Remembering Dan Theodore

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Kenny Wasserburger
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Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by Kenny Wasserburger »

Our friend, the innovative, the forever curious, constantly experimenting colleague, Dan Theodore passed away on this date in 2015.

He was my friend. And he was a mentor to many of us.

Share your memories.

Kenny Wasserburger
We'll raise up our Glasses against Evil Forces, Singing, Whiskey for my men, Beer for my horses.

Wyoming Territory Sharps Shooter
DeadEye
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Location: The Flatlands of Canada

Re: Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by DeadEye »

I had the privilege of meeting Dan a few times, Phoenix and Georgia come to mind. He was all the things you say Kenny and more. Generous. Dan was generous, if you didn't come away from a conversation with Dan a smarter man you just weren't listening. Being Canadian Dan always like to share the experiences of his early days in Canada with me. I also remember Dan used to like to practice his gunsmithing skills on his friends guns, particularly at matches but Ted and Doc can tell you about those.

We were diminished five years ago today and the void has not been filled.

Paul
"My heroes have always been cowboys and they still are it seems."
DeadEye
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Re: Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by DeadEye »

About the time I started down this road Dan was singing the praises of the 38-72. The question is how many of you built one and did you ever get it to shoot? I know of a couple that were re-barreled, one is now a 44-70 and shooting the occasional Master score. Dan was passionate about what he believed, enough so that he could get many others to follow.

Paul
"My heroes have always been cowboys and they still are it seems."
John Boy
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Re: Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by John Boy »

DeadEye, when Dan first started posting about the 38-72, I started looking for that caliber. Found a mint bore barrel that is now on a Stevens 44 1/2 and very accurate to 200 yards reloaded with an original Ideal mold for that caliber
Like many of us, his posts on Shiloh Rifle forum will be truly missed
Also, his posts about using 1:16 alloy bullets
Regards
John
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Don McDowell
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Re: Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by Don McDowell »

Dan was a ton of fun to sit and visit with, and quite the ballistics explorer. He contributed greatly to our sport.
AKA Donny Ray Rockslinger :?
mdeland
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Re: Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by mdeland »

I never met Dan in person but talked with him on the phone a time or two and corresponded on here with him regularly. I bought one of his .22 reamers he designed and liked very much and still have it that so many (I think he said nearly ten) had there barrels chambered with it.
He told me that he had moved on to a new design that suite certain ammo brands a bit better but that this one was the best he had ever seen for accuracy with a number of top ammo types. It proved to be very accurate in my Badger barrel.
He also helped me design a bullet for my 38-70 which he was working with originally before the 38-72.
I never met either but miss both him and Rhodes immensely. Both excellent and knowledgeable gun nuts but more importantly superb human beings!
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Tasmanian Rebel
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Re: Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by Tasmanian Rebel »

The first time I met Dan was during the Raton National Championship Matches in 2005. David Barfield (deerhuntsheatmeup on this board) was going to be my spotter for the silhouette and Mid Range matches but had no experience with Creedmoor and knew Dan was well experienced shooting out to 1000 yds. He contacted Dan and Dan agreed to take me on. Keep in mind I had never shot a march of any kind prior to this. My first Creedmoor match was going to be the National Championship and I didn't know S#@t from shinola shooting from the 1000yd line. I didn't care what my score woud be I just wanted to get in the arena and go to it. I had a Shiloh 45-110 and had it loaded down to 45-90 velocities and had shot it only from 100 yds in my backyard prior to leaving for Raton. Then and now I've always thought Dan was unbelievably generous by helping a first time shooter he had never met and I obviously would have zero experience spotting for him in Creedmoor. I wound up shooting twenty somethingth place but learned a TON and was on cloud 9 heading back to Mississippi due to learning so much at that match.
The last time I talked to Dan was April 22,2015 when he called me and was shipping 500 45-60 cases on a rifle he called the ultimate gong gun. The next morning around 9 o'clock Jim Kidwell called me to tell me Dan had died in a housefire. They think he died 2-3 am on the 23rd. I realized I had talked to him only 9-10 hrs before. It was surreal. I would later catch a plane several weeks later to attend and speak at his funeral along with some other shooters. After the funeral Marsha and I accompanied his sister Barbara and his niece to Santa Cruz and put his ashes in the Pacific Ocean at a place he had surfed years before. Not unsurprisingly CA has a law against dumping ashes(only in California :roll: ) but we found a secluded area and let it rip. I think Dan would have got a kick knowing we had broke the law where we introduced him to the Pacific!
Not signing my name because the statute of limitations has not run out :D
gunlaker
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Re: Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by gunlaker »

Dan sure was a generous guy when it came to helping out new shooters. I've never met him in person, but we talked a few times on the phone. One day he just sent me a message asking for my phone number and gave me a call. In general I've found people in the BPTR world to be incredibly welcoming to new shooters. I had a lot of seriously talented people kindly take time to give me tips and offer their advice as though they'd known me all of my life. Dan was definitely one of those people. Last time I talked with him we ended up talking about different types of coffee and how it's prepared as much as we did about shooting :-).

