April 12, 2024 • 67 mins
Martin Gaudet, the mastermind behind FalconStrike talks about a groundbreaking recoil pad revolutionizing the world of shooting sports. With roots in the aerospace industry, Martin's creation imitates the body's natural shock absorption, offering shooters an unprecedented 85% reduction in recoil and a 35% decrease in muzzle jump. Our discussion isn't just about the mechanics; it's a narrative of rejuvenation and passion, with stories of seasoned enthusiasts rediscovering their zeal for shooting, empowered by this game-changing technology.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Shotgun Sports USA.
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(00:20):
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(01:00):
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Speaker 2 (01:00):
Today we talked to one of our show sponsors, martin
gaudet, founder and inventor offalcon strike.
Falcon strike is a recoil padthat utilizes dampening
technology borrowed from theaerospace industry and will
scientifically reduce recoil by85% and muzzle jump by 35%.
This is a simple to install andsimple to move product that has
proven to work.
In this episode, martin goesinto great detail about his
(01:22):
product, how it was developedand how it's produced, and where
he expects it to be in thefuture.
On the line with me today Ihave Martin Gaudette.
He is the president of what Iknow him from is Falcon Strike.
(01:48):
He's the man that's behind thisamazing recoil pad is what we
call it.
Now, martin, you probably callit something different than that
, but we call it a recoil padand something that helps us
reduce recoil from a shotgun.
So what I want you to do is Iwant you to explain everything
about yourself and how you cameup with this cool idea.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Fantastic, justin.
It's a pleasure to meet you andthank you very much for having
me.
My name is Martin Gaudette.
I had a lot of adventures in mylife running a machine shop,
teaching at a community collegeand rubbing elbows with some
pretty smart cookies.
I also ran a machine shop sinceI was 25.
And in the process of teachingand being introduced to some
(02:31):
influential people who weredoing outside contracting in
engineering terms, I was invitedto make machines to test
airplane parts and for 15 yearsor more I made destruction level
test machines for landing gearand the rotor bits on
helicopters and a bunch of otherthings that get off the ground
(02:53):
and fly around.
And in the process of that Idiscovered the circumstance.
In one of the test machines Iwas working on, I discovered a
circumstance that required ashock absorber, and the shock
absorber that I developed isbased on what happens between
two hard surfaces and a thinfilm of fluid, like the joint in
(03:16):
your knee.
So when you pick up your heeland you stamp your foot down,
the cartilage surfaces betweenyour two leg bones come together
and at a certain point thefluid film getting thinner and
thinner has to go faster andfaster to get out of the road,
and at that point there is anelegant, simple, repeatable,
(03:36):
mechanically robust shockabsorber effect.
Now the plus is that this isused in our bodies to cushion
our knees and our spine.
It's used all over in theindustry for short stroke shock
absorbers, but the problem isthe stroke is short.
So the flash of inspiration waswell, let's put more than one
(03:58):
of these layers on top of eachother.
And the first use of this newform of shock absorber was to
test the landing gear.
Yeah, there was a it's part ofthe machine that they used to
test landing gear and, uh, itwas a.
It was, uh, an order ofmagnitude improvement on the
current, uh, best practice.
(04:19):
I saved them a lot of money,made a lot of money and, uh, and
discovered a really neat thingand I went I'm sorry, I guess
I've got to be clean with mylanguage I went as hard as I
could for patents in 2010.
Now, in 2012, we incorporatedto figure out what we were going
to do with this thing.
In the end, I've got at leastnine patents all over the world
(04:43):
for different machine and usesof it, of this new form of shock
absorber, and now we have anindustrially robust,
well-developed shock absorberfor end of stroke for robots and
vibration reduction for highvibration signature machines.
And we also have a very, verygood use of a shock absorber, a
(05:09):
hydraulic shock absorber, builtinto a form factor correct
recoil pad.
And that's a bit of a mind warp.
And so, if I can equate thecushioning that would happen in
your knee, or another way tovisualize it, is if you knock
the sheet of plywood over and asit's getting close to the
(05:31):
ground, instead of going bang,it goes woof and it slides a lot
.
You know it, you know this, youknow this, and this is exactly
the physics that nature chosefor your knee.
And in essence, this industrialhigh-intensity shock absorber
is spectacularly well-suited forreducing the energy that is
(05:55):
transmitted between the gun andthe shooter.
And there it is.
And so, in an inch andthree-sixteenths length of
package, I can put as muchenergy reduction as a muzzle
brake on a big bore rifle, ormore style recoil reduction
(06:27):
stocks that you've seen, thehigh-end ones that look like a
carbon fiber machine that coststhousands of dollars, or, in the
case where there are othersthat have the guided chrome rod
and piston anorphous shockabsorbers built in, we can
achieve equal to or betterrecoil reduction in a third of
the installed cost by using thisphysics phenomenon that removes
(06:50):
a substantial portion of theenergy before you have to deal
with it, before your body has todeal with it.
Yeah, let me paint you a picture, all right.
So if you took and hit a stickonto a bowl of jello, the stick
wouldn't get any, the jello inthe bowl would get it all.
And when you shoot a gun, we'vedone a lot of experiments with
(07:11):
high-speed cameras and things tostudy how the impulse transfer
occurs between the gun and thehuman animal.
And so when you hit the stickonto the bowl of jello, all of
the vibrations are going tohappen in the Jell-O and all of
the energy is going to get usedup with the friction inside the
Jell-O.
And when you shoot a gun,that's exactly what happens With
(07:36):
just the old bakelite platethat said Remington on the back,
or Browning, or the oldbakelite plates and I see a
smile and I know you know what Imean or browning, or the old
bakelite planks, and I see asmile and I know you know what I
mean.
So what we've done is we've putan extremely high-capacity
shock absorber between the gunand you and instead of hitting
(07:56):
the bowl of Jell-O with a stick.
We're hitting the bowl ofJell-O with a bag of Jell-ello
tied to the end of the stick,and so the first thing that
happens is the two surfaces aregoing to meet and and and
coupled to each othertransparently.
There's not going to be anypoint loading, and then the
(08:18):
molecular friction that happensin the recoil pad is removed
from the equation.
That's going to knock him over.
We remove a substantial portionof energy from being
transmitted to you because theshock absorber is doing the job,
and that's that multiple platetype self-compensating hydraulic
(08:43):
damper that's built into theFalcon Strike.
Now there are two othercritically important things that
happen when the gun beginstowards you.
First of all, because FalconStrike is a bag full of juice
that has the same density ashuman flesh, as chest wall
muscle.
When the gun starts towards you, the first thing that happens
(09:03):
is it's going to flow to fillyour nooks and crannies.
Now, every other recoil padthat is, for example, rubber,
only where it would be a closedcell foam rubber, think of a
wetsuit cut out the shape of arecoil pad stuck on the end of a
gun.
In all those cases, the forcerequired to bed, for example,
(09:27):
your collarbone into the rubber,the force that your collarbone
is going to see is going tobegin to increase to the point
where the little bits beside youthat are still not loaded reach
the recoil pad.
The rubber only pad, you see,and in that case the collarbone
(09:53):
gets loaded to a lot higherratio of force than the little
bits above and below yourcollarbone or the edge of your
rotator cuff or any of thetendons or the blood vessels,
the muscles, the sinew in yourshoulder.
In the case of the fluidbehavior of the falcon strike
hydraulic recoil reducing system, the fluid will flow to push
(10:15):
equally all over the place.
That's the first thing thathappens.
As this thing comes towards you.
The second thing that happens is, as the pressure comes on
inside the rubber bladder, therewill be a distension.
In other words, the rubber, thebladder is going to become
pressurized from the inside asit flattens out.
As the two bags of jello hiteach other, the hydraulic fluid
(10:39):
in the falcus stripe will becomepressurized and the bladder
will expand and our high-speedvideo shows that the leading
edge of it, as it rolls outsideways, will climb on top of
the shock wave as it's rollingoutwards.
We measured anywhere between10% and 12% more surface area
(10:59):
for the 3 or 5 milliseconds thatthe bladder is expanded
sideways.
So not only does the falconstrike fluid provide the best
load coupling between top,middle and bottom of the pad,
the increased surface areafurther reduces the force on any
(11:21):
one part of your body.
When you finally shorten theshock absorber that's inside the
Falcon Strike, you remove asubstantial amount of energy
from the entire recoil event.
That's a bit of a mind work,that's like, and we can name
them all.
We can name all of thecompetitors that have hydraulic
(11:46):
shock absorbers.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So what you're telling me, martin, is that the
recoil of the gun it feels softon your shoulder.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I'm trying to Guns go bang don't hurt.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Guns go bang, don't hurt, and it's tested.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
It's tested at 85% less feltrecoil, correct?
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Correct, that's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Which is a substantial amount.
That's a lot.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
It is a bold claim.
It is a bold claim and we'vegot thousands upon thousands of
units in the public domain andeverybody's enjoying it.
Absolutely yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
So you and I were talking just a second ago,
before we started this, and Itold you that you could go to a
gun club at any I don't carewhere it's at any tournament,
any gun club, at any time, andyou will hear people talk about
this shell starting to give me arecoil issue with my gun, and
the recoil of this stock now isstarting to bother me.
And this is where your productcomes into play the 85% less
(12:49):
felt recoil and then 35% lessmuzzle jump.
You even hear people say Ican't acquire that second target
because of the recoil.
Well, let me see how I can.
Well, let me start shooting adifferent shell, let me start
doing something different whenall you really have to do is to
try falcon strikes.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Exactly right.
I've not just measured inquantified a way with a
well-built laboratory, thescience of it, but I've heard it
reported 100 ways from Sundayfor that point exactly Less
(13:27):
muzzle rise, less rock backScientific reason or the
mechanical reason why the wholething gets rocked back less is
because of the shotgun disorder,is because of the shock
absorber, and it doesn't matterif it's a rifle sitting at a
(13:47):
bench prone laying on the groundshotgunning sports.
We understand, of course, thatthe shotguns and the rifle
shooting is a whole differentdiscipline.
Each is specific onto the other, each is specific unto itself,
but in all cases, because theshock absorber that's in the
falcon strike removes asubstantial amount of the energy
(14:09):
, it's intuitive that you'regoing to get rocked back less.
Now, since a man is shooting agun, standing up has about a
four-foot pivot distance betweenyour kneecap and the center of
gravity where the gun is pushingthat bo head.
If you push 30 less, the musclegoes up.
30 less done that means you're30 closer to point for the next
(14:31):
shot because there's asubstantial amount of energy
that has been eliminated frombeing transferred to you.
Your your body's reverberatingless.
You have less sensory input.
Your brain is not listening tothe noise of being hit with a
stick, you're able to think fora little sooner, think clearly
(14:55):
sooner.
You're able, with less physicaleffort, to be back on point for
the next shot.
You've lost less time by theflight of the second bird to
acquire it, to planmathematically and make the shot
.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
All of those things are very subtle.
You know it's funny because Italk to people all the time with
sporting clays and crackinglittle orange plates there, like
you do, and they all say thesame thing my follow-up shot
score is going up.
My second shot score goes up.
How come?
I'll tell you why it's becauseyou're not rocked right back.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, it makes a big difference you know, there's a
lot of things that people havetried porting porting your
barrels.
I mean.
You get a shotgun that's eightor 10 or 15 or $20,000 and you
go port a set of barrels on it.
You just devalue the gun.
I have a couple of thosesitting right here.
The packaging, the presentationof the product, the way they go
(15:55):
on the gun, the way they comeoff the gun is so simple that
it's almost hard for me tobelieve that someone even came
up with this.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Well, it's not for my pride's sake, although I am
very privileged to have beenthere when it was.
You know it's pinched me.
It's a really magical thing.
I thank you for that, Justin.
With all of the projects andadventures I've ever had in the
industrial realm, it alwaysdevolves to the simplest object
(16:31):
being the best.
And in the case of Fog andStrike, we have a form factor.
You don't need to have anydraconian modifications to the
stock.
You just screw it on, clamp iton, go shoot the gun.
That is elegantly simple andthat's a basic tenet.
(16:51):
The best part that you can everdesign is the part that you
don't need.
That's the hardest one to putin the box is the part that's
not there.
And in this case we can getequal to or better performance
than any guided chrome rod andI'm speaking in euphemisms.
You understand what I mean tobe the high-end stuff guided
(17:15):
chrome rod, piston and orificeshock absorbers which, for
varying reasons, have their owndynamic limitations.
We can get this equal to abetter performance in a flat
mount inch and three sixteenthsform factor custom fit to the
stock package.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Now tell me this, Martin how is it if I have one,
if I only have one of these?
Yes sir, how hard is it to takeit off one gun and put it on
the other gun?
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Well, it's dead simple.
We have, because the bladderhas juice in it.
We can't drive a screw throughthe whole thing.
Obviously, that would be theeasiest thing to mount.
