Gabe Cabrera & Frank Woods - Cobalt Kinetics / Tasker Network

In this episode, hosts Ike, Chris, and Ian talk with guests Gabe Cabrera from Cobalt Kinetics and Frank Woods from the Tasker Network. They discuss their backgrounds in the firearms industry, new products from Cobalt Kinetics including a suppressor collaboration with CGS Group, ambidextrous AR-15 controls becoming more common, and other highlights from SHOT Show 2024 such as Eagle Industries' updated Rhodesian Recon Vest and Taurus' new affordable bolt-action rifle. 

Episode Timeline:

00:00:00 : Intro banter 
00:04:00 : Paul discusses starting Tasker Network after buying LightFighter.net forum 
00:16:00 : Gabe talks about his background with Taurus and other companies before joining Cobalt
00:27:00 : Discussion of Cobalt's new titanium suppressor collaboration with CGS Group
00:42:00 : Paul notes more companies offering fully ambidextrous AR-15 lower receivers 
00:53:00 : Paul is excited about Sons of Liberty Gun Works switching to "stoner cut" AR-10 receiver design
00:56:00 : Ike mentions Modlite's new compact weapon light head
01:00:00 : Gabe is impressed by innovations from his former employer Taurus, including a new customizable bolt-action rifle

The group covers a range of topics related to new products and trends seen at SHOT Show 2024, drawing from the hosts' and guests' deep experience in the firearms industry. Key themes include the rapid advancement of suppressor and weapon light technology, movement towards ambidextrous AR controls, and pushing for pro-2A political activism.

Find out more about Big Tex Ordnance at bigtexordnance.com

Transcript

0:00

The left hand side of the shelf. I don't know. It's like the water next to your knees. I'm like, do I have water? Frank, you've been on the podcast before. I have. Um, so same thing goes, if you need to reject something, take a pause. If you're saying something and you want to say it over, just pause and I'll cut it and roll into it. It, this podcast, so you can cuss on the podcast if you wish to do so. And that's pretty much it. What I would like to touch on, I was, I was one link up with you before the podcast, um, some of the stuff that, I mean, we'll talk to you about what you got going on with cobalt, of course, your new, new stuff coming out. Um, and then anything that you've particularly seen on the floor that you're excited that you're like, okay, that's cool. Cause I assume you have walked around the floor a little bit. Um, and, and we'll talk about, you know, some of that stuff and this will, we'll release this one sooner rather than later. So it's more of a hot item podcast. Cool. I think your cords around. It's the first time I've ever been referred to as hot. Thank you. Yeah. Can you tell my wife that? I will. Okay, cool. I'll let her know. Someone loves me. Yeah. And this was, so the funny thing about this, being shot and my first shot, this is my first opportunity to meet some people. Yeah. Right? And so like I walk out. Finally putting some faces to the names. I, I, I introduce, I say hi to Frank because I've, I've met Frank. In person last, you know what, yesterday at some point? Yeah. Well, Monday night. At night. Monday night, yeah. At the night. Fuck you . And then Gabe stands up and he introduces me.'cause I wasn't tracking. You were coming. You're like, I'm Gabe, and you smile. Great big at me. I'm like, okay, who's this weirdo fucking Why? Why is he smiling at me? Sir, you can leave the food there. Tips on the table. You can leave. It's literally somebody I've talked to for years at this point. Now on the phone, you know? That's what's cool about shot. Is this really your first shot show? Yeah, this is really my first shot show The first thing I'm thinking of is Billy Madison when he tells a kid stay young There's my 16th, oh god, it's a lot of run how many have you gone to this is number seven My one of my first ones was the last one in Orlando Yeah, that was before when a young Chris Costa had just unveiled the Masada. Oh, wow. Wham. Yeah. Chris, could you turn, um, my self up in my head a little bit or you could turn mine up a little bit. I'm kind of, it's, it's, it's actually, there we go. That's perfect. Yeah. There's, there's a fine blend of. Too much volume here and then you can hear The whole podcast and so if you're listening to some car you're like who the fuck's behind me. Yeah, who's the breather? Yeah, and then anyway, it's it's a hard just hard thing. But we've got that 16 Redshot shows. Mm hmm. That's a lot A lot of scars. Yeah, usually. So since I've worked with, since I worked for Ike, there's been opportunities for me in the past to come when, when I was writing for recoil, uh, and that didn't work out. And then working for Ike, it was always one of those things like, Hey, it's really inconvenient for me to travel. I'll just stay back and make sure everything runs right. And this year he's like, can you please come? Yes, I can. And so. Landed absolutely amazing time so far because like getting to meet people that I've known for decades on social media. Like Dwayne this morning. Oh yeah, LipTack? Yeah. Oh. Yeah, just walking up, hey buddy. He's like, oh, hey. And just moving through that circle and seeing people that you've known and like looking up and like, you know. Do the name badge check real quick, you know? Yeah, is that, like, Rob Hart? So there are, uh, hard mode when it comes to that, because you don't have the name tags available. You're like, I don't know who you are. I met Ryan Hay in person the first time at the Circle Bar, and the way that happened was he slapped me in the back hard enough for it to sound like my chest was a drum. So after I, like, caught my breath and turned around, he's, like, standing there like, And I'm like, I don't look at people's pictures on Facebook, so I don't know who this person is. So I was like, all right, wait, I'm at a bar. Hey man, I'm, I'm like five deep. Like I'm, I'm inebriated. Just give me a name real quick. And he's like, Ryan. Hey. And I was like, Oh shit, bro. I talk to you all the time. What's up? But, uh, yeah, I, you find yourself reflexively looking for the name tag at circle bar and then being like, shit, how do I play this off? I can't. The one that I love is, uh. The folks that you see every show and they're waiting for you to initiate contact and they're just like looking you walking Yeah, like hey. Hey, I'm like, I know your husband. I know your your wife like what what's wrong? What's you know, like, oh the awkwardness is the one that I find funny or When you've known someone on social or whatever for a while and they don't know who's gonna initiate You know, I love that moment It's, it's always the funniest, you know, I find comedy in all different types of things. Uh, but it's, it's the funniest thing out there. Yeah, I texted, uh, MilSpecMojo earlier. Oh, yeah. And I was like, Old Don. And I looked, I was like, is that? I thought he was shorter. I don't know if he's a shot. Oh, he is a shot. Like, I texted him, I'm like, are you a shot? He's like, yeah. I'm pretty sure that still was not Mills. Because that dude was a little bit taller than you. Imposter! I saw him walking around, but he isn't. I saw him at the Magpul booth. Yeah. Yes, yesterday. We're going, we're going. I like you, so I'm going, I'm going to run. Edit that part out. So it looks like this will not be the hot and ready, uh, so many like redacted. Yeah, we've done that. It's gonna be 59 minutes of beeps and it's gonna look like the Warren commission report. That's a black line. The and, uh, the Epstein, Epstein list. But so, so we allow Frank to know that we're recording. Okay. So now this is more for Frank's or Paul's benefit than y'all's, but, uh, welcome to the Big Tech Sordids podcast. We are recording now, Paul. So choose your words carefully. I have foot and mouth. Things all the time. Okay. That's just your only fans. No, but this is, uh, this is the big tech soreness podcast. We're here at SHOT Show 2024. I'm Ike. We have Chris, Ian, and then our guests today are Paul or Frank, depending on what he wants to go by today from the Tasker network. That's true. And then we have Gabe here from. Cobalt. Cobalt Kinetics. We're a perfume line. We bought such properties as Elizabeth Taylor's Diamonds, which is always a crowd favorite. Don't y'all make like a car or two? Or is that Chevy? No, that's a Yugo. But we use the same parts. And toolboxes, right? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. I actually That's their German Here's a rifle rack hack. Buy the Cobalt. Like the little tool thing? Yeah. You ever seen that? For like 20 bucks, and then you can buy the little inserts for the shovels, or you can hang them by the buttstocks. I did that in my garage. All in, thirty five bucks. Oh yeah. So you just have a bunch of rifles hanging in your garage? He's got a bunch of rifles. First of all, lower your voice. No, I just wish it was a problem I had. Right, Fed? And that my wife would let me do that. Did you guys hear that he's got rifles on his wall? Cobra, cobra, cobra. And there's, you know, there's some twelve fives, there's eleven fives, no tax stamps. Well, I gotta take my death now. No problem. Earlier than do you have a dog? 90 more apparently He'll let the feds in though, he's kind of an idiot that would be my dog friend My dog the one would fucking try to bite your ankles and the other would be like guys Let me show you where all dads guys seven year old will bite your ankles. My dumb boxer will open up the door to make new friends How long you been with Cobalt man Oh man, too long. Uh, no. Um, I'd say my official hire date was October 21. And what'd you do before? You've been in the industry, so I assume at least 16 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so, uh, Was in service for a while, got out, uh, contracted for a bit because the economy took a, kind of a shit. Um, So 2008? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, but you know, I, I still kind of started making connections back then and then I did LE stuff for a little bit. Uh, hiring freeze, so it just kept on following me. So, we moved back down to Miami where I'm from originally. And, uh, what was my hobby became my, my main thing, at least to kind of hustle until things opened up and it led, uh, me to the doors of Taurus. Uh, I was, I want to say I was the first gunsmith they actually hired off the street cause they used to kind of like, you know, you had to be in production and stuff like that. Um, and then from there it was internal promotions, uh, within six months of being there. I, I, uh, applied for a trainer, technical rider position, which is more of a corporate trainer position than I was training all the gunsmiths and customer service folks and, um, overseeing the secondary inspection that we were doing at the time to make sure that quality was what Brazil said it was. Um, and then I became the first product manager for the company. That's when a wonderful, wonderful CEO, uh, by the name of Mark Kresser, was a CEO there. He was, I want to say he was the one had he been given the opportunity to really turn the tide for tours. Brett is doing an amazing job right now, but I'd like to think that Mark played a big role because he used to hold the Brazilians accountable. They were kind of using us as a distributor at the time. They would send whatever products and then we can't send it back. After that, uh, I started my own, uh, marketing company and, uh, there's a lubricant brand, uh, by the name of breakthrough clean, uh, Eric Navarro, the owner of the company had started that for about six months. I hadn't met him when I was a tourist and then I'm like, Hey, can we do something? And then we blew up the brand. He just sold it to Allen company for millions. Oh, wow. Yeah. So point of pride. Yeah. And we worked on the best pro program together and I kind of. You know untethered learned the ropes ins and outs of the industry and then there's a company by the name of Rosco manufacturing that I started back in 2017 when I met the owner Mike D'Angelo jr. And Did some pretty cool stuff there and that's how I met Aaron when he bought Cobalt and now I'm here so I've kind of become It's a niche thing But I've kind of become the rebrand guy or the fixer because I've also done consulting on the back end for different companies I've been blessed that people Someone take me seriously. And here we are. Nice. Yeah. And you know, I, and I really appreciate the, uh, the intro over to the dudes at Roscoe. Um, I need to, I probably ain't, I'm probably not going to get down to the floor, uh, and meet up with Rich. They're dead to me now. I'm at Cobalt. Doesn't seem like that. There's a lot of barrels going away from me. You pours. Nah. Yeah. I was actually just with, uh, Mike actually, he wanted a shout out. So it's that camera. Yeah, his nickname is the red velvet. More to come. Um, but yeah, they're, they're awesome people and they're still extended family. I'm fortunate enough to never have really screwed anybody over. Um, which is a big discipline thing for me. So I can walk in, Any company I've ever worked for and just hang out. That Red Bull I was drinking during lunch. I raid the fridge at Taurus all the time. You know, they got money. Uh, but yeah. That's cool. Paul, what about you? What are you doing with Tasker? How'd you start that? So, back in What are we? 2024. So almost three years ago. It's February 2021. I purchased LightFighter. net, which is kind of like the the source for a lot of people we follow and look up to and respect back before social media came into being as it is now and Forums were still the thing. LightFighter was probably the highest regarded Pat Rogers held court there. A lot of Chuck was, was a big thing there. Um, so when the 2020 election went down and in January, 2021, social media went like on a hyperactive, Silencing of the two way crowds like groups were getting deleted out of nowhere people like I couldn't that sounds familiar Right 2024. Yeah. Yeah, so I couldn't use I could not post comment click like on anything for like a week Someone thought tactics and applications got deleted which is like the Facebook side of task or you're from you guys are all in it You're familiar with it. So I remember Landfair was like, Hey, do you want me to make like a tactics and application section on the primary and secondary form? And I was like, that's extremely generous to you. But by that point I was already in negotiations to buy light fighters. So I kind of had to stay mum about it. And the reason we did that was so like, if social media became so hostile to our industry, we had a fallback point beyond the auspices of basically meta, because if we're, if you're seeing it on Facebook and Instagram, the most now that. Elon bought Twitter and turned them into X. It's a little bit