Speaker 1: When you think of Weatherbe, you think of flat shooting magnums,
Speaker 1: you think of the Vandguard rifle, the Mark five rifle,
Speaker 1: and the long tradition of American gun manufacturing since Roy
Speaker 1: weather Be founded the company back in nine But today
Speaker 1: we aren't here to talk about any of that. We're
Speaker 1: here to talk about their shotgun lineup. I'm joined by
Speaker 1: Luke Thorson. He is their vice president of Sales, Marketing
Speaker 1: and product Development. How's everything going, Luke, fantastic face high domn.
Speaker 1: How's everything going over there at weatherby Man. The last
Speaker 1: couple of years have been a wild ride. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: really really good. Business is good. We can't complain. There's
Speaker 1: definitely been a number of, let's just say, challenges in
Speaker 1: this post COVID world that we all are enduring. But
Speaker 1: business is good, so I really can't complain too much.
Speaker 1: Got you? I got you? Yeah? How do you like
Speaker 1: the Were you with whether Be when you guys were
Speaker 1: in California? Have you only been with a company since Wyoming?
Speaker 1: Just since Wyoming. I was one of the very first
Speaker 1: hired as part of the transition from California to Wyoming.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think I could have ever been
Speaker 1: a California residents. Sorry to anybody that is, but you know,
Speaker 1: I just it was tough. I was from the industry.
Speaker 1: I actually joined, whether it be from Walter Arms and
Speaker 1: Fort Smith, Arkansas. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I figured I
Speaker 1: knew what your answer was going to be if you
Speaker 1: did move, that you were enjoying Wyoming better. But since
Speaker 1: you started there, your answer kind of confirmed what what
Speaker 1: your answer would have been if you started in California.
Speaker 1: So no, I appreciate you having you on. I've been
Speaker 1: able to shoot. Um, you know, the weather be element
Speaker 1: both last water pol season and this year for Turkey.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna um definitely have a little bit bit
Speaker 1: of experience that I can weigh in there. But um,
Speaker 1: we're gonna start like every other episode, We're gonna take
Speaker 1: some questions that you guys get asked a lot, you know,
Speaker 1: from from social from you know, people emailing us, and
Speaker 1: if you have any questions of your own, please email
Speaker 1: us at ct D at Phelps game Calls dot com
Speaker 1: and we'll make sure to to pitch your questions and
Speaker 1: some of these experts in the field. So the first
Speaker 1: one I have for you, Luke is why are the
Speaker 1: element and eight teen I shotguns. Why did you guys
Speaker 1: decide to go with inertia driven mechanics? There great question. Um.
Speaker 1: So we actually used to have um some gas shotguns
Speaker 1: in our line and and pretty much every gas shotgun
Speaker 1: on the market, Uh, you you need multiple uh pistons,
Speaker 1: I guess for lighter and heavier loads. And it became
Speaker 1: kind of a customer service issue. And not to mention,
Speaker 1: a gas gun shoots a lot dirtier, you need to
Speaker 1: clean it more often, and so for for a lot
Speaker 1: of reason, and we just gravitated towards the inertia system.
Speaker 1: Are our sales kind of started moving that way as well,
Speaker 1: and so, um, we just kind of took that as
Speaker 1: customer feedback. And uh we put a lot more effort
Speaker 1: into the inertia system because it's cleaner, it's you're gonna
Speaker 1: you're gonna shoot a wider range of shells with more reliability,
Speaker 1: and uh, for those reasons, we just overall felt it
Speaker 1: was a better fit for our line. Do you find
Speaker 1: that the inertia shotguns so regardless of you know, being cleaner,
Speaker 1: are they just more repeatable? There's less breakdowns, less issues
Speaker 1: with the with the inertia than than with gas. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so. I mean that really the benefit on
Speaker 1: an on an inertia shotgun is that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: shot shell and shot shell powder they're just they're they're
Speaker 1: inherently dirty, and so when you're using that dirtiness to
Speaker 1: cycle the action, um, you just get a lot of
Speaker 1: build up inside and so you need to clean more
Speaker 1: frequently on a gas gun. On an inertia gun pretty
Speaker 1: much a hudd perent of the stuff that's you know,
Speaker 1: firing the shot is leaving out the front of the
Speaker 1: barrel and not coming back into the receiver where all
Speaker 1: the moving parts are. So it just leads to a cleaner,
Speaker 1: more repeatable system for sure. And so knowing how I
Speaker 1: cleaned my shotguns inertia is definitely for me because I
Speaker 1: don't like to breaking down and clean clean them very often,
Speaker 1: so it's a bonus. Yeah. And then I'm always jump
Speaker 1: on the you know, the turkey hunting forums, you know
Speaker 1: all of that, and people talk about changing out spring.