So we devised a mounting systemthat involves a cam plate.
The cam plate has two cams thatpick up the sealing plate of
the bladder.
(18:06):
The cam plate is an eighth ofan inch thick.
It has two countersunk slotsand those two countersunk slots
provide a wide range ofadaptability for different
locations of screw holes ingunstocks.
The synthetics are a little bitharder to match.
We do have other strategieswith with transition plates and
(18:28):
things for that.
But as far as as the cam plategetting mounted to the gun, if
you can turn a doorknob, you canturn a screwdriver, you can
mount the plate on the back endof the gun.
Then the two cams which lockthe pad onto the two cams which
(18:50):
lock the pad onto the cam platecan be flipped open and the pad
can be carried to another gun.
Now, quite frankly, at theprice point that we can wrap up
all of this performance in, itwould be the equating to taking
the tires off your pickup truckto put on your ATV to go in the
bush.
Uh, everybody that's ever triedand asked me can I have another
mounting plate?
Sure, how many would you like?
(19:11):
Yeah, I'll sell you as many asyou want.
They're cheap, but in the end,once you see what it's all about
, I've had people put them on ahalf a dozen guns.
I've had a guy I had a guy, aprivate man, put one on 30 of
his extensive 30, 30, uh guns inhis extensive collection.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
When I received the one I got, I opened it and I
said I know this is easier thanit looks, because I'd never seen
anything like this before.
You know the mounting plate,the cams I'm going to call them
wings Okay, so you're going tocall them cams.
I I'm gonna call them wings.
Okay, so you're gonna call themcams.
I'm gonna call them wings.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
You flip the wings open and you set the mount, the
pad, in the mounting bracket andclose the wings and done, and
there it is and I thought well,that was super simple by the
time, by the time you buy thosefancy chrome guided, chrome rod
recoil reducing pads, um, I'mtrying real hard not to just
(20:07):
step on anybody's toes because,quite frankly, they all have a
purpose and they all have a uh.
They all bring something to thetable for for uh.
Yeah, that's uh, that's it.
But to be fair, all the all ofthe higher end ones that
incorporate a shock absorber toreduce the energy transmitted to
the shooter, all of those uhwill beat uh at least three to
(20:31):
one for price yeah in a flatmount package that does not
require modifying the stock tohog out all of that expensive
mahogany or walnut not mahoganywalnuts.
I meant to say, you know, if, ifyou, if you buy a $3,800 piece
of Turkish walnut and you tell aguy, here's a Dremel, go to it.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Hog it up.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And I'll be cutting an inch and a quarter off the
end of it.
But don't ask Right, right,because I've got to put all of
these springs and all that stuffin there.
Well, it's a one-way ticket.
Um, generally most of themodern guns, the form factor is
very nearly one inch.
Now for all of the um, the, therubber only pads, which pretty
(21:14):
much um, they all, they've allgrown to accept uh, the, the
inch form factor.
We're not that much like thefull penalty for all of the
increase in muzzle risereduction.
I've had an 83 year old fellathat called me and he says
(21:35):
Martin, I gotta quit shooting.
Bill Winchester.
He says I gotta quit shooting.
He says I wore myself out onthe trap circuit.
He says I'm done.
He says I went from a 12 to a20.
It went from a 20 to a 28.
I had to quit.
He says let me try to focusstraight.
Within three weeks he had run700 rounds through his 12 gauge.
He was just like a puppy again,he rejuvenated.
(21:56):
Another fellow I was talking toa few months ago said he had a
400 shot weekend.
An 85-year-old man.
He says I had a 400 shotweekend.
I was ready to go on Mondaymorning.
Give it to me.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Because the energy that's transmitted to the
shooter is reduced hydraulicallyin the pad.
The bag of jello that's tied tothe end of the stick is getting
a lot of the energy, so thebowl of jello gets less, and
that's the shock absorber that'sin this thing that does that
job yeah, and the rock back.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
You know we're talking about that, just the
recoil, how it saves, or how itchanges the way you shoot.
I shoot a one and eight 1250.
Yep, okay, winchester, and withthe pad.
Without the pad, what is thedifference in what my body will
do with and without a falconstrike?
Speaker 3 (22:50):
we measured, we met we a.
Took a standard size guy, givehim a six and a quarter pound
single shot, break actionshotgun.
Member.
The old grocery gutters, yeah,you bought a flat at 12 gauge
shells and they gave you the gun.
I swear to God.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I don't remember that , but I've I've heard those
stories.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
I've got one in my gun safe and there was a metal
butt plate on this thing.
And the fellow I got it from,he says Grandpa, that was
Grandpa's gun.
He says Dad shot it a couple oftimes and he says I won't go
near it.
They gave me the gun.
Well, that was the first onethat got the fog of strike.
I put that gun in the hands ofa meaty fellow, a guy that could
(23:32):
handle a gun, and after we weremeasuring before and after with
high-speed cameras.
We were measuring muzzle rise,we were measuring the distance
that his nose got movedbackwards, we were measuring the
distance that the gun wasmoving backwards and we were
measuring the distance that hisshoulder was moving backwards.
In other words, between the two, between the gun, that his
shoulder was moving backwards,in other words, between the two,
(23:53):
between the gun and theshoulder.
We were able to calculate thedeceleration of one as it came
into the other, all with highspeed cameras.
And, um, just just funnyanecdote, we could actually see
the shock wave running up theguy's arm all the way to his
trigger finger, and the lastthing that would happen would be
his trigger finger would wiggleat exactly the same time as his
(24:13):
earlobe would wiggle, becausedistance wise, both are the same
distance and so, if you canimagine a, a pebble in a pond
and the rings running out, well,there's your bowl of jello
right there.
And so what we did is we did anextensive series of high-speed
(24:34):
video analyses to measure themuzzle rise, the recoil velocity
, the rock back of the shooter,and that was the basis of one of
our claims.
And then we did a whole bunchof science where we duplicated,
(24:55):
because after about three hoursthe guys Bob's shoulder was good
and red he says, martin, Ican't do this anymore, I quit,
I'm done, I'm done, I'm done.
So anyway, we came back.
We built a laboratoryspecifically to duplicate the
science of a man standing up.
The pivot is four feet, becausethat's the distance between the
(25:19):
kneecap and the center ofgravity where you push the gun.
For a normal man standing up,the weight of the pendulum is 69
pounds, because that is theaverage weight of the thorax of
a man standing up shooting a gun.
The face of the pendulum has aload cell so we can measure how
(25:43):
hard the gun pushes and we havea tracing repeater that measures
how far back the pendulum getsthrown.
With this scientific equipment.
We can not only measure thepeak force, which is what a lot
of the rubber-only recoil padpeople measure.
We're able to measure how muchenergy is transmitted to the
(26:07):
shooter by observing how far thependulum gets moved backwards,
which is identical to standingit on its head, putting the
pivot at the bottom and havingthe man go bobblehead.
So with this instrument we'reable to duplicate and not hurt
anybody while we're doing it.
We can shoot thousands andthousands of rounds.
In fact we have and we'vecompared everything from .22
(26:31):
rimfire all the way to 375 H&H,338
Lapua.
We did not try to 50 BMG, wedidn't want to blow the back end
out of the test cellNow.
We tried every load combination, every action combination,
every muzzle combination, muzzlebrakes, ported
barrels.
(26:51):
We tried every chokecombination with shotguns and
rifles.
All of that to say that whenthe gun goes, bang your 12 gauge
inch or 1, 1⁄8 ounce of 1250,that's standard field load with
a shotgun that weighs seven anda half pounds.
(27:11):
We measured, transmitted 12foot pounds of energy to the
analogy to the test rig withouta energy reducing recoil system,
also known as a rubber onlyrecoil pad, and we consistently
(27:32):
measured between eight and5 and9 foot-pounds of energy
transmitted to the analogy withthe Falkenstripe.
In other words, we're able toreduce the energy transmitted to
the analogy by 30% or 35%easily, and I've seen it go as
high as 46%, 50% being thetheoretical maximum, depending
(27:54):
on how we tune things.
There are concessions to bemade for the form factor,
there's a lot of stuff thatyou've got to get right to make
it right for all the conditions,but we're happy to claim that
we've reduced the energy by 30or 35% easily, which, because
(28:17):
your bobblehead is gettingshoved over.
35% less equals 35% less.
Meserize it's intuitive, it'splain, it's simple, it's elegant
.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I kind of want to talk about you for a minute.
I want to know how you got tothe point that you're at now.
Tell me about where you grew up.
Tell me about how you got intodoing what you do.
Did you used to hunt?
Did you used to fish?
Were you outdoors guy?
Speaker 3 (28:38):
All of the above, there's nothing.
There's nothing that we didn'ttry.
I'm not going to say I went tothe drugstore to buy potassium
nitrate as a kid to make rockets.
I'm not going to say that.
And I'm not going to say thatinstead of making rockets
because they intended to blow upthe launch pad, we made
firecrackers.
I'm not going to say that.
You know, I was in the military.
(29:00):
I shot a whole bunch of .308sand the first time I pulled the
trigger I said this isn't a goodscene.
Laying prone the gas off.
They would crank the gaspressure all the way up so the
things wouldn't foul Just likekicking you in the head.
I know about recoil.
You asked me about where I'mfrom.
(29:22):
I'm a farm kid.
I grew up in the mud, under arock, in a swamp, started with
nothing Sounds like a good place.
I love it, man.
Yeah, yeah, you know, we spentour time in the bush.
There wasn't a square inch ofmy father's farm and the two
farms one on either side that Ididn't know every square inch of
(29:44):
.
You could take me in the bushand spin me around three times
and I knew exactly my, you know,I knew exactly which way.
Uh, uh, you know, growing up,growing up with uh, with a whole
lot of of um, fruitful thingsto explore mechanically and uh
and um.
(30:05):
Yeah, I mean, it gave us, gaveus a lot of uh, me and my
brothers I I was the thirdbrother, the oldest one you
couldn't beat, and the secondone was a little bit cranky
because he couldn't beat theoldest one, so the second one
would turn around and pick on me.
So I just had to get Wiley inthe head and think things
through.
One of my brothers has a bunchof patents for things that go
(30:28):
into nuclear reactors.
And one day we were having afamily gathering and he says and
he was kind of still, he wasmidlife, you know and he said
we're a little bit older now, sowe've gotten over that, but the
competition was still there.
And he says, yeah, I just gotmy third patent you don't tell
me all about it and I said, well, I've only got one yet.
(30:49):
Yeah, anyway, so with the shockabsorber.
And then a few years later, Isaid I'm up to three now.
And he says, yeah, me too.
And then after a while he saidyou know, mike says to me, he
says I got to hand it to you.
He says the government paid todo the R&D on my patents.
(31:09):
He says, but you did it,bootstraps, and you figured it
out and you paid for the wholething yourself.
And he shook my hand and hethanked me for for for being.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, but really that's thedownrange, uh, uh, result of
being a third brother.
I can't beat anybody, so I justgot to get at it right, right,
um.
I I learned an awful lot frommy older brothers, uh, in
(31:33):
machining and welding andmechanics and all of that and um
, and just just, you know I washardwired.
I started playing with clockswhen I was six years old.
You know, give me a screwdriverand a pair of pliers.
I was taking everything apartmy mother's sewing machine, you
name it.
And so there's a lot of innateability mechanically.
I have a lot of spatialrelations aptitude and to me, to
(31:58):
observe the clean, simplestphysics explanation for what I'm
looking at is a game.
It's a joyful thing to figureout all of the variables and
understand the ratios of whythings happen, you know.
And so, applying that innatecharacteristic to me to the next
(32:29):
design project or the nextthing, there's always a flash of
inspiration that comes bylooking to see where you can
apply this new understanding.
And then you look around andyou run through all of the you
know cognitive, contextual linksthat you can make and you say,
(32:53):
well, that might fit into this.
So as soon as we had the firstshock absorber it's a little
thing about this big and I putit on the anvil and I've wailed
on it with a sledgehammer andit's just a little round thing
that's three inches round and aninch and a half high, and the
shock absorber that's in it isabout oh I don't know
three-eighths and an inch and ahalf high and there's a the
(33:14):
shock absorber that's in.
It is about, oh I don't know,three eighths of an inch thick
and two inches around, which isprobably smaller than the shock
absorber in the falcon strike.
The purpose of this prototypewas to understand or to explore
the physics of the idea that Ihad had standing in front of
that test machine for thelanding gear in the big city
(33:37):
there, and when I hit it with asledgehammer it just went splat.
It's like throwing a brick inmud.
It just whooped and stoppeddead in its tracks and I said,
oh boy, this is going to be fun.
Patents, patents, patents runall the way.
I can't believe, honestly.
I mean, they've been shootingguns probably since the year
(33:59):
1300, and they've been shootingshoulder-fired guns reliably
since about the year 1500.
