All About Reloaders: Celebrating 35 Years at MEC

If you are one of the many Shotshell Reloader customers, chances are you may have gotten the opportunity to talk to Ron. Out of the last 35 years, Ron has spent thirty-three of those years working as a MEC Reloader Customer Service Technician. He is our most senior technician and carries a wealth of knowledge with him. His casual and soft-spoken presence makes him an easy person to communicate with to troubleshoot a problem or just ask a general reloading question.

After graduating Mayville High School, Ron worked at a grocery store in nearby Horicon, WI advancing to an assistant store manager position. During this time, he attended marketing classes at a nearby college. After two years, he knew it was not the future for him and decided to look for other opportunities. It just so happened that MEC was hiring. Ron’s mother had been working at MEC for a while and encouraged him to apply. Soon, he was offered a job on their newly implemented assembly line, building John Deere lawnmower decks. Not long after he started, he was promoted to a Lead Assembler. Two years later, a job opened in the Shotshell Reloader Customer service department to replace an employee who was going to retire. Ron applied for the position and shortly after was offered the job. He recalled this time in his life with a smile on his face, “I felt very honored to get this job and be a part of the reloader group.”  He went on to mention that between 15 to 20 people had applied for this position and he was the one chosen for the job, making it even more memorable. 

 Ron trained for two years, learning all he could about the MEC reloaders before his successor retired. Back then, it was Ron, by himself answering phones, reading letters, typing responses back on a typewriter and servicing MEC Shotshell Reloaders. At that time, he would take 5 to 6 phone calls and receive about 10 letters each day. But as the reloaders got more complicated with the introduction of the 9000G, so did the phone calls, questions and reloader servicing. It eventually became too much for one person to manage and another person was added.  

Today, MEC Outdoors employs 3 full-time Reloader customer service technicians, responding to approximately 150 phone calls a day and countless emails, (no more letters or typewriters) in addition to servicing reloaders shipped in from all over the country.  

When Ron started working at MEC, he knew nothing about reloading or even considered it a hobby of his. But through his willingness to learn, he has now become the most knowledgeable MEC Shotshell Reloader Technician and an avid Trap Shooter. As he gained knowledge about reloading, he started to buy reloaders and learn to shoot trap at a local club. He currently owns reloaders in different gauges ranging from 600jr’s to a Mark V, Steelmaster, Sizemaster and even a MEC Marksman for metallic reloads. He even spent 15 years on a summer trap league using his reloads until his twin son and daughter were born. They will be turning 14 years old soon and he has hopes that his son will join a trap league with him. Although he is not currently on a trap league, he does get out to shoot at the local gun club every Sunday to trap shoot just for fun. 

For anyone who has worked in a customer service job, you know there can be stressful times and it is best to have a hobby outlet. For Ron, his two great passions, aside from being a husband and a father, are music and fishing. So, when the weather turns warmer in Wisconsin, you can usually find Ron fishing on Lake Winnebago whenever possible! And, when he cannot fish, he is strumming on his Les Paul guitar that he taught himself to play. So talented, that he even played in several local bands for many years. 

As we honor Ron for his impactful career on MEC Shotshell reloaders for the past 33 years and his dedication to MEC for the past 35 years, we would also like to give thanks. Thank you, Ron for continuing to serve our MEC customers through thousands of phone calls and emails and always responding with kindness. When asked what the most rewarding part about his job is, Ron simply replied with a smile, “It’s rewarding for me to talk to someone and take my knowledge to be able to help them.”

 As Ron looks to the future, he plans to work at MEC until he retires while continuing to help raise his kids with his wife of 17 years. When that time arrives, he hopes to spend more time making music and catching fish! 

Congratulations, Ron!