Speaker 1: So that kind of leads me to my next question
Speaker 1: that we're still on inertia. You know, you guys are
Speaker 1: trying to design a spring or use a spring rate
Speaker 1: that you know, a comp a companies either a two
Speaker 1: and three quarter inch low base all the way up
Speaker 1: to your three and a half inch Turkey magnums. Have
Speaker 1: you guys found that you're able to find a spring
Speaker 1: that works, you know, fairly well from everything or um
Speaker 1: does whether be promote, you know, finding a spring that
Speaker 1: works better for the loads that you intend to shoot
Speaker 1: out of the gun. You know, there's there's all this
Speaker 1: hopping up, but there's also just buying them like I
Speaker 1: do and shooting the thing, you know, and and it's
Speaker 1: performing well no matter what I throw at it. So
Speaker 1: from the factory, our guns are set up to run
Speaker 1: mostly everything. So I think I would say there's two
Speaker 1: exceptions to that. If you're a shooter that's gonna go
Speaker 1: grab a gun and like just go run nothing but
Speaker 1: low base like seven eighths shot like lightweight stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: you you might benefit by getting a slightly lighter spring
Speaker 1: rate if you have no intention on on shooting you know,
Speaker 1: a heavier magnum load. Uh. If you do that, though,
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna have issues with heavier magnum loads. What
Speaker 1: we the spring we ship with I believe is like
Speaker 1: the most forgiving across the range. That said, like if
Speaker 1: you know, you get a brand new shotgun out of
Speaker 1: the box, in your first hundred rounds, you you potentially
Speaker 1: might have a few, uh, if you're shooting like light
Speaker 1: field loads, you might have a few that failed to
Speaker 1: cycle fully until you kind of wear in the gun
Speaker 1: just a little bit. But typically after you get two
Speaker 1: hundred rounds, it's gonna eat pretty much everything. And I
Speaker 1: don't really recommend you play with the spring rate unless
Speaker 1: it's for a purpose built shotgun like competition shooting, or
Speaker 1: if you're gonna shoot nothing but heavy magnums. Going to
Speaker 1: a heavier spring rate to soften the recoil a little
Speaker 1: bit is an option. But like, if you call our
Speaker 1: customer service, they're just gonna tell you to not mess
Speaker 1: with it. I like that, Ander, And I noticed that
Speaker 1: when I was first shooting the element Um just to
Speaker 1: get my red dot sided in, I was shooting a
Speaker 1: lot of just you know, low base seven eights loads,
Speaker 1: and you know, it was funny. You could literally watch
Speaker 1: how far the shotgun I was shooting from the same location,
Speaker 1: Like the first show kicked a couple of feet away
Speaker 1: from me, and that and that next show kicked you know,
Speaker 1: six or seven and by time I got to the
Speaker 1: you know, the turkey loads, we were kicking them out
Speaker 1: there away. So yeah, that that spring, you know, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned in that first hundred shots is definitely kind
Speaker 1: of getting broken in and and fit in. So great
Speaker 1: great information on why whether it be went with those
Speaker 1: inertia UM shotguns and in lieu of using gas operated shotguns,
Speaker 1: I would add just in you know, in full transparency
Speaker 1: and fairness to that, like typically that that first hundred
Speaker 1: shots is not necessarily something that you have to do
Speaker 1: in a gas shotgun. But but that's your trade off
Speaker 1: is like a gas gun is gonna, you know, from
Speaker 1: the first shot probably give you the same performance as
Speaker 1: it does in the last shot, assuming that you clean
Speaker 1: it well all the way through. Uh. But the inertia guns,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter whose it is, a little bit of
Speaker 1: breaking period is beneficial. Yeah, yeah, I thinks. So the
Speaker 1: next question, which doesn't really apply to me because I'm
Speaker 1: not necessarily an upland hunter, but um, how does the
Speaker 1: Orion compared to the other over and unders out there
Speaker 1: in the market and where's it placed? Uh? That is
Speaker 1: that is one of the top questions we get the Orion,
Speaker 1: which is our over under UM is kind of an
Speaker 1: magical price points. So the over under market's unique. So
Speaker 1: you get you, you get some of the upland guys
Speaker 1: like I I sometimes joke the upland Hunters are like
Speaker 1: the cost players of Hunters, Like they like to get
Speaker 1: you know, the the wax cotton stuff, and UM almost
Speaker 1: like play dress up a little more. I mean all
Speaker 1: of us Hunters played dress up a little bit right
Speaker 1: with the camo and whatnot, but UM, like some of
Speaker 1: the over under guys take that to the next level.
