How old were you when you learned to shoot, and who taught you?

Shooting and hunting were something that my brother Mike and I learned to do at an early age. Mike was nuts about hunting, and he was always pushing to get us out there. Dad wasn’t a hunter or shooter, but he bought us a Marlin lever action 30–30 that we started hunting with.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given with regards to shooting?

I’ve never had a mentor to steer me in the right direction for shooting gear and techniques, so I’ve learned a lot by making mistakes! I would suggest that buying the best gear with a true understanding of performance requirements, and searching out the best techniques to learn will be the best investment a new shooter can make.

What’s been your favorite hunt to date, and what would be your dream hunt?

As a die-hard backpacking DIY mountain hunter, I hate to admit that my favorite hunt is a South African safari. For a long range shooter, a 10-day trip can get you 10 years of shooting experience. It truly offers the best training environment I can think of. We take a group of clients with us every year. With that being said, I really want to do more Asia sheep hunting: argali, tur and ibex.

Have you always worked with guns, or were you working within another application of mechanical engineering before you set up Gunwerks?

I really got into guns in college. When I started school, I was a hot rod guy, but with college and a new family I realized guns were a more affordable option. It took me a couple years after college to get my business started.

What led to your fascination with long-range shooting?

Colonel Townsend Whelen said that only accurate guns are interesting. While at college, I had plenty of time to spend at the range setting up rifles and reloading. I learned a lot. It became very routine to set up a rifle to shoot tight groups and hit the 300 yard targets. The science of the bullet’s flight, which we call external ballistics, was very intriguing. And tying the concepts to real rifles was awesome. In one of my classes, I proposed a new concept of a ballistic calculator that you could hold in your hand (I was going to use my TI-85 engineering calculator). That concept is what developed into the products we use today.

Long-range shots at wild game can be a divisive issue — how do you answer those who criticize it?

I ask a question. At what specific distance do we cross the line? It really gets the naysayers thinking when they have to be specific about the range and be prepared to justify it. I classify a shot as long-range when you have to elevate to correct for bullet drop. This usually occurs between 200 and 300 yards. Unethical shooting is taking a shot with low hit probability. This could be from a moving animal, or high wind or bad shooting rest, etc — even at close range! There is a big area of opportunity for success between 300 yards and the unethical shot.

What advice would you give someone who is keen to get into long-range shooting?

Knowledge will save you money! Our Youtube channel is full of free information, start there. Knowledge will yield a direction for your equipment selection. Then spend as much as you can afford with the confidence that you will use this gear for your entire shooting career. You won’t need to upgrade or change any time soon.

You run courses at Gunwerks — tell us a little about how they are structured?

We used to do an all-in-one course. We notice a lot of repeat students, and when asked why, the consensus was we just had too much info in one course. Currently we run a progressive three-level organization of material. L1 covers bench shooting, external ballistics, equipment selection and maintenance. L2 covers wind reading, field shooting, terminal ballistics and advanced ballistic compensation. L3 eschews the classroom for in-field application of L1/L2 topics, we select specific locations and terrain to experience different shooting conditions and setups.

What’s your favorite all-round hunting set-up in terms of rifle, optics and ammunition?

Lately, I’ve been testing the Gunwerks Magnus, and really like the performance, but if I have to pick a favorite, I have to go with the old standard: Gunwerks LR1000, Nightforce/G7 with G7 Ballistic Turret, and Gunwerks loaded ammunition in 7LRM with 175-grain Hornady ELD-X bullets.

In your opinion, which is the best “of-the-shelf” (ie. not customized) rifle/set-up for long-range hunting?

When it comes to long range hunting, no “off-the-shelf” rifle is perfect. It takes too much time to prove out a rifle/ammo/scope combo and then collect all the ballistic data, to qualify for the performance needed. If I’m buying a mass production gun, I have to go with a Remington, probably Long Range or Sendero. I hate the stock, so a stock change and trigger upgrade is mandatory. I would top it with a Nightforce NXS 5.5–22X50, and add Hornady Precision Hunter ammunition and a G7 Ballistic Rangefinder.

Presumably you load your own ammo — what’s your favored load, and in your opinion, which factory ammunition is the best for long-range work?

I haven’t loaded ammo for five years! We shoot either Gunwerks or Hornady factory rounds. We load the long ELD-X bullets in our Gunwerks ammo, the magazine tolerant ELD-X bullets are loaded by Hornady in the popular calibers in their Precision Hunter ammo line. We can’t come close to loading for the price of the Hornady line, in fact all of our Long Range Training features Hornady ELD-Match 6.5 Creedmoor ammunition. We shoot over 40,000 rounds of that ammo a season.

Tell us a little about the LR1000 system — what sets it apart from everything else on the market?

When we introduced the LR1000, we were pioneering a new concept. By providing the rifle, ammo, scope and ballistic turret, we were accepting responsibility for all aspects of the system performance. If you are just selling a rifle, it’s always the ammunition or scope’s fault when performance isn’t up to standard, and the customer has to tune and sort to find something that works. When we provide the entire system, the customer can focus on his technique and wind reading skills. It makes better shooters faster! We trademarked the phrase “1,000 yards, out of the box” to really communicate to our company and our customers the level of performance we expect from each system. I predict every high end rifle sale will move this way. We’ve already seen a significant shift in the custom gun market, emulating our products.

Gunwerks has been going for 10 years now — what does the future hold for you?

We’ve got dozens of new products in the works, and we’ve put in motion plans to completely take over the long-range hunting market segment! Seriously, though my main push is to drive the cost of high end products down by controlling design, manufacturing processes, and increasing volume by scaling quality systems. Every serious long-range hunter should own a Gunwerks shooting system!