more free, but it's a whole different format or whatever. So between light fighter and tactics and applications, both being like a vetted. Like, you can't just come in, like, we check you at the door to make sure you're not a shithead, basically. But, there is a lot of high quality discussion that goes on in both of those places, and I didn't want to necessarily deprive everybody else that didn't know we existed of that quality information, so Tasker is basically like a broadcast point to harvest from that discussion What becomes the content that I write in my articles and stuff like that, or the stuff you see me posting on Instagram, and on the back end, I've like accidentally, in small bits and pieces here and there, found myself doing like consulting and stuff like that, too. Which I don't really like put out there, but it's a fun part of like being involved in the industry when people hit you up, and they're like, hey, uh, like, you know, Gabriel did this with, uh, when, when Cobalt was getting ready to go into their 308 sized rifle stuff, he's like, Hey man, I wanted to talk to you. Cause I know, you know, your way around like large frame architecture ARs, because back in like May, 2020, I wanted to do a 308 version of the blood diamond gun, because I realized. There's no like XM 177 in 308, so I want to do it. And there was a whole learning experience between the different, like, receiver patterns and thread pitches and so on and so forth. So I wrote a piece about that that really went into the weeds because a pet peeve of mine is when people categorically refer to any large frame AR as AR 10. Like AR 15 has a standard spec across the industry. Mm-Hmm.. So there's your AR fifteens of various manufacturer, but really the only AR 10 is what ArmaLite puts out because there's differences to their receiver specs and stuff from a Knight's SR 25 or A-D-P-M-S, whatever, or an LWRC Reaper. There's really no standard spec. So figuring out how to navigate, like I I, I will say AR 3 0 8. Instead, because that's a little bit more broad. Um, so coming off of that, he's like, Hey, uh, we'd like your input where we're developing this, you know, we're, we're starting to look into three Oh eight stuff. And it was kind of a cool, like I was like, beside myself, I was very humbled. That was very cool. You, by the way, but I was like, you want my input on something you're going to sell and pay your employees with the money you make off of it. All right. Yeah, that's cool. I'll be happy to help. So we talked for a while and, uh, he took notes and I mean, How far along are you with that now like whatever happened with that because I know there was like a pause Can we even talk about so surprise? All right, let's let's start this again what take three so no no no would roll it back No, we can for sure talk about a cobalt used to have one So we just, so I will say this and I'm going to throw it right back to you. We took a lot of the old products off the skews and everything else. Cause I'll be the first one to say it. And a lot of people were very kind when he mentioned, uh, the previous call. Yeah, it was, I'm like, it was a gas station, boner pill, a rifle. Okay. Hey, there's nothing wrong with those. Look, do they work? Whatever happens at the flying J is between you and the flying J. Okay. But uh, it was the Von Dutch trucker hat of ARs. Um, so they had to go. They had to go. So, um, part of the conversation was that we have taken notes. The design is there. We're calling it the XL platform. To your credit. Uh, I'm 100 percent on board with his terminology, the way he sees it. Even the article about GPR and everything else. That's actually how we see things. Um, so, um, But that one has to fill a purpose for a contract somewhere else first. And then, you know, we can, we can rely production here in the States, but yeah, there is some cool stuff coming on that end. And we've always, you know, the, the cobalt, the rebranded cobalt, the, the Cobalt Nouveau. Well, there was Cobalt Kinetics, and technically now we just go by the short version, Cobalt. Even though on paper it's Cobalt Kinetics. Okay, so the, the, the, Aaron. Era. Era, right? Uh, first off. Dude is funny as shit. Him and I are just, can you have a conversation? Oh, absolutely. I'm ready to tell stories, but that the, the changing of the guard, the hand over there and the little tweaks in that platform and building that gun that we've done, uh, that was at the range and that's been getting ran ragged all the time, uh, was it? It's a really cool experience to look at the different things in the platform, right? The different ways Cobalt has approached different problems with their solutions to it. And it's been really cool to work with and see where y'all are going with that stuff. And, uh, interesting to see what the 308 platform looks like, but I want to talk about the can. Can you talk about your, uh, uh, Your flow, it's flow through, right? Or wait, it's vent to atmosphere vent to atmosphere because we don't like lawsuits, right? They suck. Um, yeah. Uh, so, and, and just like, uh, what he was saying, we're about as transparent as you can find, and we're the first ones to broker a very open conversation with folks. Um, it, we're, we're in a community and we say we are, So we got to act like we are right instead of doing stuff behind closed doors and creating borders. Um, that's how, that's how the terrorists win. Um, but, uh, the idea was, uh, Bobby from CGS group. Uh, I think at this point there's no mystery, really good friends of ours. He hit it off with Aaron. Aaron's a sweetheart. Yeah. What a mench, right? Uh, he's, he's hard to not like. Um, So Aaron through law enforcement contracts and visiting you guys, he spent a lot of time in Texas and working with Bobby and every chance he could, he'd spend as much as time with Bobby talking about cans and Bobby's like, Hey, let's work on something, you know? So yes, it is a collaboration, uh, you know, kind of like a melding of the minds, but, and I guess that's where the confusions come from. It's not just a rebranded, CGS product. So the idea was create something that not just works within the ecosystem of our, you know, uh, family of products, but also just like every accessory that we've created enhances or works very well with something else that's already existing because the whole thing about it and our whole design languages do not pass a burden on to the consumer. What does that mean? that work perfectly because we try and design a rifle or a firearm that is intended for a certain, um, performance factor, right? So we try and fix a lot of the things that we see that may not be the way to go with other ones. And then those same products, Hey, it can enhance something else. So that's, that's how the can went. And it's, um, um, Maybe you can insert footage here, but, uh, it's a, uh, 3d printed titanium can laser powder bedded fusion is the method used for that 50, 000 plus round life, uh, expectancy, a full auto rated vent to atmosphere. Uh, we have two versions, a direct thread. Uh, for half by 28 threads and a QD version that uses the CGS group SCI six pattern. And obviously we've created one under the RCB reduced concussive brake family. Uh, both of them have a six millimeter bore. Now they are originally designed for five, five, six, and possibly six arc. But. And for those of you that actually track the company, you notice that the folks that we