Chris.
Woody
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Re: Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by Woody »

Dan was passionate and opinionated about so many things. We didn't always agree, but I always respected his opinion, and listened. We always visited when we were at the same venue, and corresponded via email on numerous occasions. He was a giving but highly competitive individual. Yes, I miss him. Rest in peace Dan.

Once, prior and during Raton, Dan had been after me to up my velocity in my 45-70. The outcome, was that I agreed with him, but didn't have time to work up a hotter load. On day one of the Nationals, I won. After the match, I met Dan in the City Market parking lot. He congratulated me on the results and in parting stated that he told me that my results would be better with velocity. I looked at Dan and said that I had not yet worked up a load and that I had shot my Silhouette load. Probably the slowest of the shooters that day. Dan was speechless. Later, Michael Rix, told me that he had never seen Dan "speechless". LOL!

When I heard Dan had passed, I was speechless.

Woody
Richard A. Wood
If you are surrounded. You are in a target rich environment.
semtav
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Re: Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by semtav »

Dan was responsible for my paperpatch addiction.
Wound up buying reamer, brass, paper and mould from him. Took the mould out of the box and cast a bunch of bullets for my Browning, pulled the grease groove bullets out of the cases, inserted the pp bullets and it shot better than i had been shooting. Rest of the stuff is still in the box.


The thing that has impressed me recently is that he didnt take the same old gun time after time to a national match just to win, he was always taking something to further his learning curve and ours.
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Distant Thunder
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Re: Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by Distant Thunder »

I'm don't think I knew Dan as well as some did, but I had several conversations with him over the years and I read just about every thing he posted.

I don't think Dan's love of this sport was based in an effort to win, though he did enjoy shooting well, but rather an effort to better understand the process through an insatiable appetite for testing his theories by actually shooting. He definitely moved from one idea to the next faster than I could follow, though I did try.

I don't think everyone was in total agreement with some of the things he believed, I do believe he contributed to the sport more than most and for that I thank him and miss him.
Jim Kluskens
aka Distant Thunder
DeadEye
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Re: Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by DeadEye »

Following on that Jim, I remember one post of his that quite shocked me. He was theorizing and had come up with another 'bullet of the month' or such and stated that he wasn't a good enough shot to test his ideas and that he had someone he took them too to do the actual shooting. He never did name him.

Paul
"My heroes have always been cowboys and they still are it seems."
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Tasmanian Rebel
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Re: Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by Tasmanian Rebel »

Paul and Jim, your posts reminded me of what Dan would do. He would take sometimes obscure cartridges and work hard making them work. Once he succeeded(usually but not always) he would lose interest and go on to another cartridge. Me, if something worked I would try to wear the barrel out. When he died he was working on a book. Man, how I would have liked to own one of those!
powderburnt
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Re: Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by powderburnt »

I started down this BPCR path in 2008. I knew of no one in the state that shot a competitive match. Only a few friends had even fired a black powder cartridge rifle on occasion but had little to offer on how to achieve accuracy beyond 100 yards. I discovered the Shiloh forum and began reading any and all posts related to this sport. Dan was my mentor by way of informative posts that made my first loads as accurate as a newbie could hope for. I had the pleasure of meeting him at my first competition at Bogue Chitto MS in 2009. After the match I introduced myself as the guy that was in the pits pulling his targets that day and thanked him for all the help to get me on the road to accuracy by sharing his knowledge and advice. He thanked me and then pulled a bullet from his pocket and told me that this bullet was the newest and best design he had came up with. It was the "Money Bullet". That was the kind of guy he was, to share the latest, best ideas with anyone interested in the sport and encourage conversation to expand the potential of these fine, old rifles. With out success, beginners lose interests. BPCR can turn into a life long endeavor with good advice and encouragement as it did for me with Dan's help. There are many others here on the forum that have helped me along the way and I thank all of ya'll for the info that has been shared. Let's keep paying it forward by bringing new shooters to the line. Thanks Dan.

HG
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Lumpy Grits
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Re: Remembering Dan Theodore

Post by Lumpy Grits »

Spoke with Dan several times.
He and I loved Paul Jones moulds, and the incredible precision they were made with.
Then one day, a package shows up in my mail box. It was from Dan, he had sent me one of his GG Money Bullet moulds that PJ had made for him.
Called him up to ask when he wanted it back. Said it was mine to keep.
Hard to believe it's been 5 yrs now. :cry:
Gary
"Hav'n you along, is like loose'n two good men"
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