Speaker 1: And what that can lead to is like a competition
Speaker 1: to see you has the most expensive gun. UM. I
Speaker 1: think there's a law of diminishing returns with with some
Speaker 1: of the game on the on the shotgun side, So
Speaker 1: on the Orion specifically, we're around a thousand to eleven
Speaker 1: hun bucks at retail UM and that I would put
Speaker 1: the Orion up against. You're like silver Pigeons and White
Speaker 1: Onyx and Satris all day long, but those are all
Speaker 1: two thousand dollar plus guns. So for basically half the price,
Speaker 1: you get the same level of performance. We have some
Speaker 1: pretty good looking wood on on the Orion's as well,
Speaker 1: and the metalwork and the lock up is really really solid,
Speaker 1: and so you get substantially more than you would get
Speaker 1: out of like, uh, some of the guns that are
Speaker 1: in that like you know, three to six hundred dollar
Speaker 1: price point, and there's just really a gap in the
Speaker 1: over undermarket from like that six hundred dollars to the
Speaker 1: Orion at a thousand, and so what we're seeing is
Speaker 1: that people want to be taken seriously and not show
Speaker 1: up with like, you know, just a kind of a
Speaker 1: junkie over under. And they show up and like you know,
Speaker 1: can hang with uh with the two thousand shotguns all
Speaker 1: day long, and then they can spend more money on
Speaker 1: their wax cotton perfect. You gotta you gotta look the part,
Speaker 1: you gotta feel the part. But you know, if if
Speaker 1: those guys are like me, you know, it comes down
Speaker 1: to performance, and you want that gun to perform, which
Speaker 1: it sounds like that gun. You know, talking with cal
Speaker 1: and um, you know he shoots. I think the twenty
Speaker 1: gauge Orian you know, had had great luck and really
Speaker 1: likes that gun for all the the upland stuff he does.
Speaker 1: I think I was talking to Callaghan right after we
Speaker 1: sent him the twenty gage Oriyan and he goes, dude,
Speaker 1: there's something magical about this gun. Like I've been hunting
Speaker 1: for a long time. I'm out there with snort and
Speaker 1: my my first three shots are three kills. He's like,
Speaker 1: I'm not that good of a shooter, so it must
Speaker 1: be the gun perfect perfect. So I really appreciate you
Speaker 1: taking you know, those two questions. Um. Once again, if
Speaker 1: you have any questions for any of our guests you
Speaker 1: want answered, feel free to hit us up on social
Speaker 1: or email us at ct D at Phelps game Calls
Speaker 1: dot Com. Will do our best to kind of put
Speaker 1: him into the podcast. So now we're gonna jump into
Speaker 1: some of the questions I had for you and and
Speaker 1: just kind of go through your lineup. UM, what's there?
Speaker 1: What each gun is good at? UM? What you know?
Speaker 1: And we'll walk through that. So my my first question
Speaker 1: for you is can you walk us through those models?
Speaker 1: We we actually already mentioned them all, but the eighteen I,
Speaker 1: the element, the Oriyan kind of differences in them, and
Speaker 1: as we were talking before, the podcast is kind of
Speaker 1: a step up in nature. You know, you've got different
Speaker 1: levels to the shotgun. UM, so if you can explain
Speaker 1: that a little bit, Yeah, So we'll talk about um
Speaker 1: kind of the element, then the eight nine, then the orion.
Speaker 1: So the element family is UH. It's inertia driven. As
Speaker 1: we talked about. We import those shotguns out of Turkey,
Speaker 1: and there's multiple models. So we've got the base model,
Speaker 1: which is the element synthetic and pretty much all of
Speaker 1: these that all of the elements are available in four varieties.
Speaker 1: So you've got a twenty gauge with a twenty six
Speaker 1: and twenty eight inch barrel, and then you got a
Speaker 1: twelve gauge with a twenty six and twenty eight inch barrel,
Speaker 1: and then all of the elements are going to be
Speaker 1: a three inch chamber. So we got the base model,
Speaker 1: which is an element synthetic, and then kind of moving
Speaker 1: up in the line, then you've got the Element upland,
Speaker 1: which is UH like a map fish walnut with glossy
Speaker 1: metalwork with it's a gloss blued metalwork, So if you're
Speaker 1: gonna do waterfowl duty, that's probably not the best option.