And I cannot fathom in my mindhow it's possible that nobody in
the last 1500 years or 1200years hasn't put the two ideas
together.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yeah, you would think so.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
That.
That freaks my mind, that that,that, just that.
That I find that.
I find that a bit of a fairytale myself, personally.
But to, to, to circle back toyour question where does this
come?
Well, let me ask you, where doany elegant, simple, adaptable,
self-compensating machines comefrom?
(34:42):
Where, where, where do we have?
Where did we get an airplane?
Where did we get a genogen?
Where did we get you know?
Where did we get, uh, uh, thehigh voltage?
Did we get you know?
Where did we get the highvoltage DC light bulb with you
know and downrange?
Why is this still called theEdison Electric Company, right,
(35:02):
for example?
Where do these things come from?
That's, I've had wonderfuladventures and I'm privileged to
think that this is an event.
That is an aha moment.
It's just this is cool, this iscool.
And to take everything out ofthe box that doesn't belong
(35:22):
there and all you got is a bagfull of juice with a shock
absorber floating around thathas all these attributes that
add up to removing 30 or 35% ofthe energy and reducing the felt
recoil by a whole bunch,because the mechanical coupling
between the stick and the bowlof jello removes the energy.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Yeah, I think a lot of people that'll listen to this
will definitely be moreinterested in Falcon strikes
products after this.
But for sure, now let me askyou this Falcon strike started
as a company when?
What year was that?
Speaker 3 (35:54):
2012.
And how?
Speaker 2 (35:56):
and tell me where it's grown to now?
Uh, 2012,.
We did fundamental science.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
We did, uh, you know a whole lot of boring stuff that
nobody really uh cares tolisten to, um, but truly is
required to get to where we are.
We did fundamental science, wedid.
Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh.
Get to where we are.
We did.
Fundamental science, we did.
I've got a mathematical formulathat can take and configure a
(36:20):
shock absorber to produce anyresult I need, industrially or
otherwise, and that takes timeand costs a lot of engineering
and money and whatever doesn'tmatter.
And so, starting with that, by2014, we had a clear mandate to
develop products thatincorporated this shock absorber
.
So 10 years ago, the firstFalcon Strike got made.
(36:42):
It's still on my 12 gauge.
It's still on that six and aquarter pound single shot break
action, shotgun in my gun safe.
Single shot break action,shotgun in my gun safe.
Um, by 2015, we already had sixmold sets uh, an 870,
non-express uh, the, the, the,the 870, remington 870, the one
(37:04):
with the supercell.
We had one for that.
We had the browning, uh, thebrowning, uh, what you'd what
you'd call a 725 satori, thatsort of thing.
There were probably three orfour.
Oh, the Mossberg 500 was on thefirst round of molds.
Then we developed relationshipswith a few stores in our area
(37:31):
so that we could observe thebehavior of the object and start
to get the consumer feedbackfor the performance.
We, in 2016, got into atwo-tier distribution in the
province of Quebec in Canadaspecifically so that we would
(37:55):
shelter the and I'd probably thecorporate strategy is probably
transparent.
Anyway, we had a regionaldistribution arrangement with
200 stores to begin to gatherthe product behavior on the long
term and basically to test themechanical engineering, the
(38:17):
dynamics, the service life, theresponse from the customer and
to learn how to commercializethis in a logical way.
You know, at one point and manytimes, I felt to myself I'm
holding the great pearl like a,a fellow that wrote the great
(38:41):
giraffe, wrote the book theGreat Pearl, or the fellow
standing on the shore and he'sgot nothing, but he's got the
great pearl in his hand.
And in the end, everybody elseloses, and he does too, because
you can't capitalize on thegreat pearl.
I know, and I still have, atrajectory of industrial growth
(39:03):
past lifetimes of me and and thepeople around me, uh, for all
of the industrial applications,but with the Falcon Strike, with
the branding exercise and allthe work that goes into that.
We didn't want to clumsily losethe great pearl, if that makes
sense.
And so I'm all for organicgrowth and I'm all for reasoned
(39:27):
growth within my means, reasonedgrowth within my means,
specifically to have a good,solid company and not lose the
great pearl.
And so, um five years ago now,we launched in the states, based
on the market, the longitudinalmarket study in a region, you
know and uh, with rebranding,more online presence, all of
(39:56):
that stuff takes a tremendousamount of.
There's not just one bulldozerpushing on the mountain, there's
a hundred bulldozers pushing onthe mountain to move it even a
little bit, to get all of thebricks in the wall that build a
successful new technology.
(40:17):
And so now, since five years,we have a presence in online
sales in the USA.
We have 18 different model sizesof the custom fit the custom
fit is directly measured.
Sizes of the custom fit thecustom fit is directly measured
to fit the stock exactly.
Okay, we've got 18 preordainedsizes for the Browning, the
(40:40):
Benelli, the Beretta, the CZ,mossberg, remington, marlin,
parker, hale.
Yeah, all right, we got thisfigured out.
Yeah, all right, we got thisfigured out.
We got into a mold developmentprogram that measured all the
guns in the public domain andarrived at an averaged shape and
size to suit the bestarrangement, the best spread of
(41:05):
them.
Yeah, the custom fit comes in apre-fit size that will fit your
Browning 725 without anymodifications.
No cutting, no grinding.
Yeah, your Mossberg 500, yourgrandpa's Mossberg 500, we've
got a direct bolt on All the oldRemington 870s with the excuse
me, with the Remington Supercell.
(41:27):
We got one that bolts exactlyfor that.
We have a lot of them,supercell, we got one that bolts
(41:51):
exactly for that.
We have a lot of them.
You know the Benelli SuperBlack with the Comfort Tech, the
one that pops out.
We were able to develop amounting system to go and click
into and we've got a directmatch for all of those, for
example.
That's all in your custom fitsizes.
We also, to make up the smalldifferences or the people that
don't want to put as much effortinto measuring, we make a
multi-fit.
The multi-fit is exactly thesame as a small, a medium and a
large custom fit, except weadded a skirt.
(42:12):
The skirt is 3-8ths of an inchwide and when you peel the skirt
back, put it on the gun andthen snap the skirt over the
stock.
The blending of the stock tothe pad becomes automatic by
that 3-8ths wide skirt.
It's not a slip-on.
It still requires screwing themounting plate.
The only thing is the skirtdoes the blending of the stock
(42:35):
to the pad automatically.
So we make two principal kindsthe custom fit and the multi fit
.
Now the multi fit is useful forblack guns.
It's useful for camo gunsbecause the skirt hides the
glint of the mounting plate.
If you're shooting at crittersthat are blinking at you, a lot
of them don't like the thingblinking back.
So the multi-fit is a goodchoice for all the hunting
(42:58):
situations.
The multi-fit is a good choicefor stocks that are either
outside of what is common in thenormal, or people that cut
their stock, or people that yourson getting into shooting and
appreciating focus.
Right, because now he's notthinking about the recoil, he's
thinking about his game, right?
That component, the recoilcomponent, is removed from the
(43:21):
equation.
Therefore, now he's an animaland he's hunting that little
orange thing to outgrow thejunior 20 gauge that they got,
(43:41):
or they're going to grow into aseries of spacers while their
frame is getting bigger untilthey get to the point where
they're going to go and get akrieg off k80 or some other
fancy fancy machine, the silversights or whatever, right, um,
uh, major proxy, yeah, anyway.
So the point is this that themulti-fit has a good use for
(44:01):
accommodating different sizestocks if the situation is going
to change.
Those are all good uses for themulti-fit, the one with the
skirt.
Now we also developedgrind-to-fit plates because
there are still other conditionswhere somebody cuts their stock
, somebody refinishes theirstock, somebody takes a draw
(44:25):
knife and a piece of walnut andmakes their own.
You know, somebody has aparticular aesthetic in mind and
they come up with somethingthat is their creation.
I'm all for that.
The Grind2Fit plates have 1, 8inch extra material all around
so that when you mount theGrind2Fit plate to the stock you
(44:47):
have an eighth of an inch extramaterial on the grind to fit
plate.
Each of the grind to fit plates.
It matches the custom fit modelthat it's meant for a 5103.
The one I talked about for thefor the 725 or a browning, for
example, is going to take a 5103.
(45:09):
Usually, if you have a situationwhere the stock's a little bit
bigger and it's hanging over bya 32nd of an inch, quite frankly
it's a sin of astronomicalproportion to stand the stock
your nice shot going up in therack to go into the clubhouse to
take a whiz and you hook thecorner of the varnish and you
(45:29):
pop the varnish off the end.
That's a sin of astronomicalproportion.
So for coffee table furniture,quality match between the
mounting plate and the varnish.
We make the grind-to-fit plates.
In this case, if it's a 5103custom fit, it would take a
5103G grind-to-fit plate whichyou can then make masterfully to
(45:53):
the wood, protect and polish.
A lot of the gunsmiths whatthey'll do is because this is
high grade, aircraft gradealuminum the plates are made
with.
They'll take a bright, clean,polish.
They'll take a nice mirrorpolish.
And a lot of the high endinstallers and gunsmiths will
take the time for theircustomers' sake to bring them to
(46:15):
a high luster.
And now you have not just aperfect match of a Falkenstreich
on a high-end gun, you've got ashowpiece as well.
And all of these things arepossible with the grind-to-fit
plates, which is another way ofaccommodating every size under
the sun.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Can you take A custom stock that a lot of these pro
shooters use and make the padfit their stock perfectly?
Speaker 3 (46:42):
The way to accomplish that specifically is to measure
the shape that you want tomount it to.
Go to our website.
There are charts, there aretools, there are printable
templates.
You're able to print thetemplate true to scale.
They are engineered drawings,not pictures.
(47:05):
You reproduce them correctly.
Then you can trust that thesheet of paper that has the
profile on it is exactly whatwe're going to ship you.
You stand the gun up on thecoffee table and say yes, no,
some people cut it out with apair of scissors.
It's probably the best course Itook in kindergarten was how to
run a pair of scissors.
Stand it up on the end of thegun.
(47:27):
I since moved on to drill holesin steel.
Anyway, the point is this thetemplates that are available on
our custom fit selection pagepermit you to have a true to
scale representation deliveredright to you at the internet to
verify if there is a direct fitin the custom fit line, if you
(47:52):
would prefer on the website toexplore the multi fit and not
bust your head over it.
The multi fit skirt is discreet.
It's not universally chosen forsomebody that's going to spend
$10,000 or $20,000 on a shotgunthat has a platinum pheasant on
one side and a 24-karat gold dogon the other side.
(48:15):
But quite frankly, in answer toyour question, how do I fit any
gun with focus right?
The first thing you do is go onour website, find the size
chart, take the pad off of theback of your gun, measure the
wood exactly, go in the chart.
The chart has three columns theheight of the stock, the width
(48:38):
of the stock and the modelnumber.
Click on the model number.
The template will open in a newwindow.
Hit the printer button.
Go down to your coffee tablewith your kindergarten scissors,
cut it out, try it.
You're off in the races if wedon't have in our 18 sizes a fit
order for the closest customfit size that is contained
(49:01):
entirely within the stock andthe grind to fit plate that goes
with it.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
I've really learned a whole lot more than I thought I
did.
I mean, I've read about FalconStrike and watched, I've seen
your online presence as far associal media and all that's
concerned, and I even have themas far as social media and all
that's concerned, and I evenhave them.
But talking to you reallyclarified a lot of the questions
that I had.
Listen, I like your analogies.
I like the amount of work andtime and effort that you've put
(49:28):
into something.
I can tell that you're reallypassionate about this product.
Speaker 3 (49:31):
Thank you, Justin.
I really appreciate yourinterest and it's great talking
with you as well.
I really do appreciate it.
I've got hundreds upon hundredsof stories directly from people
that went out and tried it.
I had a fellow bring me hisgrandfather's 270 a short barrel
, short stock, little rifle, anduh kick like a mule and uh
(49:54):
couldn't do it, couldn't do it,and so all of the emotional
attachment to that gun couldn'tdo it, couldn't do it, and so
all of the emotional attachmentto that gun couldn't do it.
I put a focus strike on.
We went down by the railroadtracks and I said, all right, go
do it.
And he shot the gun the firsttime and he didn't say a word,
(50:15):
he just slumped his shouldersand he got quiet for about 20
seconds and he choked up.
He says what did you do to mygrandfather's gun?
Give me another bullet.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,bang bang.
That's amazing to think thatthe emotional attachment we have
to such an elegantly craftedmechanical object, it's
(50:36):
universal.
There aren't the works of art.
We talked a little bit aboutart before we started.
Well, guns are a work of artand if we can remove the one
objection that what goes thatway is coming this way too right
.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
Right.
Speaker 3 (50:54):
If we can remove that one objection or bring it below
the point where your animalstarts to react, well, then you
can start thinking about whatyou're trying to accomplish and
just be natural and do it.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
You know, rejuvenated 85 years.
