Yesterday I was informed that our esteemed forum member Bruce Moulds passed away on Wednesday night.
A message came in with Bruce as the subject. That seemed odd
His son in law made contact via a p.m. here to advise me unsure of how I actually knew Bruce. He wrote I don't know if you were mates. Phil his son in law provided his phone number so I gave him a quick call.
I messaged several members who had befriended Bruce and had regular contact with him advising of his passing and that I would post publicly this morning. Responses with Tributes, Thoughts and Prayers for his family came back quickly from those I contacted.
I was fortunate to have met Bruce in person. His town is about 400 miles from mine. I have kids in the city so I arranged to meet Bruce at a popular tourist town about 20 miles from the area he called home.
We originally connected through this forum and had discussions about Von Gruff knives. There was a lot of friendly banter as Aussies do. Bruce was very excited about the knife he had ordered with the Micarta scales.
This image of Bruce's knife was posted in another thread courtesy of Gary. I think Bruce may have been the first to request the steel and associated pouch.
View attachment 406464
Now, the reason that Bruce and I met up was to have show and tell with our knives over a coffee. The knife pictured was clearly well used when I handled it. Bruce was very proud of his knife and very keen on the design Gary had created for me.
While in discussions of what to order and debating design and the uncertainty Covid bought Bruce made the tongue in cheek comment "What if Gary gets hit by a bus and you haven't ordered one?" That got me thinking. We traded many messages about our orders etc , it's nearly here, I said Bruce was lurking by the mailbox waiting once his was in transit.
I learned a bit about Bruce and his life in our short meeting. His passion for shooting his choices of less common cartridges. He was still working for himself doing landscaping in the area.
We often joked about the 6.5Creedmore rifle trend likening it to the Man Bun and Latte trend.
Bruce used the name bruce moulds here and on other forums. If you google Bruce Moulds Shooting Forum you will see he could be found on quite a few and gets mention in F Class and Benchrest.
Bruce clearly had a lot of experience and was often quick to point out what he thought. Another member wisely worded this as 'Forthright way of communicating that may have been Blunt but not in an offensive way"
Another said to add that Bruce had an extreme hate for the Nosler Partition projectile and his posts regarding this were quite numerous.
All offered their condolences to Bruce family.
Bruce was 69.
The word Vale (Farewell) is used in Australian shooter magazine on the occasion where a shooters obituary is published.
Farewell Bruce, thanks for the yarns we had. I won't get to buy you that coffee I owe you but I will remember you when I get the chance to pay it forward.
RIP mate.
@bruce moulds
Chris,
CBH Australia