Speaker 1: Then we have the Element Waterfowl that is a camo
Speaker 1: dipped it's available in a couple of different patterns. And
Speaker 1: then my personal favorite is the Element Tungsten, which is
Speaker 1: a black polymer stock with tungsten sera coat on all
Speaker 1: the metalwork. It really looks good and has a ton
Speaker 1: of corrosion resistance from the sera coat. UM. So on
Speaker 1: all of those UM, I don't know every single price
Speaker 1: point off the top of my head, but prices basically
Speaker 1: roughly start at retailer from like six hundred to about
Speaker 1: eight hundred, you know, as you kind of step up
Speaker 1: in model. And then on the eighteen I family we
Speaker 1: have the water fowler Um, the eight Synthetic, which just
Speaker 1: as all black with blued metalwork, and then we've got
Speaker 1: the eighteen NI Deluxe, which is like a semi fancy
Speaker 1: wal nut. There's some really amazing pieces of wood in
Speaker 1: the EIGHTEENI Deluxe, and then it has a nickel finished
Speaker 1: aluminum receiver UM and the the Deluxe is a three
Speaker 1: inch chamber, and then all the other models of the
Speaker 1: eighteen I or three and a half, and so that's
Speaker 1: part of that step up strategy. The elements three inch
Speaker 1: chamber e ten I except for the Deluxe is a
Speaker 1: three and a half UM. And additionally, the receiver on
Speaker 1: the eight teen I has a dovetail. If you want
Speaker 1: to mount an optic, you can do that easily. Um,
Speaker 1: you could also mount an optic to an element, but
Speaker 1: it's going to require a little bit of gunsmith attention
Speaker 1: to to drill and tap some holes for you. Um,
Speaker 1: It's it's doable. We just don't ship it that way.
Speaker 1: It would add costs that most people are not mounting
Speaker 1: optics to shotguns today, so there's a reason why we
Speaker 1: do that. But then we put the costs into the
Speaker 1: eighteen I so that if people really did want to
Speaker 1: do that, they could step up. Eighteen eyes are going
Speaker 1: to be going from basically right right at nine on
Speaker 1: the synthetic models and the Waterfowl model, and then the
Speaker 1: Deluxe is gonna it's kind of a bigger step up.
Speaker 1: You're you're up about eighteen hundred bucks for the Deluxe
Speaker 1: because you get that nice wood, the high glass metalwork.
Speaker 1: They really look nice. Yeah, it look really good. I
Speaker 1: did have a question for you, Luke. Are you guys
Speaker 1: still making the Turkey specific element with that short barrel
Speaker 1: or we are, yes, thank you. I kind of glossed
Speaker 1: over that. So we actually have a family on our
Speaker 1: website that we just call the Element Turkey that has
Speaker 1: a twenty two inch barrel that we offer in both
Speaker 1: a twelve and a twenty so and that comes with
Speaker 1: an extended choke from the factory. It will be an
Speaker 1: extended full So yeah, it's thank you for the reminder
Speaker 1: on that. Yeah, and and um, you know, I want
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about I'm gonna go on
Speaker 1: a little tangent here on your luke. But um, you
Speaker 1: know we with SS coming on board and in the
Speaker 1: big chain es like these twenty gauges and twenty two.
Speaker 1: It's so nice to be able to pack a gun
Speaker 1: around that ways you know, sub seven pounds, um, And
Speaker 1: and you're shooting twenty gauges and the things you're throwing
Speaker 1: patterns like our you know, our our three and a
Speaker 1: half inch magnums were you know, ten years ago with
Speaker 1: with old lead shot. And so these twenty gauges, I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna continue to just see growing popularity more
Speaker 1: and more so is youth turkey hunters or even grown
Speaker 1: ups that just you know, adults that don't want to
Speaker 1: uh pack a big heavy twelve gauge around. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: those those little short guns with TSS are just um man,
Speaker 1: they're impressive. That t S S is mean stuff. I
Speaker 1: can't Yeah, it's unless you've seen it, you know, perform.
Speaker 1: It's people think you're lying when you talk about how
Speaker 1: good it is, but it's so amazing. Yeah. We had
Speaker 1: a turkey in Kansas this year, a twenty gauge. My
Speaker 1: buddy shoots a twenty gauge, UM, and it hung up
Speaker 1: it It came into twenty seven, didn't have a good shot,
Speaker 1: kind of hung up out there at forty and the
Speaker 1: thing never even moved. I mean, and that's just the
Speaker 1: twenty gage with T s S. It's it's incredible stuff.
Speaker 1: But starting to make some of these, uh, these smaller
Speaker 1: you know, sub gauges or smaller gauge shotguns. UM, you know,
Speaker 1: really really good turkey medicine. I can't tell you a
Speaker 1: real quick story about that. So my son I was
Speaker 1: hunting with him in South Dakota this year, UM, and
Speaker 1: I gave him a rifle that had a red dot
Speaker 1: on it. Um, And not a rifle, it was my
Speaker 1: shotgun with a red dot on it. We had turkeys
Speaker 1: that hung up at like thirty yards and he pulls
Speaker 1: up on him and he shoots, and I'm watching the bird.