Last year, two, three years agoI had a 74-year-old granny,
shirley Shirley calls me.
We got a focus strike on her 50Cal BMG.
She's in the 1,000-yard club.
She shot, I don't know, secondor third in the weekend average
(51:34):
average.
She got 8, 7, 8's in 50, 8, 7,8's average in at a thousand
yards with a 50 cal BMG in 53shots.
I think.
Yeah, I think that was thestory.
So here's a 74 year old grannylaying on a mat with a 50 cal
BMG plugging a thousand yardsand she got an 8, 7, 8's
(51:59):
diameter average.
Speaker 2 (52:02):
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (52:05):
Uh, I, there was another fella.
Uh, the the gun, the gun rangeofficer, the, the, the fire
control officer, the gun rangecomes in.
There was a, there was a.
It was a store that that uhwent under and uh, a store that
went under and they had a.
They had a closeout sale and hecomes in with an 1895 Marlin
and he didn't bring back a newgun.
(52:25):
He says I shot this thing threetimes.
He didn't come in with his newgun and put it on my gun counter
.
He came in and threw it down.
He says this thing kicks toohard.
He says put a focus, strike onit.
He took that 1895 Marlin 1870.
That's sorry.
Uh 45 70 and 1895 45 70.
His name is bruce, he's thefire like.
(52:46):
I said, the fire control officerat the range, past president.
In fact, I'm going to goshooting again next week,
doesn't matter.
He went home with his 45 70 andhe says I ran 37 rounds
plinking with a 45-70 in at-shirt.
I ran out of bullets.
He says I'm going to have toreload some more.
They got an offload target at500 yards and he was plinking.
(53:09):
Him and his buddy Dale wereplinking with a 45-70.
Bang, bang, bang.
I heard that story more thanonce.
I heard a fella in BC, in theWest Coast it might have been
Washington State, maybe Him andhis son ran 100 rounds between
the two of them in a 45-70.
Playing Bang, bang, bang, bang.
(53:31):
Okay, my turn.
They were playing in a 45-70with a focus train.
And the reason that thesethings continue, you know.
The fellow I told you about ran450 shots in the weekend, an
older gentleman that would havebeen black and blue from his
earlobe to his belly button.
In any other case, by reducingthe energy transmitted to the
shooter to a comfortable amountbecause of the hydraulic shock
(53:55):
absorber that's in this thing,it extends the range, the
comfort, it allows you to getinto the behavior of what you're
trying to do, rather than thebehavior what you're trying to
do is doing to you.
Right, yeah, yeah, and, and,and, and, on, and, on, and on
and on.
I've heard yeah, anyway, it's,uh, it's, uh, it's, it's a
(54:15):
privilege, man it it really is,justin to participate in such an
elegantly simple realization.
Hey, let's put a bunch of thesethin films together in a bag
full of juice that has the samedensity as the flesh of a human.
So now we're not hitting thebowl of Jell-O with a stick.
(54:36):
We're hitting the bowl ofJell-O with a bag, tied on the
end of the stick.
Yep, and the Jell-O in thestick, the Jell-O in the bag and
the Jell-O in the bowl get toknow each other intimately and
it makes the load couplingtransparent.
You don't get bruising, youdon't?
You know, it doesn't hurt.
We reduce the muzzle, rise.
Guess what We've just?
(54:57):
We've just made a significantadvancement in the firing of
shoulder fired guns.
Mark Leary, where did the nameFalcon Strike come from?
You know, there's aninteresting thing that happens.
Where does the name brandingcome from?
Well, it was the result of abranding exercise from a very
talented man, our firstmarketing director, and the crux
(55:21):
of what we ended up with was inmy mind's eye.
I'm the falcon and I see thetarget at 185 yards and that's
that one little point in all ofthe space, that's the one little
point that the bullet has toget.
And I'm the falcon and I'vetaken my speed dive and I'm
going, going.
The target's getting bigger,the target's getting bigger and
(55:44):
zip, pop, bullseye, gotcha.
And so you know where did the,where the name come from?
We did, you know, we, we, we sataround the room drinking coffee
and comfortable couches, andyou know, you know, are we going
to call it an animal, are wegoing to call it a machine, are
we going to call it a, anemotion, you know?
Uh, okay, let's talk aboutemotions.
(56:05):
Okay, let's talk about emotions.
Uh, the super pink pillow, uh,the, the big woods, uh, the, uh,
the, uh, the, the, the mama'sboy, uh, right, Okay, well all
right, write those down.
Let's talk about animals.
Well, we got a cobra and we gota bear, and we want strength
and we want aggression and wewant precision, we want elegance
(56:33):
.
Okay, let's talk about that,let's talk.
What do we want to accomplish?
What do we want to say?
Okay, let's talk about that,let's talk.
What do we want to accomplish?
What do we want to say you know, um, the, the, um, yeah, that's
, that's, it's a process, uh,and and that is just one example
of the effort that was put intoarrive at an elegant, simple,
(56:56):
high-performance solution.
Speaker 2 (56:57):
All right For the people listening.
Where do they go to buy this?
Speaker 3 (57:01):
Falconstrikeusacom an elegant, simple,
high-performance solution.
All right For the peoplelistening.
Where do they go to buy thisFalconstrikeusacom?
Speaker 2 (57:06):
Falconstrikeusacom and everything's on there.
You ship it right to them.
Speaker 3 (57:09):
Ship it right to them .
Our distribution center isonline.
Everything's in stock.
It has been since the beginning, made on our chunk of ground
with our steel and our aluminumand our rubber and our screws.
I'm a firm believer in that.
There's a hole.
There's a hole.
Yeah, you know what I'm going toshut up now, but I'll tell you
(57:31):
one thing.
Let me put it to you this way40 years ago, when I dreamt of
(57:59):
having good hand tools, snap-onFuller, you took apart all the
mills.
They took apart all the machineshops.
They took apart they builtsatellites everywhere else.
You know what I'm talking aboutand to the point where it cut
the ability to do it here.
Now, part of being born in themud, under a rock, in the swamp
(58:22):
was going to get every singleexample of machine tool that I
could and gather them and clutchthem like mother hen under my
wings and learn how to use themand how to be creative and apply
them for exactly what they weremeant for them, and how to be
creative and apply them forexactly what they were meant for
.
My entire life has been a grandadventure of learning, and I
(58:47):
didn't start with a machine shopbecause I wanted to make money.
And I didn't start with amachine shop because I wanted to
wear out a bunch of humans andtrade four quarters for a buck,
plus the 21 cents profit, theblue chip profit.
Yeah, I didn't want that.
What I wanted was the privilegeof making anything I wanted
whenever I wanted, and to keepthat art alive.
(59:09):
All of the old dinosaurs.
I made it a fervent, passionedexercise to go and talk to all
the old dinosaurs, impassionedexercise to go and talk to all
the old dinosaurs, beginningfrom forging steel, to
understand the art, the craftand to resolve to a scientific
reason why things happen.
(59:30):
I've got a full-on manualmachine shop.
I've got a full-on CNC machineshop.
I've got mold-making capability.
I've got rubber moldingmachines, plastic ejection mold
machines.
I've got mold making capability.
I've got rubber moldingmachines, plastic ejection
machines.
I got punch presses.
I've got cranes.
I can, I can, I can.
Cnc plasma cutting table.
I got all the welding processesI gotta, I can.
I got a lot of toys.
I can make castings.
(59:51):
I can make forgings right here.
Um, yeah, all that stuff.
I can melt down an oil engineblock and cast a mold block,
machine it out and make.
I wouldn't because the qualityof the mold wouldn't be there.
But I can make the blank tomake the mold block, to make a
(01:00:12):
falcon stripe, and all of thatis an example of being the
candle holder, the flame holderright Of right here, right now.
Now I'll tell you.
People say, martin, how comeyou're not a millionaire yet?
Well, I'll tell you, becauseI've been holding the flame here
.
(01:00:32):
I didn't do it for the money.
I did it for the joy ofunderstanding the science.
I did it for the privilege ofdoing what I want when I have
the inspiration to do it.
I did it for the adventure ofspending 15 years inspiring
young men and being thenurturing, the one that would
(01:00:53):
just click that switch and getthem to see the elegance of it.
I got to sit in the mahoganyboardrooms.
This freaks me out.
Man, sit in the mahoganyboardrooms and here I come with
my crafted little bag ofexperiences and, across the
table, phd, phd, engineer,engineer, phd, phd.
(01:01:14):
They got the bean counter, theygot the top purchasing guy.
There's about 10 of them there.
They all got their arms crossedand they know what machine they
want and they know they want totake a chunk out of my hide to
get what they want right.
They're aggressive, I'll grantyou that.
And on my side there's a PhDengineer that I taught with a
(01:01:35):
really crafty dynamics engineer.
He did him and I did tag team,all kinds of business Myself.
There's a salesman and there'sthe owner of the business,
that's it.
And we would have an hour and ahalf meeting in the mahogany
boardroom of the aircraftmanufacturing place and after an
hour of talk and blah, blah,blah, blah, blah, they would all
lean in and say, okay, martin,what are we going to build?
(01:01:57):
What a privilege.
And I'll tell you, we madequarter million, half a million
dollar turnkey machines to 50ton, hydraulic presses to squish
landing gear.
We made all kinds of stuff totry to break the rotor parts on
helicopters and had a lot ofinteresting adventures.
Now, that doesn't come fromnothing and I hope you don't
(01:02:21):
think I'm being rude or proud.
Please understand that.
It's the description of thepassion to hold the knowledge
and the ability to do so as theproduct Does.
That make sense.
Ability to do so as the productDoes.
That make sense.
(01:02:41):
And included in all of that arethe machines.
And I'm not going to make thebest aluminum casting there is,
but I'll make you one and all ofthe rest of it, how to forge,
how to make the forging does,how to make production.
All of that stuff is allsitting in reserve the hard way
while everybody went to China toget a boatload of junk.
(01:03:03):
I'll tell you where that junkis it's all in the landfill and
they're hauling another boatloadand finally somebody said wait
a minute.
Anyway, that's a whole otherstory.
Now, when the COVID hit,everybody started climbing back
on board, made in USA, becausethey were screwed.
I had a smile a foot and a halfwide, and I'll tell you why
(01:03:28):
Because everything that wasrequired was sitting in a pile
waiting to be turned on, click.
I didn't go to China foranything, not a bit of it, or
anywhere else.
It's all made here with oursteel, with our people, with our
hands, with our grit, and therewas no shortage.
(01:03:50):
I don't think I had a backorder for more than 10 parts, 10
recoil pads, in all of the lastfive years in the USA.
Why?
Because I make it here.
I hire my neighbors, they work,they're happy.
We make it with our steel andour aluminum.
What's the problem?
(01:04:11):
There is no problem and I takegreat delight in well anyway,
you're passionate about it.
There's different ways of doingthings, there's different ways
of going about it, but I tellyou, I sleep at night because
(01:04:32):
I've got everything I need.
I'm richly blessed by a goodbunch of folks, a round of happy
people.
Richly blessed by a good bunchof folks, a round of happy
people.
And, yeah, that goes a long wayto soften the blow of having
done it the hard way.
And there's never any problem,there's just no, there's just
(01:04:52):
everything's up from here.
And so that same organic growthtrack of biding my time to make
sure I didn't drop the greatpearl in the mud, losing it
right.
Now we're set and a whole lotof people are enjoying the
fruits of that disciplined slowburn.
(01:05:14):
Because I don't intend to get aflash in the pan.
Get on the boatload of junk,get in, get out, make my money
and yeah, that's no justicethere in my scale of ethics.
Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
Thank you for coming on.
I appreciate you and we lookforward to talking to you again.
For sure, Absolutely Call the800 number, press 2.
We look forward to talking toyou again.
Speaker 3 (01:05:38):
For sure, absolutely Call the 800 number, press two.
It comes to me.
Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
Does that come straight to you?
Now?
I'm tech support.
Yeah, your tech support.
Speaker 3 (01:05:46):
For now, anyway, yeah , uh, tech support, because I
know it so well, and so rightnow we're in a phase of, of, uh,
of growth that that is makingFalcon Strike, the corporate,
the whole thing scalable,sustainable and profitable those
(01:06:08):
are the three words that Irepeat to myself.
It has to be scalable,sustainable and profitable,
which requires a whole differentskill set than making an
elegant, shiny object.
Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
Right, yeah, but that's where we're at right now.
Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
I appreciate your time.
Appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 3 (01:06:30):
I really appreciate the time we had together.
It's a privilege to have theopportunity to describe the
passion that I have and theprocess of participating in such
an elegant thing calledFalkenstrike.
It certainly is a grandadventure.
It's a lifelong grand adventure.
The whole process has beenwonderful and I really enjoyed
(01:06:53):
our afternoon together.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
Thank you.
