places not here, it was time for some good food and fellowship. Lots of laughter and a great slideshow brought back memories to reminisce about all the events held over the fall and spring shooting seasons with our PebbleCreek Gun Club. Another year is in the books.
As the last bites of dessert were disappearing we started handing out Award Certificates to all the winners of the many competitions we have each year. This year our Master of Competitions was the Legendary Dan Borchers! Just about everyone knows our Dan. And Dan is moving.
Dan joined the club a couple of months after it was formed about 15 years ago. He jumped in with both feet and a big heart, which is saying quite a lot because he’s a mountain of a man and those feet aren’t small.
Dan taught Gun Safety and Concealed Carry classes over the years and organized shooting competitions. This, he says, is a lot like herding cats. He always had a calm demeanor and mostly imparted words of wisdom while using a very dry sense of humor. Yes, this was the kind of person you learned to respect and made being friends easy.
Dan started teaching Women-Only classes when he heard of the high interest. He wasn’t intimidated or disrespectful of those differences. He just knew females were usually very smart about shooting and safety. Dan was smart.
The consensus from friends is because of his wife Karen. He learned that good things come in small packages and for as big as Dan is, Karen is a tiny thing and, you guessed it, she’s very smart. We think he learned a lot from her.
He also learned that women are good with pistols. Now Dan would never want anyone not to be able to compete for lack of having a gun. He would offer the use of one of his.
One of his newer (female) students decided she would like to compete in an upcoming shoot so Dan let her use his pistol. It was a beautiful day while the shooters waited for the results. Dan had organized the competition and herding the cats was going well.
I don’t remember who won first place but I do remember that student beat Dan by maybe one or two points using his own gun! It happened again the next year when that same female used one of his rifles.
When it comes to stories they do seem to change a little over time but seem to get better with age and the retelling of them. What I do know is that I am that student of years past and while writing this on behalf of our entire club, I know that I am going to miss Dan when he moves with his beautiful, and tiny, wife to be closer to grandkids. Dan, you will be missed!