Speaker 1: Nothing happens, and he's like, I nailed it, Like what
Speaker 1: are you talking about well, there was another bird at
Speaker 1: sixty yards. He didn't see the one at thirty. He
Speaker 1: saw the one at sixty and absolutely crushed a bird
Speaker 1: at sixty yards with that t S S. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: holy cow, that stuffs mean it. I mean it was
Speaker 1: dead in its tracks. Yep, yeah, it's it's impressive. I
Speaker 1: shot my turkey the sar it under thirty with the
Speaker 1: twelve gauge and you know, the element and three TSS
Speaker 1: and I felt bad for it because it was it
Speaker 1: wasn't pretty, but no incredible stuff. You know out of
Speaker 1: your guys guns, um, great results. So I have to
Speaker 1: ask why we're here and maybe you're you're not at
Speaker 1: the liberty to say yet, but is there any talks
Speaker 1: in smaller shotguns? I know out west right now, like
Speaker 1: there's a lot of groups of guys like you can
Speaker 1: only bring a four ten to camp now with TSS
Speaker 1: and yeah, the sub gauge guys are are definitely growing
Speaker 1: in number, UM, and I guess I would just say, uh,
Speaker 1: stay tuned. We do have some some work, some some
Speaker 1: some sub gage stuff in the works. So no, no
Speaker 1: specific timeline right now, but uh, yeah we're not We're
Speaker 1: not ignorant to the fact that they're growing a popularity. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think they're more curious that it's to you know,
Speaker 1: maintain the sport of turkey hunt. And it happened to
Speaker 1: get things that thirty or thirty five yards versus as
Speaker 1: we just said, tss out of a twenty or twelve.
Speaker 1: It's almost like turning the game onto cheap mode a
Speaker 1: little bit if you want to, if you don't have
Speaker 1: the restraint, um, you know, did not pull the trigger.
Speaker 1: Uh So yeah, that's that's good to hear. Um. So
Speaker 1: on they on on that on the turkey model that
Speaker 1: you brought up. A full disclosure, I'm like a hardcore
Speaker 1: waterfowl guy, and so that was like my main entry
Speaker 1: into all of hunting was waterfowl. Uh. And so I
Speaker 1: was kind of a guy that like always wanted to
Speaker 1: have one shotgun to rule them all. And just like
Speaker 1: in the last couple of years, I've been carrying a
Speaker 1: turkey you know, turkey length barrel in the field and
Speaker 1: like a light bulb went off for me on why
Speaker 1: the why the shorter barrel was such a huge benefit. Um,
Speaker 1: I didn't hit any branches on trees anymore with a
Speaker 1: inch barrel. You've got quite a bit of barrel when
Speaker 1: you've got the shotgun over your shoulder, that's hanging up
Speaker 1: out there, and you're just hanging up on trees left
Speaker 1: and right, and on the shorter like twenty or twenty
Speaker 1: two inch barrel. You know, it's only six inches, but man,
Speaker 1: it makes a huge difference just when you're kind of
Speaker 1: picking your way through the woods when you're trying to
Speaker 1: make a stock on some turkeys, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: light bulb, that's why this is a thing. And so
Speaker 1: now now I'm now I'm okay with being a multiple
Speaker 1: shotgun guy. Yeah, yeah, no, I there's something to be
Speaker 1: said for you know, packability and not getting hung up
Speaker 1: on everything for sure. And you know I always sho
Speaker 1: back in the old days, you know, mass prigate five
Speaker 1: with a long but it's just a pain. And so
Speaker 1: these these shorter barrels are definitely nicer. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: to pack around the woods, regardless of what what you're hunting.
Speaker 1: So I my introduction to whether be I and I'm
Speaker 1: completely honest, Like last year I showed up for the
Speaker 1: duckler episod. Oh, I'm not a big waterfowl hunter, you know,
Speaker 1: I've I've shot some you know, traps, some skeet and
Speaker 1: stuff before, you know, fairly comfortable at swinging and shooting,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's it's a little bit of second nature.
Speaker 1: So we show up with Sean um there in the
Speaker 1: potholes of Washington for a Duckler episode and he hands
Speaker 1: me whether weather be element and I'm all right, you know,
Speaker 1: and this this gun had already been through I don't know,
Speaker 1: four or five stops. You know, it's it's it's not
Speaker 1: anybody's personal gun. So people are beating it around, you know,
Speaker 1: throwing it around. It's obvious that the gun had been
Speaker 1: used a lot to this point. And you know, we're
Speaker 1: I think we're shooting. I was shooting Federal Black Cloud
Speaker 1: that day. And um, we we get our scouting all done,
Speaker 1: get down into the setup, and that first morning, um,
Speaker 1: you know, get to start shooting it. And I I
Speaker 1: can't say because I'm I'm not a water fell hunter.
Speaker 1: I'm I don't know what to expect out of a shotgun.
Speaker 1: But man, the thing shot well, at tracked, well, it
Speaker 1: cycled everything I threw at it, um and uh on.