Welcome to Shotgun Sports USA.
Powered by WinchesterAmmunition, the American legend.
Listen to the best shotgunshooters from all over the world
in every disciplineChampionship winning coaches,
gun clubs, target setters,vendors, as well as companies
that make it all happen, broughtto you by Briley Rick
(00:20):
Hemingway's Promatic Trap Sales,cole Gunsmithing, clay, target
Vision, castellani USA andFalcon Strike.
Thanks for listening andremember to visit us online at
ShotgunSportsUSAcom like us onFacebook and follow us on
(01:00):
Instagram.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Today we talked to one of our show sponsors, martin
gaudet, founder and inventor offalcon strike.
Falcon strike is a recoil padthat utilizes dampening
technology borrowed from theaerospace industry and will
scientifically reduce recoil by85% and muzzle jump by 35%.
This is a simple to install andsimple to move product that has
proven to work.
In this episode, martin goesinto great detail about his
(01:22):
product, how it was developedand how it's produced, and where
he expects it to be in thefuture.
On the line with me today Ihave Martin Gaudette.
He is the president of what Iknow him from is Falcon Strike.
(01:48):
He's the man that's behind thisamazing recoil pad is what we
call it.
Now, martin, you probably callit something different than that
, but we call it a recoil padand something that helps us
reduce recoil from a shotgun.
So what I want you to do is Iwant you to explain everything
about yourself and how you cameup with this cool idea.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Fantastic, justin.
It's a pleasure to meet you andthank you very much for having
me.
My name is Martin Gaudette.
I had a lot of adventures in mylife running a machine shop,
teaching at a community collegeand rubbing elbows with some
pretty smart cookies.
I also ran a machine shop sinceI was 25.
And in the process of teachingand being introduced to some
(02:31):
influential people who weredoing outside contracting in
engineering terms, I was invitedto make machines to test
airplane parts and for 15 yearsor more I made destruction level
test machines for landing gearand the rotor bits on
helicopters and a bunch of otherthings that get off the ground
(02:53):
and fly around.
And in the process of that Idiscovered the circumstance.
In one of the test machines Iwas working on, I discovered a
circumstance that required ashock absorber, and the shock
absorber that I developed isbased on what happens between
two hard surfaces and a thinfilm of fluid, like the joint in
(03:16):
your knee.
So when you pick up your heeland you stamp your foot down,
the cartilage surfaces betweenyour two leg bones come together
and at a certain point thefluid film getting thinner and
thinner has to go faster andfaster to get out of the road,
and at that point there is anelegant, simple, repeatable,
(03:36):
mechanically robust shockabsorber effect.
Now the plus is that this isused in our bodies to cushion
our knees and our spine.
It's used all over in theindustry for short stroke shock
absorbers, but the problem isthe stroke is short.
So the flash of inspiration waswell, let's put more than one
(03:58):
of these layers on top of eachother.
And the first use of this newform of shock absorber was to
test the landing gear.
Yeah, there was a it's part ofthe machine that they used to
test landing gear and, uh, itwas a.
It was, uh, an order ofmagnitude improvement on the
current, uh, best practice.
(04:19):
I saved them a lot of money,made a lot of money and, uh, and
discovered a really neat thingand I went I'm sorry, I guess
I've got to be clean with mylanguage I went as hard as I
could for patents in 2010.
Now, in 2012, we incorporatedto figure out what we were going
to do with this thing.
In the end, I've got at leastnine patents all over the world
(04:43):
for different machine and usesof it, of this new form of shock
absorber, and now we have anindustrially robust,
well-developed shock absorberfor end of stroke for robots and
vibration reduction for highvibration signature machines.
And we also have a very, verygood use of a shock absorber, a
(05:09):
hydraulic shock absorber, builtinto a form factor correct
recoil pad.
And that's a bit of a mind warp.
And so, if I can equate thecushioning that would happen in
your knee, or another way tovisualize it, is if you knock
the sheet of plywood over and asit's getting close to the
(05:31):
ground, instead of going bang,it goes woof and it slides a lot
.
You know it, you know this, youknow this, and this is exactly
the physics that nature chosefor your knee.
And in essence, this industrialhigh-intensity shock absorber
is spectacularly well-suited forreducing the energy that is
(05:55):
transmitted between the gun andthe shooter.
And there it is.
And so, in an inch andthree-sixteenths length of
package, I can put as muchenergy reduction as a muzzle
brake on a big bore rifle, ormore style recoil reduction
(06:27):
stocks that you've seen, thehigh-end ones that look like a
carbon fiber machine that coststhousands of dollars, or, in the
case where there are othersthat have the guided chrome rod
and piston anorphous shockabsorbers built in, we can
achieve equal to or betterrecoil reduction in a third of
the installed cost by using thisphysics phenomenon that removes
(06:50):
a substantial portion of theenergy before you have to deal
with it, before your body has todeal with it.
Yeah, let me paint you a picture, all right.
So if you took and hit a stickonto a bowl of jello, the stick
wouldn't get any, the jello inthe bowl would get it all.
And when you shoot a gun, we'vedone a lot of experiments with
(07:11):
high-speed cameras and things tostudy how the impulse transfer
occurs between the gun and thehuman animal.
And so when you hit the stickonto the bowl of jello, all of
the vibrations are going tohappen in the Jell-O and all of
the energy is going to get usedup with the friction inside the
Jell-O.
And when you shoot a gun,that's exactly what happens With
(07:36):
just the old bakelite platethat said Remington on the back,
or Browning, or the oldbakelite plates and I see a
smile and I know you know what Imean or browning, or the old
bakelite planks, and I see asmile and I know you know what I
mean.
So what we've done is we've putan extremely high-capacity
shock absorber between the gunand you and instead of hitting
(07:56):
the bowl of Jell-O with a stick.
We're hitting the bowl ofJell-O with a bag of Jell-ello
tied to the end of the stick,and so the first thing that
happens is the two surfaces aregoing to meet and and and
coupled to each othertransparently.
There's not going to be anypoint loading, and then the
(08:18):
molecular friction that happensin the recoil pad is removed
from the equation.
That's going to knock him over.
We remove a substantial portionof energy from being
transmitted to you because theshock absorber is doing the job,
and that's that multiple platetype self-compensating hydraulic
(08:43):
damper that's built into theFalcon Strike.
Now there are two othercritically important things that
happen when the gun beginstowards you.
First of all, because FalconStrike is a bag full of juice
that has the same density ashuman flesh, as chest wall
muscle.
When the gun starts towards you, the first thing that happens
(09:03):
is it's going to flow to fillyour nooks and crannies.
Now, every other recoil padthat is, for example, rubber,
only where it would be a closedcell foam rubber, think of a
wetsuit cut out the shape of arecoil pad stuck on the end of a
gun.
In all those cases, the forcerequired to bed, for example,
(09:27):
your collarbone into the rubber,the force that your collarbone
is going to see is going tobegin to increase to the point
where the little bits beside youthat are still not loaded reach
the recoil pad.
The rubber only pad, you see,and in that case the collarbone
(09:53):
gets loaded to a lot higherratio of force than the little
bits above and below yourcollarbone or the edge of your
rotator cuff or any of thetendons or the blood vessels,
the muscles, the sinew in yourshoulder.
In the case of the fluidbehavior of the falcon strike
hydraulic recoil reducing system, the fluid will flow to push
(10:15):
equally all over the place.
That's the first thing thathappens.
As this thing comes towards you.
The second thing that happens is, as the pressure comes on
inside the rubber bladder, therewill be a distension.
In other words, the rubber, thebladder is going to become
pressurized from the inside asit flattens out.
As the two bags of jello hiteach other, the hydraulic fluid
(10:39):
in the falcus stripe will becomepressurized and the bladder
will expand and our high-speedvideo shows that the leading
edge of it, as it rolls outsideways, will climb on top of
the shock wave as it's rollingoutwards.
We measured anywhere between10% and 12% more surface area
(10:59):
for the 3 or 5 milliseconds thatthe bladder is expanded
sideways.
So not only does the falconstrike fluid provide the best
load coupling between top,middle and bottom of the pad,
the increased surface areafurther reduces the force on any
(11:21):
one part of your body.
When you finally shorten theshock absorber that's inside the
Falcon Strike, you remove asubstantial amount of energy
from the entire recoil event.
That's a bit of a mind work,that's like, and we can name
them all.
We can name all of thecompetitors that have hydraulic
(11:46):
shock absorbers.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So what you're telling me, martin, is that the
recoil of the gun it feels softon your shoulder.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I'm trying to Guns go bang don't hurt.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Guns go bang, don't hurt, and it's tested.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
It's tested at 85% less feltrecoil, correct?
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Correct, that's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Which is a substantial amount.
That's a lot.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
It is a bold claim.
It is a bold claim and we'vegot thousands upon thousands of
units in the public domain andeverybody's enjoying it.
Absolutely yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
So you and I were talking just a second ago,
before we started this, and Itold you that you could go to a
gun club at any I don't carewhere it's at any tournament,
any gun club, at any time, andyou will hear people talk about
this shell starting to give me arecoil issue with my gun, and
the recoil of this stock now isstarting to bother me.
And this is where your productcomes into play the 85% less
(12:49):
felt recoil and then 35% lessmuzzle jump.
You even hear people say Ican't acquire that second target
because of the recoil.
Well, let me see how I can.
Well, let me start shooting adifferent shell, let me start
doing something different whenall you really have to do is to
try falcon strikes.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Exactly right.
I've not just measured inquantified a way with a
well-built laboratory, thescience of it, but I've heard it
reported 100 ways from Sundayfor that point exactly Less
(13:27):
muzzle rise, less rock backScientific reason or the
mechanical reason why the wholething gets rocked back less is
because of the shotgun disorder,is because of the shock
absorber, and it doesn't matterif it's a rifle sitting at a
(13:47):
bench prone laying on the groundshotgunning sports.
We understand, of course, thatthe shotguns and the rifle
shooting is a whole differentdiscipline.
Each is specific onto the other, each is specific unto itself,
but in all cases, because theshock absorber that's in the
falcon strike removes asubstantial amount of the energy
(14:09):
, it's intuitive that you'regoing to get rocked back less.
Now, since a man is shooting agun, standing up has about a
four-foot pivot distance betweenyour kneecap and the center of
gravity where the gun is pushingthat bo head.
If you push 30 less, the musclegoes up.
30 less done that means you're30 closer to point for the next
(14:31):
shot because there's asubstantial amount of energy
that has been eliminated frombeing transferred to you.
Your your body's reverberatingless.
You have less sensory input.
Your brain is not listening tothe noise of being hit with a
stick, you're able to think fora little sooner, think clearly
(14:55):
sooner.
You're able, with less physicaleffort, to be back on point for
the next shot.
You've lost less time by theflight of the second bird to
acquire it, to planmathematically and make the shot
.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
All of those things are very subtle.
You know it's funny because Italk to people all the time with
sporting clays and crackinglittle orange plates there, like
you do, and they all say thesame thing my follow-up shot
score is going up.
My second shot score goes up.
How come?
I'll tell you why it's becauseyou're not rocked right back.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, it makes a big difference you know, there's a
lot of things that people havetried porting porting your
barrels.
I mean.
You get a shotgun that's eightor 10 or 15 or $20,000 and you
go port a set of barrels on it.
You just devalue the gun.
I have a couple of thosesitting right here.
The packaging, the presentationof the product, the way they go
(15:55):
on the gun, the way they comeoff the gun is so simple that
it's almost hard for me tobelieve that someone even came
up with this.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Well, it's not for my pride's sake, although I am
very privileged to have beenthere when it was.
You know it's pinched me.
It's a really magical thing.
I thank you for that, Justin.
With all of the projects andadventures I've ever had in the
industrial realm, it alwaysdevolves to the simplest object
(16:31):
being the best.
And in the case of Fog andStrike, we have a form factor.
You don't need to have anydraconian modifications to the
stock.
You just screw it on, clamp iton, go shoot the gun.
That is elegantly simple andthat's a basic tenet.
(16:51):
The best part that you can everdesign is the part that you
don't need.
That's the hardest one to putin the box is the part that's
not there.
And in this case we can getequal to or better performance
than any guided chrome rod andI'm speaking in euphemisms.
You understand what I mean tobe the high-end stuff guided
(17:15):
chrome rod, piston and orificeshock absorbers which, for
varying reasons, have their owndynamic limitations.
We can get this equal to abetter performance in a flat
mount inch and three sixteenthsform factor custom fit to the
stock package.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Now tell me this, Martin how is it if I have one,
if I only have one of these?
Yes sir, how hard is it to takeit off one gun and put it on
the other gun?
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Well, it's dead simple.
We have, because the bladderhas juice in it.
We can't drive a screw throughthe whole thing.
Obviously, that would be theeasiest thing to mount.