surround ourselves with, everyone brings something to the table, right? Don Edwards, you know, Duffy, uh, Joe Farewell, cow, uh, colon DJ. Nah, just messing with them. I'm probably going to get beat up by Cole later on today, but those guys have helped us out a lot. Every, everyone brings something to the table. Uh, and of course, I'm mentioning GBRS group. Um, everyone's had input. Uh, and one thing that we noticed with the six million, uh, six millimeter bore is if you're a law enforcement officer or you're in a tactical team or something like that, you don't have to take that can off now to put on a, you know, blue can or something like that, which those guys are awesome. They're from South Florida where I'm from, you can keep it on their, uh, UTM and, and a simulation, all that stuff won't get stuck in the baffle. So you start seeing these little intricate details and everything that we do that paint a bigger picture. Um, And that's, that's what we try and do with everything. And so far, the can has been amazing. We're coming out with an Inconel version as well. That has been tested on belt feds. Um, and, uh, the first we can talk about it now, the first, uh, contract where they went with the cans and our rifles and they're, you know, just running them hard is, uh, Miami Dade police departments, a special response team and their canine teams. Completely outfitted nice, uh, and they love them and those guys are I love them. I know them very dearly They will not hold back especially because it's me Somebody else can get away with something not me. Yeah, because they know where I live, too Uh, no, and they're hard on products and they're fortunate to be probably one of two only full time SWAT teams in all of Florida. There's 67 counties in Florida. From what I understand, it's Miami Dade SRT and JSO SWAT that are the two true full time teams out there. Other guys claim to be full time, but they put them in some sort of different unit, you know, then they get call outs. And we know the crazy shit that happens in Florida. Oh yeah. Well, they, they've taken over all the warrants and when those FBI agents got killed, they had to take a whole slew of federal stuff too, and start helping out. And there's a lot of stuff going on in South Florida now that definitely for sure, I can't say on the podcast, but they, um, they, they needed good equipment. They needed really, really good equipment and, uh, they have their own training section too. So they, they put it through the paces. They held us to task and, and then now what I was hoping to have by the, beginning of the shot show was the report from Pew Science because we don't like to live in an echo chamber. We like to be told if our baby's ugly or it doesn't work. Pew Science, uh, is running our can through his paces and everything else. So far from what I understand, it seems to be doing well. So we'll see, right? That that's just the can. And then you've already seen the partnership with Voltor. They've never really had any, uh, really let anyone design or redesign any other products. And Brandon would, was just extremely hospitable and let us work with them on it. Um, and it goes from there. We sell crap time. I know. Those buffers. I love that though. You know what else is coming out? And I got to send you guys samples. This leaf, this leaf. So we did it first. We did it first. Um, so the A5 system obviously, uh, uses a different spring, right? You can't use carbine springs. You could try, you're gonna have issues. So we created a 3D printed sleeve that goes over the A5 buffer, takes up the distance, and now you can do micro adjustments via different springs. The rough adjustment is the buffer weight. I gotcha. Micro adjustment is spring weight. We don't use adjustable gas blocks. I think we can all agree on that. Right. Yeah, I think we're, I think we're all in agree. Yeah. I think it's 2024, right? Yeah. If, uh, if, if you're still doubting that, then, you know, but, um, but cause gas port diameters are a thing. Um, and that's, that's been the story there with the products. Uh, we, we hope to do more stuff with different, different ideas on the suppressor side. Obviously once the XL comes out, there may be something that goes along with that. But, uh, as of right now, the, the only two that will be around are the, uh, the one that's out right now, titanium and the Inconel coming soon. And the, uh, titanium one's only 4. 6 ounces and four and three quarter inches in length. We got to shoot the, uh, the can at California range. Yeah. It sounded, it sounded very, very nice sounding can. I was impressed. And I can't say I'm, I can't believe I'm saying this about Aaron. I was impressed that, uh, he was able to take that high pitch type of crack out of there. You know, him and Bobby, I think did a bang up job on that. Um, cause during some demos, uh, I could talk about this one. Now there was one not too long ago, QS, PDS, SRT, uh, should be getting their guns soon. They have an indoor range over in Marathon with, um, uh, Monroe County. And we were shooting like crazy inside of that indoor range and I was waiting for crack and everything else and I never heard it. So that's, I was, I was impressed. I had to call and be like, okay, all right. You did, you did good kid. That'll do pig. That'll do. It's so cool to see how fast suppressor. Technology and it has adaptation and the design is moving. Now that we're into the 3D printed realm and the fast, you know, we've, we've had, uh, let me back that up. We had next level. Manufacturing. Oh yeah. The corner. Yeah. Oh yeah. In here. I like those. These, uh, for a podcast the other day and he was just talking about, you know, the way they're, you know, approaching stuff and, and designing stuff and, you know, we're getting this and how fast they can turn around stuff. And you know, you're like four iterations into. Stuff just because you're rapid prototyping with plastic or whatever it is. And now you've got all those design features. Now we're getting stuff out so fast and it's really cool to see in the, in the parts community and in the building community, what we can get as fast as we can at the level and the quality again, because you can take a bunch of the, the recently produced, uh, cans and it's hard to, Oh, that one's, that one's the best. That one's the best. Oh, that one has it. That one sounds a little, but like we've came a long way in a very short time. Sorry. I'm not touching myself. It's just my phone. I swear. Um, it's, uh, it's kind of a, Oh, I will. Um, it's kind of a Renaissance period, like you're saying right now. And if you've been around, I guess long enough. Uh, you, you see trends, right? So, not too long ago was the precision shooting renaissance, right? Hey, life exists past a thousand yards. You're not gonna fall off the face of the earth. Now people are doing it with the standard ARs. We're doing that with our 14. 56 ARC. You know, um, and, and Sons is killing with that six mil, uh, max. You know what I mean? Who would have thought five, 10 years ago that ARs? Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, like we've, we've talked about it multiple times on the podcast. Like you, a rat grade AR and you're like, man, this thing shoots, you know, three to four MOA with, you know, one nine three. And you're like, yeah. And then you're like, oh man, I've got it down under two. This thing's dialed seriously. I know. But I cry when I hear that and you're like, all right, and now you're like, I've lived it. Oh, this is a, how, how now we're getting down like, okay, this is, you know, that's allowed us to, to put an MOA guarantee even on our seven five. 556, you know, and people have called us out on it and we've proven it. And it's just not just the way we've designed our products, but also our vendors, you know, holding themselves to a higher standard, uh, and, and providing a better product. It's just, but what's interesting is though, um, you know, I still help out as many friends as I can in the industry. You're talking about how far we've come with 3d printing. There's a lot of folks, I'm not going to say in the cheap seats, but. That not, that aren't as involved with the game. the development side or trying to have a two way conversation with the consumer or going out to training classes or shooting or just being part of the two way, you know, culture movement, whatever you want to call it. Um, I was having a conversation. We're talking about 3d printing. I'm like, hey, maybe you should look into this. He's like, I don't know, uh, the 3d printing, uh, it's, It's not really been around that long and what materials like it's pretty flimsy, right? And I pull out because we just started 3d printing our own grip, uh, which I got to get you guys some Um, uh out of a acrylic type resin. I can get the specifics from from Aaron And i'm like and also we're 3d printing titanium and you know Like where literally where have you been? You know? and even though I love A lot of those folks i'm like man that this this This is how companies disappear. This is how companies disappear, adapt or die. And it just hit me. I'm like, damn it. It reminded me of the switch over on social media in 2014, where a lot of the known companies, active ones in forums back in the day were like, oh, lulls, social media, and then guess what? Eventually, begrudgingly, they had to reintroduce themselves to a newer, younger audience that they could have had an early jump on. Owned a market share with them. And now everybody's like, who's this guy? Who's that guy? And you ask someone who's been around long enough. You're like, bro, this guy's literally a legend in this industry. Yeah. To us. Right. Oh, but then some dude that came over. From the video game side, Modern Warfare, and you know, rightfully so, because that's been the natural progression now, I call it the Twitch, you know, generation. Yeah. Um, they don't know, but there's, their money is as green as everybody else's, and there is such a thing as a dying demographic. Because a lot of the dudes that were very active 10 15 years ago, they're getting their AARP cards right now. And they stopped spending more. You know, they're looking at retirement. They're looking at, you know, paying off their mortgage, adult level crap. Yeah. And the younger guys, if you do the right thing, you have just bought a front row seat for 20, maybe 22 years worth of loyal consumerism and them tuning into what you're doing as long as you're listening to them. Like. It blows my mind. I would love to know how many holsters or how many sales T Rex arms got off of doing the call of duty gun series, bro. He's a smart kid. I get it. Yeah, I get it. Right. He's a smart kid and we see him at soccer all the time. Yeah, every year. He's a smart kid. I've, I've, I've talked to him quite a bit. Like not everybody's going to get it along in this industry. I get, but he's smart. He saw something. You know, and and we were talking about this last night in bed. As weird as that sounds. We have, hold on, and take and I've been Chris jetpack. We'll take five. We are. We are. We are roommates, and we were having a conversation. We have two queen beds, and this morning He requested a single queen bed. He's talking about, like, 1950s roommate. Ian Where your uncle's unmarried, and he has a roommate friend. Right. This morning, uh, I caused, I caused Ian to have a flashback. Uh, I played revelry to wake him up, and then threw a trash can across the room. He started crying. He's like, oh my god! What? Not again! I've been up for all of, like, uh Three minutes and all of a sudden Chris comes outta the bathroom with fucking rubber. You can't say that word either, because you're trying to block it out actively. Where rubber start beating trash, start bleeding from the, is illuminating anyway. So roommates. Yeah. The conversation in bed, uh, packs conversation in bed. Yeah. You guys are sharing a comforter, conversation in bed, so I interrupted your story conversation in bed. No, I was just saying about the whole holster thing that we were talking about last night. Yeah. Yeah, you just get in there and you're like, all right, this is that, you know, how many, how does that lead, you know, lead into like, dude, my first holster, like, I don't even think it was a carry holster. Sanko Mike's, Sanko Mike's. I had, I had a Serpa, I had a Blackhawk Serpa. I love Indies. Right. Or love getting it. I also like desk pops. Right. And then, uh, I think my first concealed was a horrible CompTac. Uh, horrible. Yeah, I know you're talking. I don't even get, get into my, uh, first pistol shirt. I got a worst one. So, you know the Springfield Xds you when they used to come with that little holster? Yes. Like the little, that was like, like and a membership to front site. Yeah.. So I, I actually used to carry a Springfield XD 45 in, in the, the factory supplied holster. My, my first pistol was MP 45. Nice. Yeah. You gotta get 45. Yeah. Because you know you gotta go back and two World wars. Yeah. Their ancestors. Yeah. Um, yeah, it's, it's, however you get into this industry and yet you're right, you don't have to all get along, but we need to promote everybody in a way that is positive when we can. Oh yes. And I think that's a whole other meal and episode within itself. Cause I got some notes on that. Uh, but I wholeheartedly agree, man. We have some opportunities. I'm just going to say this, like, you know, depending on how this is received, but it's, it's very genuine. What I'm, what I'm trying to articulate here is Wayne LaPierre is out of the picture. Yeah, finally, finally take that. However you will. We are the generation right now that's going to carry it over for our children. So it's literally in our hands. No one's going to tap us on the shoulder and say, Hey buddy, you ready? It's your turn. You're you're at bat. This Dallas convention might be spicy. That's coming up for NRA. What I will ask a lot of young or younger professionals in this industry, business owners, folks like that. I never thought I'd ever say this before. Get politically active. There's a lot of good dudes out there that can. Maybe help push around some of that fluttery out of the way and really start, I mean, slide fire stock. That's all I'm gonna say. Um, Who knows what it's gonna be next week? Yeah. I don't like compromise. My family's from Cuba. Right? Compromise brings some bad things. I can't stand compromise or communism. Fuck communists. Yeah, fuck, right in the, right in the shared queen bed. We're not communists, we're just roommates. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how it starts. But, we should be able to own machine guns. start voting left. Now, uh, Very compelling, face the wall. It's a gateway. No, but it's, uh, you know, maybe it's a conversation that needs to be had, uh, and I don't mind being the punching bag for it. I don't care. I want my son to be able to inherit a culture that I hold highly, highly near and dear to my heart. You know, uh, and my grandfather, when he came over from Cuba, he had to rebuild his life at my age now at age 40. And he loves being a gun owner. You know, he loved hunting. He loved, you know, This overly grizzled Cuban construction worker, you know, would love shooting clays and stuff like that. Um, it's up to us. It really is one generation away from, from disappearing. So, I mean, if anybody's ever been on the fence, maybe we should get like an Adam kraut writing. I was going to say it. I still have the pen. Yeah, Adam do it, do it. We got your back. We'll start it right now. Yeah. Start it right now. I saw the pen. Was it 2016 NRA show, 2015 Vote Crowd. What we were talking about. We had him on the podcast. We had Let's a good episode recently. He, he is, I think, one of the best options out there, period. Anybody else would have to be groomed and prepped and cleaned up. He's ready to go. Yeah. He's, he's just, he's ready to go. Yeah. It'll, it'll be interesting how it all shakes out this year. Yeah. But back to pillow talk. You've been on the, uh, the floor probably the most out of all of us in this room this year. Have you, uh, what's come up? What's going on? So it's Wednesday, still a couple days left, but have you gotten everywhere? I started Tuesday, um, on the small side. Yeah. That's where most of my meetings were. It just, earlier in the day. So I knew, I was like, Don't go into the big room until the meetings are over, then you will get lost. I mean, thankfully, like the NSSF is pretty consistent with their floor plan. So most booths are in the same, you at least have your big landmark one. Yeah. So like you could like look through. Eight booths deep like a mile across the room and be like I see Knight's Armament So that means the door is like that way, but sometimes you get lost. You gotta do a Versaz myth Yeah, get out of there. Oh god, but I did make it to the big room Later half of yesterday and then all of today up until I got here. I was walking through Cool things I've seen so far And I'll post about this on Instagram. I took some pictures and stuff. I usually do like a SHOT Show recap article, like, here's cool shit I saw, but while we're here, um, Eagle Industries, they're, they seem to be back on their feet as like a, because I know in the past they were part of that, Vista Outdoors conglomerate, and now they have, like, whereas in the past, Vista had like a giant mega booth that had like a little tiny Eagle Industries section. I just happened to be walking past an Eagle Industries dedicated booth in like, The medium section of the displays and stuff like the LE tactical, like where ops core and Correct Precision and stuff is, and they have on display this year the RRV 2.0, which, um, so the Rhodesian recon vest, that's what RV is. And uh, I've got one of the OG uh, Eagle RVs and Ranger Green and uh, it's like my go-to like, if I need everything that's on my plate carrier for. Whatever we're doing in whatever class or who knows, but I don't need my plates That's the one I'll grab so if you are familiar with like what's been coming out lately in the gear section of the industry with like Spiritus and all like the the laser cut and like little tiny holes and like It's covered in Velcro, but so it's like a new RV, but made with new manufacturing, um, materials, processes, so on and so forth. So. I, like, had a double take when I looked at it, because I was like, that looks like an RRV, and then I saw, like, the mannequin on top said RRV I was like, stop. And I go over and I'm like, tell me, like, is this going to be commercially available, and can I get it in Ranger Green? And they were like, yes and yes, eventually. So I was like, fuck yeah, that's happening, because it's just going to be lighter, and better than the original one with, like, the heavier fabric and stuff like that. So that I was hype about. Um, more broadly. Uh, this was another thing I talked to, uh, Gabe about when it came to the Cobalt guns, cause, Uh, back in the day when it was like old Cobalt, with the, like the space blaster looking rifles and shit like that, like, One of the other Gas station boner pills. You heard him, right? Now I want one. So, so, so they had like this crazy fucking AR that looked like it had two fucking, uh, What's the fucking thing called? Oh yeah. I called that one the, uh, Ducati dual exhaust. Cause that forward to four assists. Yeah, they were, one was a Ford assist. The other one takes you back to 1954. Um, if you get them mixed up, it's weird. Now the other one was like a bolt drop and yeah. So it was like picture an AR with two forward assists and the one, I guess on the. This was your standard, uh, forward assist. And then the one on the other side was like a bolt drop and bolt release and stuff like that. And there was a gentleman that worked at Cobalt and I don't think he's there anymore. I don't remember his name, but he was there. He was a big fan of this, this, this method of kind of sorta ambidextrous bolt release bolt drop. And one of the things I've harped on, and I think I saw it like might've been 2023 or 2022 was more. Companies in the industry are starting to move towards a fully ambidextrous AR low receiver, which is the, yeah, yeah, we'll get to you. So, and when I say that for those in the audience that don't know, I'm not taught like back in the day, we would have called like a Knights or like a Santan or whatever, like that's a full AMB lower, but it's only got the bolt release on the same side as the mag release. And the other, excuse me, the only other option was like a bad lever. Right. And. People love to go fucking nuts over the bad lover. I did a video ranting about why it's not as bad as people make it out to be, even though I don't use them anymore, but besides the point. So, um, yeah, more companies, I was saying, like, we should be Like it's 20, we're in the 2020s now. There's no reason, like every new rifle that comes out seems to have ambidextrous controls built into them already. There are multiple ways to do it with the AR 15. The two prevailing styles I see are like the LMT, Knight's Armament, Daniel Defense style, LWRC where it's like two Bolt paddles on each side of the gun. And I'm not really a huge fan of that one because if you like, if you're like me and you like to keep your hand on fire control and use your index finger and your thumb to work your safety, your mag release, your bolt release, or your bolt catch, you kind of, depending on where the paddle on the right side of the lower receiver ends up, you may have to like, Hook your thumb on your grip and roll your hand up the side of the gun to hit it with your knuckle I don't like compromising my my master grip my rifle like that. So then there's the other way of doing it, which is like HK and it used to like the teal blue Bravo PDQ was a approach, but it had problems. There are better versions of it now. Like HK is one of them. And, um, it's like a little, or like ADM that style, like that's, that's my preferred method of doing it because if you ever used a bad lever and it was like easy and intuitive to use, you get all the benefits of a bad lever, but you don't get people on the internet screaming about how you got extra shit going on in your trigger. Well, so, um, I was telling this, this gentleman that