Sorry for the double post but it kept saying it couldnt add in this
Oh Social Blade how I love thee
As Bill and Ted once said "Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K."
Using the info from Wayback I looked at the channel info and plugged it into Social Blade, that would have given information upto the day he deleted his account, he was gaining subs at a rate of 100 every few day... not 10X but a flat 100 every 4 or 5 days, the only way you gain a flat number is if you buy them.
https://socialblade.com/youtube/user/lairdofforsyth/monthly
here is his "current" channel
https://socialblade.com/youtube/channel/UCYTgDQWuWvmDdVSP8cl2NoA
Something to think about.