So we devised a mounting systemthat involves a cam plate.
The cam plate has two cams thatpick up the sealing plate of
the bladder.
(18:06):
The cam plate is an eighth ofan inch thick.
It has two countersunk slotsand those two countersunk slots
provide a wide range ofadaptability for different
locations of screw holes ingunstocks.
The synthetics are a little bitharder to match.
We do have other strategieswith with transition plates and
(18:28):
things for that.
But as far as as the cam plategetting mounted to the gun, if
you can turn a doorknob, you canturn a screwdriver, you can
mount the plate on the back endof the gun.
Then the two cams which lockthe pad onto the two cams which
(18:50):
lock the pad onto the cam platecan be flipped open and the pad
can be carried to another gun.
Now, quite frankly, at theprice point that we can wrap up
all of this performance in, itwould be the equating to taking
the tires off your pickup truckto put on your ATV to go in the
bush.
Uh, everybody that's ever triedand asked me can I have another
mounting plate?
Sure, how many would you like?
(19:11):
Yeah, I'll sell you as many asyou want.
They're cheap, but in the end,once you see what it's all about
, I've had people put them on ahalf a dozen guns.
I've had a guy I had a guy, aprivate man, put one on 30 of
his extensive 30, 30, uh guns inhis extensive collection.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
When I received the one I got, I opened it and I
said I know this is easier thanit looks, because I'd never seen
anything like this before.
You know the mounting plate,the cams I'm going to call them
wings Okay, so you're going tocall them cams.
I I'm gonna call them wings.
Okay, so you're gonna call themcams.
I'm gonna call them wings.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
You flip the wings open and you set the mount, the
pad, in the mounting bracket andclose the wings and done, and
there it is and I thought well,that was super simple by the
time, by the time you buy thosefancy chrome guided, chrome rod
recoil reducing pads, um, I'mtrying real hard not to just
(20:07):
step on anybody's toes because,quite frankly, they all have a
purpose and they all have a uh.
They all bring something to thetable for for uh.
Yeah, that's uh, that's it.
But to be fair, all the all ofthe higher end ones that
incorporate a shock absorber toreduce the energy transmitted to
the shooter, all of those uhwill beat uh at least three to
(20:31):
one for price yeah in a flatmount package that does not
require modifying the stock tohog out all of that expensive
mahogany or walnut not mahoganywalnuts.
I meant to say, you know, if, ifyou, if you buy a $3,800 piece
of Turkish walnut and you tell aguy, here's a Dremel, go to it.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Hog it up.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And I'll be cutting an inch and a quarter off the
end of it.
But don't ask Right, right,because I've got to put all of
these springs and all that stuffin there.
Well, it's a one-way ticket.
Um, generally most of themodern guns, the form factor is
very nearly one inch.
Now for all of the um, the, therubber only pads, which pretty
(21:14):
much um, they all, they've allgrown to accept uh, the, the
inch form factor.
We're not that much like thefull penalty for all of the
increase in muzzle risereduction.
I've had an 83 year old fellathat called me and he says
(21:35):
Martin, I gotta quit shooting.
Bill Winchester.
He says I gotta quit shooting.
He says I wore myself out onthe trap circuit.
He says I'm done.
He says I went from a 12 to a20.
It went from a 20 to a 28.
I had to quit.
He says let me try to focusstraight.
Within three weeks he had run700 rounds through his 12 gauge.
He was just like a puppy again,he rejuvenated.
(21:56):
Another fellow I was talking toa few months ago said he had a
400 shot weekend.
An 85-year-old man.
He says I had a 400 shotweekend.
I was ready to go on Mondaymorning.
Give it to me.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Because the energy that's transmitted to the
shooter is reduced hydraulicallyin the pad.
The bag of jello that's tied tothe end of the stick is getting
a lot of the energy, so thebowl of jello gets less, and
that's the shock absorber that'sin this thing that does that
job yeah, and the rock back.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
You know we're talking about that, just the
recoil, how it saves, or how itchanges the way you shoot.
I shoot a one and eight 1250.
Yep, okay, winchester, and withthe pad.
Without the pad, what is thedifference in what my body will
do with and without a falconstrike?
Speaker 3 (22:50):
we measured, we met we a.
Took a standard size guy, givehim a six and a quarter pound
single shot, break actionshotgun.
Member.
The old grocery gutters, yeah,you bought a flat at 12 gauge
shells and they gave you the gun.
I swear to God.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I don't remember that , but I've I've heard those
stories.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
I've got one in my gun safe and there was a metal
butt plate on this thing.
And the fellow I got it from,he says Grandpa, that was
Grandpa's gun.
He says Dad shot it a couple oftimes and he says I won't go
near it.
They gave me the gun.
Well, that was the first onethat got the fog of strike.
I put that gun in the hands ofa meaty fellow, a guy that could
(23:32):
handle a gun, and after we weremeasuring before and after with
high-speed cameras.
We were measuring muzzle rise,we were measuring the distance
that his nose got movedbackwards, we were measuring the
distance that the gun wasmoving backwards and we were
measuring the distance that hisshoulder was moving backwards.
In other words, between the two, between the gun, that his
shoulder was moving backwards,in other words, between the two,
(23:53):
between the gun and theshoulder.
We were able to calculate thedeceleration of one as it came
into the other, all with highspeed cameras.
And, um, just just funnyanecdote, we could actually see
the shock wave running up theguy's arm all the way to his
trigger finger, and the lastthing that would happen would be
his trigger finger would wiggleat exactly the same time as his
(24:13):
earlobe would wiggle, becausedistance wise, both are the same
distance and so, if you canimagine a, a pebble in a pond
and the rings running out, well,there's your bowl of jello
right there.
And so what we did is we did anextensive series of high-speed
(24:34):
video analyses to measure themuzzle rise, the recoil velocity
, the rock back of the shooter,and that was the basis of one of
our claims.
And then we did a whole bunchof science where we duplicated,
(24:55):
because after about three hoursthe guys Bob's shoulder was good
and red he says, martin, Ican't do this anymore, I quit,
I'm done, I'm done, I'm done.
So anyway, we came back.
We built a laboratoryspecifically to duplicate the
science of a man standing up.
The pivot is four feet, becausethat's the distance between the
(25:19):
kneecap and the center ofgravity where you push the gun.
For a normal man standing up,the weight of the pendulum is 69
pounds, because that is theaverage weight of the thorax of
a man standing up shooting a gun.
The face of the pendulum has aload cell so we can measure how
(25:43):
hard the gun pushes and we havea tracing repeater that measures
how far back the pendulum getsthrown.
With this scientific equipment.
We can not only measure thepeak force, which is what a lot
of the rubber-only recoil padpeople measure.
We're able to measure how muchenergy is transmitted to the
(26:07):
shooter by observing how far thependulum gets moved backwards,
which is identical to standingit on its head, putting the
pivot at the bottom and havingthe man go bobblehead.
So with this instrument we'reable to duplicate and not hurt
anybody while we're doing it.
We can shoot thousands andthousands of rounds.
In fact we have and we'vecompared everything from .22
(26:31):
rimfire all the way to 375 H&H,338
Lapua.
We did not try to 50 BMG, wedidn't want to blow the back end
out of the test cellNow.
We tried every load combination, every action combination,
every muzzle combination, muzzlebrakes, ported
barrels.
(26:51):
We tried every chokecombination with shotguns and
rifles.
All of that to say that whenthe gun goes, bang your 12 gauge
inch or 1, 1⁄8 ounce of 1250,that's standard field load with
a shotgun that weighs seven anda half pounds.
(27:11):
We measured, transmitted 12foot pounds of energy to the
analogy to the test rig withouta energy reducing recoil system,
also known as a rubber onlyrecoil pad, and we consistently
(27:32):
measured between eight and5 and9 foot-pounds of energy
transmitted to the analogy withthe Falkenstripe.
In other words, we're able toreduce the energy transmitted to
the analogy by 30% or 35%easily, and I've seen it go as
high as 46%, 50% being thetheoretical maximum, depending
(27:54):
on how we tune things.
There are concessions to bemade for the form factor,
there's a lot of stuff thatyou've got to get right to make
it right for all the conditions,but we're happy to claim that
we've reduced the energy by 30or 35% easily, which, because
(28:17):
your bobblehead is gettingshoved over.
35% less equals 35% less.
Meserize it's intuitive, it'splain, it's simple, it's elegant
.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I kind of want to talk about you for a minute.
I want to know how you got tothe point that you're at now.
Tell me about where you grew up.
Tell me about how you got intodoing what you do.
Did you used to hunt?
Did you used to fish?
Were you outdoors guy?
Speaker 3 (28:38):
All of the above, there's nothing.
There's nothing that we didn'ttry.
I'm not going to say I went tothe drugstore to buy potassium
nitrate as a kid to make rockets.
I'm not going to say that.
And I'm not going to say thatinstead of making rockets
because they intended to blow upthe launch pad, we made
firecrackers.
I'm not going to say that.
You know, I was in the military.
(29:00):
I shot a whole bunch of .308sand the first time I pulled the
trigger I said this isn't a goodscene.
Laying prone the gas off.
They would crank the gaspressure all the way up so the
things wouldn't foul Just likekicking you in the head.
I know about recoil.
You asked me about where I'mfrom.
(29:22):
I'm a farm kid.
I grew up in the mud, under arock, in a swamp, started with
nothing Sounds like a good place.
I love it, man.
Yeah, yeah, you know, we spentour time in the bush.
There wasn't a square inch ofmy father's farm and the two
farms one on either side that Ididn't know every square inch of
(29:44):
.
You could take me in the bushand spin me around three times
and I knew exactly my, you know,I knew exactly which way.
Uh, uh, you know, growing up,growing up with uh, with a whole
lot of of um, fruitful thingsto explore mechanically and uh
and um.
(30:05):
Yeah, I mean, it gave us, gaveus a lot of uh, me and my
brothers I I was the thirdbrother, the oldest one you
couldn't beat, and the secondone was a little bit cranky
because he couldn't beat theoldest one, so the second one
would turn around and pick on me.
So I just had to get Wiley inthe head and think things
through.
One of my brothers has a bunchof patents for things that go
(30:28):
into nuclear reactors.
And one day we were having afamily gathering and he says and
he was kind of still, he wasmidlife, you know and he said
we're a little bit older now, sowe've gotten over that, but the
competition was still there.
And he says, yeah, I just gotmy third patent you don't tell
me all about it and I said, well, I've only got one yet.
(30:49):
Yeah, anyway, so with the shockabsorber.
And then a few years later, Isaid I'm up to three now.
And he says, yeah, me too.
And then after a while he saidyou know, mike says to me, he
says I got to hand it to you.
He says the government paid todo the R&D on my patents.
(31:09):
He says, but you did it,bootstraps, and you figured it
out and you paid for the wholething yourself.
And he shook my hand and hethanked me for for for being.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, but really that's thedownrange, uh, uh, result of
being a third brother.
I can't beat anybody, so I justgot to get at it right, right,
um.
I I learned an awful lot frommy older brothers, uh, in
(31:33):
machining and welding andmechanics and all of that and um
, and just just, you know I washardwired.
I started playing with clockswhen I was six years old.
You know, give me a screwdriverand a pair of pliers.
I was taking everything apartmy mother's sewing machine, you
name it.
And so there's a lot of innateability mechanically.
I have a lot of spatialrelations aptitude and to me, to
(31:58):
observe the clean, simplestphysics explanation for what I'm
looking at is a game.
It's a joyful thing to figureout all of the variables and
understand the ratios of whythings happen, you know.
And so, applying that innatecharacteristic to me to the next
(32:29):
design project or the nextthing, there's always a flash of
inspiration that comes bylooking to see where you can
apply this new understanding.
And then you look around andyou run through all of the you
know cognitive, contextual linksthat you can make and you say,
(32:53):
well, that might fit into this.
So as soon as we had the firstshock absorber it's a little
thing about this big and I putit on the anvil and I've wailed
on it with a sledgehammer andit's just a little round thing
that's three inches round and aninch and a half high, and the
shock absorber that's in it isabout oh I don't know
three-eighths and an inch and ahalf high and there's a the
(33:14):
shock absorber that's in.
It is about, oh I don't know,three eighths of an inch thick
and two inches around, which isprobably smaller than the shock
absorber in the falcon strike.
The purpose of this prototypewas to understand or to explore
the physics of the idea that Ihad had standing in front of
that test machine for thelanding gear in the big city
(33:37):
there, and when I hit it with asledgehammer it just went splat.
It's like throwing a brick inmud.
It just whooped and stoppeddead in its tracks and I said,
oh boy, this is going to be fun.
Patents, patents, patents runall the way.
I can't believe, honestly.
I mean, they've been shootingguns probably since the year
(33:59):
1300, and they've been shootingshoulder-fired guns reliably
since about the year 1500.