Speaker 1: On that episode. Also, I have to say that these
Speaker 1: these elements make a heck of a a boat or
Speaker 1: um if you need to row back to to to
Speaker 1: doc after your boat breaks down. So you know, the gun,
Speaker 1: how far did uh? We're guessing eight hundred to a
Speaker 1: thousand yards. And the way we got lucky is it
Speaker 1: was supposed to be. We were checking the wind, you know,
Speaker 1: like every good duck hunter should. Um, we were supposed
Speaker 1: to have a win. That would have never let us
Speaker 1: roll back. But thankfully, you know, hour and a half
Speaker 1: before daylight, the wind was blowing the wrong way and
Speaker 1: actually was helping us out a little bit. Otherwise we
Speaker 1: would have had to we had made the call a
Speaker 1: shame to get a tow or come get picked up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was we We started with you know stomp seats
Speaker 1: you know, as our row, and they weren't working well.
Speaker 1: So we took the shotguns in their cases and used
Speaker 1: the butts, and you know, we went and finished it
Speaker 1: off with a goose hunt the following day where we
Speaker 1: didn't need the boat, and then um went and walked
Speaker 1: in and the gun performed well. So tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit, you know on your waterfowl hunting. You know
Speaker 1: that we've already talked about the element but is there
Speaker 1: anything else you want to go into or or chokes
Speaker 1: at ups or or stuff that you know you think
Speaker 1: you want to talk about. Is regarding your guys shotguns
Speaker 1: and water failing. Yeah, so I guess on a choke
Speaker 1: set up perspective, all of our shotguns are gonna ship
Speaker 1: with multiple chokes, so it's gonna have, you know, a
Speaker 1: cylinder modified improved cylinder a full across the board. UM.
Speaker 1: The the difference in the element in the E ten
Speaker 1: I choke system is that the element uses the the
Speaker 1: I m C choke system UM, and then the UH
Speaker 1: A ten I uses the cry O plus, which is
Speaker 1: kind of what the newer Bonelli's and Burretta's are using.
Speaker 1: So you can absolutely run an aftermarket choke in both,
Speaker 1: but you just need to note the difference in the
Speaker 1: I m C and the cry O plus from the
Speaker 1: element and the A T and I. UM. I typically
Speaker 1: just shoot our standard modified choke. Probably not that great
Speaker 1: of a shooter that I can tell a massive difference
Speaker 1: in my pattern. UM, but I feel like I hit
Speaker 1: more birds than most of the guys said I hunt
Speaker 1: with at the same time. So UM, I just like
Speaker 1: to I just like to leave a standard set up
Speaker 1: with a modified and I run Black Cloud a lot
Speaker 1: and some other loads as well. But um man, I think,
Speaker 1: I think, uh, the big thing is just go do it.
Speaker 1: Get time in the field. That's the number one number
Speaker 1: one tip is do it more. Yep, yep, um, you
Speaker 1: know the same thing. And then so then I get
Speaker 1: getting ready for Turkey season and really want to shoot,
Speaker 1: you know, Like as I mentioned, I've been an old
Speaker 1: pump guy eight thirty five. I had the gun kind
Speaker 1: of all set up for Turkey. It was great, but
Speaker 1: I had seen what was available through you know, your
Speaker 1: guys guns through some of the Meat Eater team that
Speaker 1: we're already shooting them with TSS, and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm getting dumped to put up a pattern that's
Speaker 1: half as good as that with some of the new stuff. So, um,
Speaker 1: we get an element ordered up and you know, I've
Speaker 1: got a loophold red dot ready. Um, I got an
Speaker 1: Indian Creek choke ready in. We throw some number nine
Speaker 1: TSS down it, and man, am I impressed. But one
Speaker 1: of the things, rut of the gate I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give you. I can't let you off the podcast
Speaker 1: without giving you a little bit of grief. So I'm
Speaker 1: sitting here already, you know, me being me. Everything's late,
Speaker 1: it's getting close to season. Um. I think I emailed
Speaker 1: you right off the bat, uh luke that Hey, yeah,
Speaker 1: because I think I was looking at the eight ten
Speaker 1: nine and I've seen that you guys had the dovetail
Speaker 1: on it, and then that there were adapters. I could
Speaker 1: go right to a rail, and I guess I that's
Speaker 1: my own fault. I wasn't looking. So I had ordered
Speaker 1: a system that was ready for the teen I and
Speaker 1: wasn't ready to mount to the element UM. You guys
Speaker 1: have any plans to drill and tap that receiver UM
Speaker 1: in the future. But I was able to quickly get
Speaker 1: a rail fifteen minutes. You know a little bit of
Speaker 1: gun smith ing and and you know the back end
Speaker 1: of that receiver, and I'm just gonna pass on. This
Speaker 1: is not weather be saying this. This is me and
Speaker 1: my own gunsmithing. UM. The back of the receiver has
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of medal, and we were able to
Speaker 1: get you know, the entire UM screw set and then
Speaker 1: the other are ones we did. We're able to get
Speaker 1: set with you know, at least three threads and then
Speaker 1: we had to do just a little bit of a
Speaker 1: grinding on the inside, but a real simple process. Weather
Speaker 1: Bees not promoting this, but it's what we knew we
Speaker 1: had to do to get that red dot mounted. Um
Speaker 1: is there any you know, future plans for maybe drilling
Speaker 1: and tapping that element or is as you had mentioned,
Speaker 1: is it is it more of a point and shoe
Speaker 1: or you guys just feel that enough people aren't putting
Speaker 1: optics on those No. I definitely think that there's more
Speaker 1: optics coming um there. There's no doubt there's more optics
Speaker 1: available from you know, vortex and loophold and others coming
Speaker 1: into the space. Um So it's it's absolutely something that
Speaker 1: we're aware of and uh in the element family, I
Speaker 1: will say that on some future models, I think you
Speaker 1: can look forward to some abilities to mount optics easier
Speaker 1: than today. Yeah, there were you know, there are options
Speaker 1: out there. Um. I was just looking. I wanted drilled
Speaker 1: and tapped. I didn't want a saddle mount. I didn't
Speaker 1: want like a rib mount, which companies out there do have.