worked on Cobalt, I was like, I prefer this not only because ergonomically, it's smooth. But um, that double forward assist shit, I was like, I know you believe in it, but look at it from the perspective of like, if you're trying to sell this gun to law enforcement agencies, the weirder you get compared to a normal AR and what their armorers are trained to work on, the harder the sell that's going to be, versus this where it looks like a normal AR with armor One piece of a drop in part and the only difference is there's like an extra hole in the side the right side of the lower receiver So he was like, he was like, you know, that makes a lot of sense I never thought of it that way and I was like, wow I that was cool that I just convinced this like true believer that like there's a better way so when I was first talking to Gabe and uh Mikey over there. I was like, hey, it'd be cool if we could do like You I said these are billet receivers, and they're like, yeah, because I remember one of the questions you had about 308 guns was like I was I was very adamant about like the stoner cut and the receiver which I'll get into that There's another cool thing. I saw but um He was like, well, you know, there's like rail heights and this and that I was like, these are billet receivers, right? And he's like Yeah, and I'm like it's a proprietary rail, right? Like you can only use your rail. He's like, yeah I'm like you can make the rail height whatever the fuck you want Like it's only your rail that works on the gun like go crazy, bro. You can I was like a simple no would have been cool Yeah Like you could have you could have did so I told I was saying like can we get an ambidextrous bolt catch in this like? ADM HK kind of style and they were looking into it. I think at the time they were looking at like You The silencer co example is another one. And, uh, like they had some internal rearrangement that happened where they kind of like slowed down and got quiet on their marketing to even where I was like, kind of in the dark, like, are you guys good over there? Like, what's up? And they're like, no, no, no, we're good. We're just kind of like trying to make sure we fill orders instead of like advertising product that we can't like deliver on. So now this year cobalt has. Their new lower receivers, if you go to the Aimpoint or the EOTech booth, you can find it where it's an ambidextrous, fully ambidextrous lower receiver, mag release, safety, bolt release, bolt catch, all on both sides of the receiver. Throw in an ambidextrous charging handle. You have a lefty righty friendly or a faster manual of arms for your righty AR 15. So that's one more company that's jumping on that boat. Um, there were like nine last year that I did like a tiled image of all their receivers. Like, like, Cause I've, I've gotten pushback from people like feds and stuff like that, that are just so used to working with the standard architecture, AR 15 and manual of arms that they're like, this doesn't need ambidextrous controls. It's fine. And that, and one thing that drives me crazy, like Gabe said before, like he agrees with me on my approach to AR 10 stuff as I don't want to say entrepreneur and I'm definitely not an engineer, but I'm sure all of us have seen or encountered. Whenever a new modification, we'll say, is suggested or produced, and it's still, like, new in its age, and maybe it's got some kinks that gotta get worked out until it works, but there are people that like to say it's just introducing another point of failure, and I think that's fucking intellectually lazy, and I hate that. Like, we have, like Go watch modern marvels and look at the gigantic things We've as a species been able to fucking create that works smoothly and perfectly and you're talking about This now like how many points of failure have we added to the bolt action rifle to get to where we have now like how many are You willing to accept or not? Figure it the fuck out and make it work. It might not work the first two or three times, but It can be done. They got it done with their lower receiver. Um, and then there's another company that's actually in my local FFL. They're called Dark Storm Industries. And that's like, if you ever see video or picture of me in an indoor range that's like very black and grey, I'm in their range doing like my function check stuff. And that's where I do my pistol shooting most of the time. And they just introduced a rifle this year. They call it the um, uh, The MFR modern fighting rifle. And when I was taking my silencer co lower to them to get it laser engraved, once I got it stamped, they were like, Hey, how does that work with that ambi thing? And I'm like, well, like, you know, I cracked the lower open and I'm showing them it's it's one, it's like, it's just like a bolt catch it's one piece. You just make this extra cut and lower. So the little tab can come out and there's multiple companies that have this style of control added. So they did their homework and they came up. With this whole new rifle with a lower receiver that has this ambidextrous lever style ADM HK Scientico Cobalt style of a bolt release and a bolt catch that works just like the bad lever, push up to, like, lock the bolt back, swipe it down to release the bolt. That, um, I like to see that the industry is Stepping more in that direction because between that and stuff like what Law Tactical did with the, the, the Eric, like I, I haven't really paid too much attention to like the, the user feedback on that thing, but I have heard more good than bad in terms of complaints. And I know there's a bunch of different permutations in development and stuff like that. But, um, I have one, I've just been so busy, I haven't had the chance to shoot with it yet. But, when I did my report on it, based on the interview that I did with them, to get the information to substantiate everything I was going to write, I was like, you guys have basically added longevity to the AR platform well into the future. Like, against the backdrop of like, the NGSW XM7, Being such a big deal. It's like, bro, ar is not going anywhere. Like definitely the stoner rifle is King Long Live the king . So that, that's one that, that's some cool, I'm sorry, what were you gonna say, Chris? Oh, you're good. I'm going once you're, you wrapped on that. The one, the, the only other thing that, um, I was gonna mention as far as like cool stuff I've seen so far. And I posted about this the other day, like, I know you guys are familiar with this, like evangelical zealot style rant that I do about stoner cut receivers versus DPMS curve cut receivers. And I'm like a purist about it. And it's like, I'm, I'm talking shit. It's for shits and giggles, but it's funny to see. Because I don't have to mention brands or names or anything, and it's always like fucking turning on like a bug zapper lamp because of the people that are attracted into the comments section to defend like the DPMS curve cut guns that they have. Or, like, what about my brand of gun that you didn't mention? I'm like, do the receivers have a stoner cut to them? Yes. Go with God, you're good. If a patch doesn't come out with him as Pope. So, Sons of Liberty Gunworks just um, did the new Cowan 308, 12 and a half inch barrel gun, and the way they did like, it was so weird because like, the day that they showed that video, um, we had a uniformed member of service at work, he had some tachycardia, Heart thing that happened. So they would send one of us to go chill with him in the hospital per shift. So I was there for the midnight shift and I'm looking out the bay windows across the river to New Jersey and just getting lost in my thoughts. And it just pops into my head. Like, imagine if sons of Liberty gunworks just like actually decided to convert from the DPMS Mark tens to the stoner cut thing. And then like 12 hours later, I'm just. Fucking around looking at Instagram and it the video starts like panning from the rear of the brace So we're going from the back of the gun and it's moving and it's moving and I'm like, hold up back up what did I just see and I see that the Angular stoner cut in the receivers and I was like, holy shit Like finally cuz I always felt bad because I'm tight with those guys. I love those guys over there. They do good shit, but Their mark tens were the DPMS curve cut receivers, so it was kind of like Guys, I'm not trying to talk shit about you. I'll talk up your 5. 