And I cannot fathom in my mindhow it's possible that nobody in
the last 1500 years or 1200years hasn't put the two ideas
together.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yeah, you would think so.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
That.
That freaks my mind, that that,that, just that.
That I find that.
I find that a bit of a fairytale myself, personally.
But to, to, to circle back toyour question where does this
come?
Well, let me ask you, where doany elegant, simple, adaptable,
self-compensating machines comefrom?
(34:42):
Where, where, where do we have?
Where did we get an airplane?
Where did we get a genogen?
Where did we get you know?
Where did we get, uh, uh, thehigh voltage?
Did we get you know?
Where did we get the highvoltage DC light bulb with you
know and downrange?
Why is this still called theEdison Electric Company, right,
(35:02):
for example?
Where do these things come from?
That's, I've had wonderfuladventures and I'm privileged to
think that this is an event.
That is an aha moment.
It's just this is cool, this iscool.
And to take everything out ofthe box that doesn't belong
(35:22):
there and all you got is a bagfull of juice with a shock
absorber floating around thathas all these attributes that
add up to removing 30 or 35% ofthe energy and reducing the felt
recoil by a whole bunch,because the mechanical coupling
between the stick and the bowlof jello removes the energy.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Yeah, I think a lot of people that'll listen to this
will definitely be moreinterested in Falcon strikes
products after this.
But for sure, now let me askyou this Falcon strike started
as a company when?
What year was that?
Speaker 3 (35:54):
2012.
And how?
Speaker 2 (35:56):
and tell me where it's grown to now?
Uh, 2012,.
We did fundamental science.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
We did, uh, you know a whole lot of boring stuff that
nobody really uh cares tolisten to, um, but truly is
required to get to where we are.
We did fundamental science, wedid.
Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh.
Get to where we are.
We did.
Fundamental science, we did.
I've got a mathematical formulathat can take and configure a
(36:20):
shock absorber to produce anyresult I need, industrially or
otherwise, and that takes timeand costs a lot of engineering
and money and whatever doesn'tmatter.
And so, starting with that, by2014, we had a clear mandate to
develop products thatincorporated this shock absorber
.
So 10 years ago, the firstFalcon Strike got made.
(36:42):
It's still on my 12 gauge.
It's still on that six and aquarter pound single shot break
action, shotgun in my gun safe.
Single shot break action,shotgun in my gun safe.
Um, by 2015, we already had sixmold sets uh, an 870,
non-express uh, the, the, the,the 870, remington 870, the one
(37:04):
with the supercell.
We had one for that.
We had the browning, uh, thebrowning, uh, what you'd what
you'd call a 725 satori, thatsort of thing.
There were probably three orfour.
Oh, the Mossberg 500 was on thefirst round of molds.
Then we developed relationshipswith a few stores in our area
(37:31):
so that we could observe thebehavior of the object and start
to get the consumer feedbackfor the performance.
We, in 2016, got into atwo-tier distribution in the
province of Quebec in Canadaspecifically so that we would
(37:55):
shelter the and I'd probably thecorporate strategy is probably
transparent.
Anyway, we had a regionaldistribution arrangement with
200 stores to begin to gatherthe product behavior on the long
term and basically to test themechanical engineering, the
(38:17):
dynamics, the service life, theresponse from the customer and
to learn how to commercializethis in a logical way.
You know, at one point and manytimes, I felt to myself I'm
holding the great pearl like a,a fellow that wrote the great
(38:41):
giraffe, wrote the book theGreat Pearl, or the fellow
standing on the shore and he'sgot nothing, but he's got the
great pearl in his hand.
And in the end, everybody elseloses, and he does too, because
you can't capitalize on thegreat pearl.
I know, and I still have, atrajectory of industrial growth
(39:03):
past lifetimes of me and and thepeople around me, uh, for all
of the industrial applications,but with the Falcon Strike, with
the branding exercise and allthe work that goes into that.
We didn't want to clumsily losethe great pearl, if that makes
sense.
And so I'm all for organicgrowth and I'm all for reasoned
(39:27):
growth within my means, reasonedgrowth within my means,
specifically to have a good,solid company and not lose the
great pearl.
And so, um five years ago now,we launched in the states, based
on the market, the longitudinalmarket study in a region, you
know and uh, with rebranding,more online presence, all of
(39:56):
that stuff takes a tremendousamount of.
There's not just one bulldozerpushing on the mountain, there's
a hundred bulldozers pushing onthe mountain to move it even a
little bit, to get all of thebricks in the wall that build a
successful new technology.
(40:17):
And so now, since five years,we have a presence in online
sales in the USA.
We have 18 different model sizesof the custom fit the custom
fit is directly measured.
Sizes of the custom fit thecustom fit is directly measured
to fit the stock exactly.
Okay, we've got 18 preordainedsizes for the Browning, the
(40:40):
Benelli, the Beretta, the CZ,mossberg, remington, marlin,
parker, hale.
Yeah, all right, we got thisfigured out.
Yeah, all right, we got thisfigured out.
We got into a mold developmentprogram that measured all the
guns in the public domain andarrived at an averaged shape and
size to suit the bestarrangement, the best spread of
(41:05):
them.
Yeah, the custom fit comes in apre-fit size that will fit your
Browning 725 without anymodifications.
No cutting, no grinding.
Yeah, your Mossberg 500, yourgrandpa's Mossberg 500, we've
got a direct bolt on All the oldRemington 870s with the excuse
me, with the Remington Supercell.
(41:27):
We got one that bolts exactlyfor that.
We have a lot of them,supercell, we got one that bolts
(41:51):
exactly for that.
We have a lot of them.
You know the Benelli SuperBlack with the Comfort Tech, the
one that pops out.
We were able to develop amounting system to go and click
into and we've got a directmatch for all of those, for
example.
That's all in your custom fitsizes.
We also, to make up the smalldifferences or the people that
don't want to put as much effortinto measuring, we make a
multi-fit.
The multi-fit is exactly thesame as a small, a medium and a
large custom fit, except weadded a skirt.
(42:12):
The skirt is 3-8ths of an inchwide and when you peel the skirt
back, put it on the gun andthen snap the skirt over the
stock.
The blending of the stock tothe pad becomes automatic by
that 3-8ths wide skirt.
It's not a slip-on.
It still requires screwing themounting plate.
The only thing is the skirtdoes the blending of the stock
(42:35):
to the pad automatically.
So we make two principal kindsthe custom fit and the multi fit
.
Now the multi fit is useful forblack guns.
It's useful for camo gunsbecause the skirt hides the
glint of the mounting plate.
If you're shooting at crittersthat are blinking at you, a lot
of them don't like the thingblinking back.
So the multi-fit is a goodchoice for all the hunting
(42:58):
situations.
The multi-fit is a good choicefor stocks that are either
outside of what is common in thenormal, or people that cut
their stock, or people that yourson getting into shooting and
appreciating focus.
Right, because now he's notthinking about the recoil, he's
thinking about his game, right?
That component, the recoilcomponent, is removed from the
(43:21):
equation.
Therefore, now he's an animaland he's hunting that little
orange thing to outgrow thejunior 20 gauge that they got,
(43:41):
or they're going to grow into aseries of spacers while their
frame is getting bigger untilthey get to the point where
they're going to go and get akrieg off k80 or some other
fancy fancy machine, the silversights or whatever, right, um,
uh, major proxy, yeah, anyway.
So the point is this that themulti-fit has a good use for
(44:01):
accommodating different sizestocks if the situation is going
to change.
Those are all good uses for themulti-fit, the one with the
skirt.
Now we also developedgrind-to-fit plates because
there are still other conditionswhere somebody cuts their stock
, somebody refinishes theirstock, somebody takes a draw
(44:25):
knife and a piece of walnut andmakes their own.
You know, somebody has aparticular aesthetic in mind and
they come up with somethingthat is their creation.
I'm all for that.
The Grind2Fit plates have 1, 8inch extra material all around
so that when you mount theGrind2Fit plate to the stock you
(44:47):
have an eighth of an inch extramaterial on the grind to fit
plate.
Each of the grind to fit plates.
It matches the custom fit modelthat it's meant for a 5103.
The one I talked about for thefor the 725 or a browning, for
example, is going to take a 5103.
(45:09):
Usually, if you have a situationwhere the stock's a little bit
bigger and it's hanging over bya 32nd of an inch, quite frankly
it's a sin of astronomicalproportion to stand the stock
your nice shot going up in therack to go into the clubhouse to
take a whiz and you hook thecorner of the varnish and you
(45:29):
pop the varnish off the end.
That's a sin of astronomicalproportion.
So for coffee table furniture,quality match between the
mounting plate and the varnish.
We make the grind-to-fit plates.
In this case, if it's a 5103custom fit, it would take a
5103G grind-to-fit plate whichyou can then make masterfully to
(45:53):
the wood, protect and polish.
A lot of the gunsmiths whatthey'll do is because this is
high grade, aircraft gradealuminum the plates are made
with.
They'll take a bright, clean,polish.
They'll take a nice mirrorpolish.
And a lot of the high endinstallers and gunsmiths will
take the time for theircustomers' sake to bring them to
(46:15):
a high luster.
And now you have not just aperfect match of a Falkenstreich
on a high-end gun, you've got ashowpiece as well.
And all of these things arepossible with the grind-to-fit
plates, which is another way ofaccommodating every size under
the sun.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Can you take A custom stock that a lot of these pro
shooters use and make the padfit their stock perfectly?
Speaker 3 (46:42):
The way to accomplish that specifically is to measure
the shape that you want tomount it to.
Go to our website.
There are charts, there aretools, there are printable
templates.
You're able to print thetemplate true to scale.
They are engineered drawings,not pictures.
(47:05):
You reproduce them correctly.
Then you can trust that thesheet of paper that has the
profile on it is exactly whatwe're going to ship you.
You stand the gun up on thecoffee table and say yes, no,
some people cut it out with apair of scissors.
It's probably the best course Itook in kindergarten was how to
run a pair of scissors.
Stand it up on the end of thegun.
(47:27):
I since moved on to drill holesin steel.
Anyway, the point is this thetemplates that are available on
our custom fit selection pagepermit you to have a true to
scale representation deliveredright to you at the internet to
verify if there is a direct fitin the custom fit line, if you
(47:52):
would prefer on the website toexplore the multi fit and not
bust your head over it.
The multi fit skirt is discreet.
It's not universally chosen forsomebody that's going to spend
$10,000 or $20,000 on a shotgunthat has a platinum pheasant on
one side and a 24-karat gold dogon the other side.
(48:15):
But quite frankly, in answer toyour question, how do I fit any
gun with focus right?
The first thing you do is go onour website, find the size
chart, take the pad off of theback of your gun, measure the
wood exactly, go in the chart.
The chart has three columns theheight of the stock, the width
(48:38):
of the stock and the modelnumber.
Click on the model number.
The template will open in a newwindow.
Hit the printer button.
Go down to your coffee tablewith your kindergarten scissors,
cut it out, try it.
You're off in the races if wedon't have in our 18 sizes a fit
order for the closest customfit size that is contained
(49:01):
entirely within the stock andthe grind to fit plate that goes
with it.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
I've really learned a whole lot more than I thought I
did.
I mean, I've read about FalconStrike and watched, I've seen
your online presence as far associal media and all that's
concerned, and I even have themas far as social media and all
that's concerned, and I evenhave them.
But talking to you reallyclarified a lot of the questions
that I had.
Listen, I like your analogies.
I like the amount of work andtime and effort that you've put
(49:28):
into something.
I can tell that you're reallypassionate about this product.
Speaker 3 (49:31):
Thank you, Justin.
I really appreciate yourinterest and it's great talking
with you as well.
I really do appreciate it.
I've got hundreds upon hundredsof stories directly from people
that went out and tried it.
I had a fellow bring me hisgrandfather's 270 a short barrel
, short stock, little rifle, anduh kick like a mule and uh
(49:54):
couldn't do it, couldn't do it,and so all of the emotional
attachment to that gun couldn'tdo it, couldn't do it, and so
all of the emotional attachmentto that gun couldn't do it.
I put a focus strike on.
We went down by the railroadtracks and I said, all right, go
do it.
And he shot the gun the firsttime and he didn't say a word,
(50:15):
he just slumped his shouldersand he got quiet for about 20
seconds and he choked up.
He says what did you do to mygrandfather's gun?
Give me another bullet.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,bang bang.
That's amazing to think thatthe emotional attachment we have
to such an elegantly craftedmechanical object, it's
(50:36):
universal.
There aren't the works of art.
We talked a little bit aboutart before we started.
Well, guns are a work of artand if we can remove the one
objection that what goes thatway is coming this way too right
.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
Right.
Speaker 3 (50:54):
If we can remove that one objection or bring it below
the point where your animalstarts to react, well, then you
can start thinking about whatyou're trying to accomplish and
just be natural and do it.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
You know, rejuvenated 85 years.