Speaker 1: Um So, so we were able to get that gun
Speaker 1: all set up. The one thing I noticed once I
Speaker 1: had got you know all of my and I've got
Speaker 1: a pretty high um mount from my red dot from
Speaker 1: from loophold is my cheek was really low, and I
Speaker 1: I love the idea that you know, a red dot
Speaker 1: just can be pointed. You can actually float your head
Speaker 1: off of the cheek piece. You know. I did end
Speaker 1: up adding a a adjustable cheek piece on that shotgun
Speaker 1: just to make it feel more comfortable. When I shouldered it,
Speaker 1: my head was you know, I could see the red
Speaker 1: dot versus uh having to search for it a little
Speaker 1: bit or lift my head up. Um. But man, I
Speaker 1: threw the standard Indian Creek choke in that gun. Um
Speaker 1: as you had mentioned, it takes the the I M
Speaker 1: P choke, not the plus, which when I was doing
Speaker 1: some searching, I actually had to get educated on him, like,
Speaker 1: all right, that's the one that like the the Winchester
Speaker 1: or some of the old Winchester shotguns, some of the
Speaker 1: old Mossberg and then some of the old Brownings. So
Speaker 1: you kind of figure out what what choke you need,
Speaker 1: But you know, I don't. This is where I don't
Speaker 1: know what to give credit to, whether it's a choke
Speaker 1: or the shotgun, whatever it is. All I can say
Speaker 1: is that whether be paired up with the Indian Creek
Speaker 1: Number nine is like and I patterned out to sixty,
Speaker 1: I can see why your son flat level to turkey
Speaker 1: at sixty yards like I didn't. I don't want to
Speaker 1: shoot one there. I'm you know, being running game calls
Speaker 1: and trying to get things you know, somewhat close. Yeah,
Speaker 1: get them on camera. But I love having that that
Speaker 1: that confidence that if anything does run out there crippled
Speaker 1: or for some reason. I usually don't get to that
Speaker 1: mad at the turkeys, but if I get mad enough
Speaker 1: at the turkeys, UM, no, I shouldn't say that. I
Speaker 1: still would rather call him man. But you have the
Speaker 1: ability to um, like I say, my my old forty
Speaker 1: yard group with the old Bossburg is now equivalent to
Speaker 1: a sixty You know my six yard groups better. Um,
Speaker 1: So whatever combination that is, it's it's really really good.
Speaker 1: And UM, I have to throw Dirk under the bus
Speaker 1: a little bit. My my buddy here, I know your
Speaker 1: guys gun will cycle three inch TSS all day long
Speaker 1: because he doesn't go on any turkey hunt and only
Speaker 1: expect to shoot it that thing once. Um. He always jokes,
Speaker 1: I didn't go all the way to I didn't go
Speaker 1: all the way to Kansas to just shoot once. And um,
Speaker 1: I think on multiple birds he had multiple quick follow ups.