56 guns forever But none of your 308 guns are in stock anyway, so it doesn't even matter. Like yeah, that's fine Nobody could buy them anyway. It's all good Don't cuz like Kyle would pop up in the comments be like the receiver patterns make no difference like they work just as well They like deletes his comments, and I'm like come on Kyle. Yeah, okay, man Don't don't take it seriously, but I'm definitely excited about the 308 Yeah. Their, their new three Oh, that Sage edition's gonna be really cool. Yeah. Yeah. It, it, it should do well for them on that, on that platform that their new, their new rails for their L 80 nines for the Mm-Hmm. The, their upsize rails for that broad, sort of the broad sword when the arca, the non Arca Mm-Hmm., they're, they're going to do some cool stuff with the 3 0 8 platform or the larger frame ar uh, as you call it. One of my favorite things on the, and I wanna hit this before we get done, is the new. It's not out yet. It's not available for purchase, but Modlite is teasing them. Is their new smaller head. Did you see it? That on a PL350 body is going to get you the lumens in the package and the candela in the package that you want. Super small. Uh, and the, I mean, did you, did you see them? I haven't, but now that's the, I'm going to spend some money. That's awesome. So they've, they've shrank. I don't know what the specs are on the, they're still working on the LEDs. They're still working on making sure that it all works out, but that is going to be, I mean, like we used to joke around and call it hip dick. Right. You know, you put the big flashlight in your pocket and the headset in there. So you get hip dick. I thought it was going to go in a different direction. No, anyway, but, but that makes, I mean, the one you had today, we were messing with at the booth. You're like, dude, that's the perfect, perfect size flashlight. Yeah. It's so small. You can, you can hold the, the, oh, You okay there, bud? Yeah. You can hold this. Speaking of Jack O'Cardick episodes. The 18, 350 body and head will fit. Yeah. I mean, without sticking out of my head. That's awesome. That's tiny. Somebody I like, I like woke up to a bunch of messages from people that are like, Hey, you're a shot show. Can you figure that out? And he's like, it seems from other posts it's like a CR 1 23 or 18 350 dual fuel. I also saw that. And for what? For mod light? Yeah, for the mod light. Well, all the, all the mod light heads are now dual fuel. Okay. Standard. Standard dual fuel. Perfect. All the handhelds are all multimode. Okay. Alright. Programmable and I don't know. On that head, all the specifics of it. I looked at it, said pill HV two on the side, multi mode on the side. That gives me as much as I can talk about that because I don't know any other specs on other than what's. Written on head. Yeah. Somebody else said, uh, the person that was asking me to find out more said that it was also coming in a okay. W okay. And it's probably, they had the red ones. They had the red lens or red led. Yeah. The guys saw it yesterday. I didn't see it today, but the guy saw it yesterday, the red led as well. Uh, but that, or you, you put that up against, uh, the standard PL three 50 body. You put that on a railed sub gun or sub compact pistol, you're gonna have a really really You know what the form factor kind of reminds me of remember a few years ago when like cloud popped off and Show everybody like I was trying not to bring that up, but where's I'm not mad ten bars is a really good friend. So i'm not gonna say a damn thing. Do you want me to go? You gotta go get justice, thank you. Thank you Thank you. It has been voted off the aisle. Ian's done. We had him, he was gone from the podcast for so long. We had him back for such a short amount of time. Make sure, leave that door cracked. Yes sir. Please. Thank you. Thank god he was undressing me with his eyes the whole time. You saw that. Okay. Uh, what about you Gabe? I mean, other, other than Cobalt stuff, What did you see? You see anything cool? Had the chance to see? I know you've been busy. Funny enough. Funny enough, we were talking about it during lunch. My old, uh, alma mater, Taurus. Man, and I know it's like picking on the fat kid in the jungle gym. I get it. I know Taurus history. But with, uh, Brett Voorhees in charge, I love that dude. He brings a big, uh, big dig energy into the room. And he's allowed his guys to do what we couldn't do before. Even though Mark pushed as hard as he could, they just unveiled a bolt action rifle with a really good price point. It's using a Savage lock up, right? And the rest of the receiver is a 700 style receiver. It's bedded. Right. It's a light, uh, profile cold hammer forge barrel that they're making on their own with a nice twist pattern. I've never been much for flutes. I like contours. It's a barrel maker in me, you know? Um, and, uh, threaded with M lock on the bottom and the little QD port on the bottom for either a sling or that new, um, tripod dealio from Spartan, I think. And I was talking, uh, to Chan, one of my buddies over there. And I was just extremely impressed. I gave them all a big hug. I got teary eyed. I'm like this, this, this is why we used to bust our ass on the road. This, and it's just the winds of change. And if Taurus can do it, holy moly. So right now they got 308. I put a bug in the rear. I'm like, man, you got to do a six arc. Cause they're like, Oh, well, the next one is probably going to be, um, eight, six blackout or something like that. I'm like, that's cool. And I know they're still working on that. Kevin's been doing great stuff on that, but we've seen what six arc can do. Yep. And you can imagine a price point sensitive, really specked out factory bolt gun under 800, you could pick them up. And with so many, if you don't want to run that barrel, it's basically a QD system for the barrel nut, where now you don't need action wrenches and all this other stuff. You can use an AR, AR tool. I invite you to go check it out. Um, And you can swap barrels at home. And if you get a short chambered, a prefit barrel, you can hand remit yourself and finish it to your chamber, overall length, whatever you want. Taurus did that blown away. I'm going to have to get Brett to send this one. Yeah. Yeah, you shouldn't. And, and they were telling me that they're going to sell the receiver sets or the receivers by themselves as well. Like on Brunel, stuff like that.