I can say without a doubt that I am positively the least experienced person who contributes to this thread.
Why do I read the shooting threads?
I hope the knowledge gained from them will never be needed on American soil, but you never know. Men such as yourself, archy, Sam Cree, Travis McGee, Squantos, Eaker, PoorMuttly, Long Cut, Shooter 2.5, 45Auto, river rat, the list goes on and on, are literally encyclopedias of information that I am proud to say help educate the ignorant, such as myself.
LOL - I'm just an ordinary American who enjoys shooting. I'd like to think that I would be a good patriot if the times demanded it. But I've paid respects at the graves of a few giants, though. And I've been lucky enough to talk to a few more. That's all. On a thread like this, ideas are just as powerful as skills. The ideas are crackling with freedom. Like you, I'm just happy to read and learn. I still haven't made it through the whole thread, it's too long now!
But should it come to that, know two things: our experience is not directly pointed toward that particular theater of operations, and your lack of experience and a predisposition toward doing things in a matter that worked well elsewhere under other conditions may actually be advantageous; there is such a thing as being *poisoned by experience.*
In any event, having someone less experienced who requires explanations of *why* to many basic operational techniques and procedures means that those matters will be under constant review, usually a good thing, and an antidote to *because we've always done it this way....*
The other thing you can count on: if it does come to that, you're welcome to stand beside me when that dark day comes, experienced or not. Your qualifications to do so have little to do with your experience, which is pretty well mostly icing on the cake. I'd expect you'll find quite a few others with the same or similar outlook, as well.
-archy-/-