Pro Tip: If you borrow a Chronograph from someone, and you accidentally put a round through it and blow it to pieces… Do not return the pieces. Go buy a new Chronograph and give them the new one, with the promise you will never ask to borrow it again.
Someone have a lapse in common sense and common courtesy? Accidents do happen, you just have to own up to them and make it right without having to be told. At least that way borrowing privlidges are more likely to be restored.
I’d return the pieces WITH a new chrono and a funny story on how it happened. I wouldn’t promise not to borrow it again because I just wouldn’t ask again, being too embarrassed to do so. 😉
If someone borrows a tool of mine and breaks it, but owns up and replaces a used tool with a brand new one, I have no problem with him asking to borrow it again. Everyone makes mistakes; it’s how we act afterward that matters.
It’s only the folks who break or lose tools, and don’t replace them, who need to promise never to ask again.
Just last year, I was trying someone’s Garand. I tried to sling up and the old, dry rotted leather sling broke as I raised the rifle. He tried to tell me that it was ok and not to worry about it since the sling was so old. I went straight to my car and pulled my M1907 sling off my match rifle. When he wasn’t looking, I put the new sling on his Garand. I hated to part with it but it absolutely felt like the right thing to do.
That was the right thing to do, even if you didn’t have to. This Higher Honor approach is what all serious Gunners should strive for. And the one thing I’ve learned… it always comes back.