Last year, two, three years agoI had a 74-year-old granny,
shirley Shirley calls me.
We got a focus strike on her 50Cal BMG.
She's in the 1,000-yard club.
She shot, I don't know, secondor third in the weekend average
(51:34):
average.
She got 8, 7, 8's in 50, 8, 7,8's average in at a thousand
yards with a 50 cal BMG in 53shots.
I think.
Yeah, I think that was thestory.
So here's a 74 year old grannylaying on a mat with a 50 cal
BMG plugging a thousand yardsand she got an 8, 7, 8's
(51:59):
diameter average.
Speaker 2 (52:02):
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (52:05):
Uh, I, there was another fella.
Uh, the the gun, the gun rangeofficer, the, the, the fire
control officer, the gun rangecomes in.
There was a, there was a.
It was a store that that uhwent under and uh, a store that
went under and they had a.
They had a closeout sale and hecomes in with an 1895 Marlin
and he didn't bring back a newgun.
(52:25):
He says I shot this thing threetimes.
He didn't come in with his newgun and put it on my gun counter
.
He came in and threw it down.
He says this thing kicks toohard.
He says put a focus, strike onit.
He took that 1895 Marlin 1870.
That's sorry.
Uh 45 70 and 1895 45 70.
His name is bruce, he's thefire like.
(52:46):
I said, the fire control officerat the range, past president.
In fact, I'm going to goshooting again next week,
doesn't matter.
He went home with his 45 70 andhe says I ran 37 rounds
plinking with a 45-70 in at-shirt.
I ran out of bullets.
He says I'm going to have toreload some more.
They got an offload target at500 yards and he was plinking.
(53:09):
Him and his buddy Dale wereplinking with a 45-70.
Bang, bang, bang.
I heard that story more thanonce.
I heard a fella in BC, in theWest Coast it might have been
Washington State, maybe Him andhis son ran 100 rounds between
the two of them in a 45-70.
Playing Bang, bang, bang, bang.
(53:31):
Okay, my turn.
They were playing in a 45-70with a focus train.
And the reason that thesethings continue, you know.
The fellow I told you about ran450 shots in the weekend, an
older gentleman that would havebeen black and blue from his
earlobe to his belly button.
In any other case, by reducingthe energy transmitted to the
shooter to a comfortable amountbecause of the hydraulic shock
(53:55):
absorber that's in this thing,it extends the range, the
comfort, it allows you to getinto the behavior of what you're
trying to do, rather than thebehavior what you're trying to
do is doing to you.
Right, yeah, yeah, and, and,and, and, on, and, on, and on
and on.
I've heard yeah, anyway, it's,uh, it's, uh, it's, it's a
(54:15):
privilege, man it it really is,justin to participate in such an
elegantly simple realization.
Hey, let's put a bunch of thesethin films together in a bag
full of juice that has the samedensity as the flesh of a human.
So now we're not hitting thebowl of Jell-O with a stick.
(54:36):
We're hitting the bowl ofJell-O with a bag, tied on the
end of the stick.
Yep, and the Jell-O in thestick, the Jell-O in the bag and
the Jell-O in the bowl get toknow each other intimately and
it makes the load couplingtransparent.
You don't get bruising, youdon't?
You know, it doesn't hurt.
We reduce the muzzle, rise.
Guess what We've just?
(54:57):
We've just made a significantadvancement in the firing of
shoulder fired guns.
Mark Leary, where did the nameFalcon Strike come from?
You know, there's aninteresting thing that happens.
Where does the name brandingcome from?
Well, it was the result of abranding exercise from a very
talented man, our firstmarketing director, and the crux
(55:21):
of what we ended up with was inmy mind's eye.
I'm the falcon and I see thetarget at 185 yards and that's
that one little point in all ofthe space, that's the one little
point that the bullet has toget.
And I'm the falcon and I'vetaken my speed dive and I'm
going, going.
The target's getting bigger,the target's getting bigger and
(55:44):
zip, pop, bullseye, gotcha.
And so you know where did the,where the name come from?
We did, you know, we, we, we sataround the room drinking coffee
and comfortable couches, andyou know, you know, are we going
to call it an animal, are wegoing to call it a machine, are
we going to call it a, anemotion, you know?
Uh, okay, let's talk aboutemotions.
(56:05):
Okay, let's talk about emotions.
Uh, the super pink pillow, uh,the, the big woods, uh, the, uh,
the, uh, the, the, the mama'sboy, uh, right, Okay, well all
right, write those down.
Let's talk about animals.
Well, we got a cobra and we gota bear, and we want strength
and we want aggression and wewant precision, we want elegance
(56:33):
.
Okay, let's talk about that,let's talk.
What do we want to accomplish?
What do we want to say?
Okay, let's talk about that,let's talk.
What do we want to accomplish?
What do we want to say you know, um, the, the, um, yeah, that's
, that's, it's a process, uh,and and that is just one example
of the effort that was put intoarrive at an elegant, simple,
(56:56):
high-performance solution.
Speaker 2 (56:57):
All right For the people listening.
Where do they go to buy this?
Speaker 3 (57:01):
Falconstrikeusacom an elegant, simple,
high-performance solution.
All right For the peoplelistening.
Where do they go to buy thisFalconstrikeusacom?
Speaker 2 (57:06):
Falconstrikeusacom and everything's on there.
You ship it right to them.
Speaker 3 (57:09):
Ship it right to them .
Our distribution center isonline.
Everything's in stock.
It has been since the beginning, made on our chunk of ground
with our steel and our aluminumand our rubber and our screws.
I'm a firm believer in that.
There's a hole.
There's a hole.
Yeah, you know what I'm going toshut up now, but I'll tell you
(57:31):
one thing.
Let me put it to you this way40 years ago, when I dreamt of
(57:59):
having good hand tools, snap-onFuller, you took apart all the
mills.
They took apart all the machineshops.
They took apart they builtsatellites everywhere else.
You know what I'm talking aboutand to the point where it cut
the ability to do it here.
Now, part of being born in themud, under a rock, in the swamp
(58:22):
was going to get every singleexample of machine tool that I
could and gather them and clutchthem like mother hen under my
wings and learn how to use themand how to be creative and apply
them for exactly what they weremeant for them, and how to be
creative and apply them forexactly what they were meant for
.
My entire life has been a grandadventure of learning, and I
(58:47):
didn't start with a machine shopbecause I wanted to make money.
And I didn't start with amachine shop because I wanted to
wear out a bunch of humans andtrade four quarters for a buck,
plus the 21 cents profit, theblue chip profit.
Yeah, I didn't want that.
What I wanted was the privilegeof making anything I wanted
whenever I wanted, and to keepthat art alive.
(59:09):
All of the old dinosaurs.
I made it a fervent, passionedexercise to go and talk to all
the old dinosaurs, impassionedexercise to go and talk to all
the old dinosaurs, beginningfrom forging steel, to
understand the art, the craftand to resolve to a scientific
reason why things happen.
(59:30):
I've got a full-on manualmachine shop.
I've got a full-on CNC machineshop.
I've got mold-making capability.
I've got rubber moldingmachines, plastic ejection mold
machines.
I've got mold making capability.
I've got rubber moldingmachines, plastic ejection
machines.
I got punch presses.
I've got cranes.
I can, I can, I can.
Cnc plasma cutting table.
I got all the welding processesI gotta, I can.
I got a lot of toys.
I can make castings.
(59:51):
I can make forgings right here.
Um, yeah, all that stuff.
I can melt down an oil engineblock and cast a mold block,
machine it out and make.
I wouldn't because the qualityof the mold wouldn't be there.
But I can make the blank tomake the mold block, to make a
(01:00:12):
falcon stripe, and all of thatis an example of being the
candle holder, the flame holderright Of right here, right now.
Now I'll tell you.
People say, martin, how comeyou're not a millionaire yet?
Well, I'll tell you, becauseI've been holding the flame here
.
(01:00:32):
I didn't do it for the money.
I did it for the joy ofunderstanding the science.
I did it for the privilege ofdoing what I want when I have
the inspiration to do it.
I did it for the adventure ofspending 15 years inspiring
young men and being thenurturing, the one that would
(01:00:53):
just click that switch and getthem to see the elegance of it.
I got to sit in the mahoganyboardrooms.
This freaks me out.
Man, sit in the mahoganyboardrooms and here I come with
my crafted little bag ofexperiences and, across the
table, phd, phd, engineer,engineer, phd, phd.
(01:01:14):
They got the bean counter, theygot the top purchasing guy.
There's about 10 of them there.
They all got their arms crossedand they know what machine they
want and they know they want totake a chunk out of my hide to
get what they want right.
They're aggressive, I'll grantyou that.
And on my side there's a PhDengineer that I taught with a
(01:01:35):
really crafty dynamics engineer.
He did him and I did tag team,all kinds of business Myself.
There's a salesman and there'sthe owner of the business,
that's it.
And we would have an hour and ahalf meeting in the mahogany
boardroom of the aircraftmanufacturing place and after an
hour of talk and blah, blah,blah, blah, blah, they would all
lean in and say, okay, martin,what are we going to build?
(01:01:57):
What a privilege.
And I'll tell you, we madequarter million, half a million
dollar turnkey machines to 50ton, hydraulic presses to squish
landing gear.
We made all kinds of stuff totry to break the rotor parts on
helicopters and had a lot ofinteresting adventures.
Now, that doesn't come fromnothing and I hope you don't
(01:02:21):
think I'm being rude or proud.
Please understand that.
It's the description of thepassion to hold the knowledge
and the ability to do so as theproduct Does.
That make sense.
Ability to do so as the productDoes.
That make sense.
(01:02:41):
And included in all of that arethe machines.
And I'm not going to make thebest aluminum casting there is,
but I'll make you one and all ofthe rest of it, how to forge,
how to make the forging does,how to make production.
All of that stuff is allsitting in reserve the hard way
while everybody went to China toget a boatload of junk.
(01:03:03):
I'll tell you where that junkis it's all in the landfill and
they're hauling another boatloadand finally somebody said wait
a minute.
Anyway, that's a whole otherstory.
Now, when the COVID hit,everybody started climbing back
on board, made in USA, becausethey were screwed.
I had a smile a foot and a halfwide, and I'll tell you why
(01:03:28):
Because everything that wasrequired was sitting in a pile
waiting to be turned on, click.
I didn't go to China foranything, not a bit of it, or
anywhere else.
It's all made here with oursteel, with our people, with our
hands, with our grit, and therewas no shortage.
(01:03:50):
I don't think I had a backorder for more than 10 parts, 10
recoil pads, in all of the lastfive years in the USA.
Why?
Because I make it here.
I hire my neighbors, they work,they're happy.
We make it with our steel andour aluminum.
What's the problem?
(01:04:11):
There is no problem and I takegreat delight in well anyway,
you're passionate about it.
There's different ways of doingthings, there's different ways
of going about it, but I tellyou, I sleep at night because
(01:04:32):
I've got everything I need.
I'm richly blessed by a goodbunch of folks, a round of happy
people.
Richly blessed by a good bunchof folks, a round of happy
people.
And, yeah, that goes a long wayto soften the blow of having
done it the hard way.
And there's never any problem,there's just no, there's just
(01:04:52):
everything's up from here.
And so that same organic growthtrack of biding my time to make
sure I didn't drop the greatpearl in the mud, losing it
right.
Now we're set and a whole lotof people are enjoying the
fruits of that disciplined slowburn.
(01:05:14):
Because I don't intend to get aflash in the pan.
Get on the boatload of junk,get in, get out, make my money
and yeah, that's no justicethere in my scale of ethics.
Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
Thank you for coming on.
I appreciate you and we lookforward to talking to you again.
For sure, Absolutely Call the800 number, press 2.
We look forward to talking toyou again.
Speaker 3 (01:05:38):
For sure, absolutely Call the 800 number, press two.
It comes to me.
Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
Does that come straight to you?
Now?
I'm tech support.
Yeah, your tech support.
Speaker 3 (01:05:46):
For now, anyway, yeah , uh, tech support, because I
know it so well, and so rightnow we're in a phase of, of, uh,
of growth that that is makingFalcon Strike, the corporate,
the whole thing scalable,sustainable and profitable those
(01:06:08):
are the three words that Irepeat to myself.
It has to be scalable,sustainable and profitable,
which requires a whole differentskill set than making an
elegant, shiny object.
Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
Right, yeah, but that's where we're at right now.
Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
I appreciate your time.
Appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 3 (01:06:30):
I really appreciate the time we had together.
It's a privilege to have theopportunity to describe the
passion that I have and theprocess of participating in such
an elegant thing calledFalkenstrike.
It certainly is a grandadventure.
It's a lifelong grand adventure.
The whole process has beenwonderful and I really enjoyed
(01:06:53):
our afternoon together.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
Thank you.
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