Speaker 1: But I can we can vouch for for the cycling
Speaker 1: of the shotgun because he's he's had to do it
Speaker 1: multiple times. It's ready for a quick follow up. That's awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 1: uh yeah. One thing. One thing I'd say about um
Speaker 1: the patterning and just kind of the shotguns in general,
Speaker 1: is sometimes the Element series we import from Turkey, right,
Speaker 1: there's obviously a lot of other Turkish import shotguns, and
Speaker 1: so people will say, what's the difference between the weather
Speaker 1: being you know, some other Turkish import And I think
Speaker 1: it's the work that we do up front to make
Speaker 1: sure that you're gonna get a really good bore, a
Speaker 1: really good choke to bore mating, which leads to a
Speaker 1: better pattern. Um. Are all of our shotguns do pattern
Speaker 1: very well? Um? I think that's that's the difference. Is
Speaker 1: like we stand behind our product. We've got our customer
Speaker 1: service team. We've been a business for seventy seven years
Speaker 1: and we've just got we've gotten pretty good at this
Speaker 1: and we've got a good system and so uh I
Speaker 1: I firmly believe that we probably have the best Turkish
Speaker 1: shotgun on the market, and the element it's really solid,
Speaker 1: and it's priced really competitively, and it all kind of
Speaker 1: leads just to what you're talking talking about, which is
Speaker 1: a great patterning shotgun that cycles really well, that's just
Speaker 1: kind of performed day in and day out. I have
Speaker 1: to ask, and I know, I know you're from the manufacturer,
Speaker 1: so you're gonna maybe, uh, but but it's a question
Speaker 1: I get asked a lot. Um. I did an article
Speaker 1: way back when on polishing you know, barrels and and
Speaker 1: you know, not letting your not letting your wad kind
Speaker 1: of slow down all of this crazy stuff. Yeah, do
Speaker 1: you guys get asked a lot about lengthening the forcing
Speaker 1: cone or polishing the barrel. You know, there's guys out
Speaker 1: there like Roy Roberts and some of these you know
Speaker 1: Turkey shotgun gurus that work these things over even you know,
Speaker 1: the the other brands. You know, they're taking the way
Speaker 1: more expensive of inertia driven shotguns and they feel like
Speaker 1: they need to rework them. And I'm not I know
Speaker 1: you're you're never gonna recommend that you do this, but
Speaker 1: what what's your take on you know, forcing cone, lengthening,
Speaker 1: you know, polishing the barrel. Uh is it? Is? It overkills?
Speaker 1: It not needed? As I mentioned, I I shot my
Speaker 1: gun out of the box. But UM, give us a
Speaker 1: little bit insight on on what you guys feel, you know,
Speaker 1: good bad, you know, avoiding warranties all that sort of stuff,
Speaker 1: as far as starting to modify and polish these guns
Speaker 1: and lengthening forcing cones and whatnot. I think if you,
Speaker 1: I mean from just to answer the last part of
Speaker 1: your question first, like if you just polish your barrel
Speaker 1: or polish your forcing cone a little more, there's no
Speaker 1: issue with a warranty from that point. But if you
Speaker 1: start to like talk about lengthening the forcing cone, which
Speaker 1: if if, if people aren't familiar, that's the portion of
Speaker 1: the barrel right in front of the shot shell itself
Speaker 1: where it tapers from the diameter of the shot shell
Speaker 1: down just a little bit for some constriction, which is
Speaker 1: forcing the shot to be tighter. Um, if you start
Speaker 1: to mess with the actual material removal in the forcing cone,
Speaker 1: then um, that's that's where you're gonna have like, you know,
Speaker 1: our customer service team is going to be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we can't really stand behind that anymore, because you've materially
Speaker 1: altered the firearm. UM from an actual just performance standpoint, UM,
Speaker 1: I would say I have never messed with with that.
Speaker 1: I've polished some forcing cones and like try to get
Speaker 1: a better shine out of a barrel. But I think
Speaker 1: there's such a law of diminishing returns there that um
Speaker 1: for for nine point nine percent of shooters, you're you're
Speaker 1: gonna see like basically no improvement. I think it's it's
Speaker 1: pretty darn good as it is, and you you you
Speaker 1: might get like one or two more pellets inside of
Speaker 1: your like whatever six inch circle at thirty then you
Speaker 1: would otherwise. I mean it's kind of like, uh, like
Speaker 1: I used to be a really good golfer. I just
Speaker 1: don't have the time anymore. Um. If I went to
Speaker 1: the range today to like practice, I could put the
Speaker 1: time into doing that and shave like a single stroke
Speaker 1: off of my game. But so what, like what does
Speaker 1: that really matter? And and that's that's where I'm coming,
Speaker 1: you know. I I read the forums all the time.
Speaker 1: I'm always looking for any advantage that at least has
Speaker 1: a good return. But I feel that's one of those
Speaker 1: like modifications of diminishing returns, and people may argue with me.
Speaker 1: You know there's guys with their their super shotguns all
Speaker 1: done up. Um, but I just look at my my
Speaker 1: pattern right out of the gate with you know stock amo,
Speaker 1: no custom loaded, you know, federal TSS number nine's and
Speaker 1: three in and a choke that I screwed on and
Speaker 1: I went and shot the gun. And it's like what
Speaker 1: more do I need? Like how much how much debt?
Speaker 1: Or can that turkey be? Um? What what I'm already doing?
Speaker 1: So yeah, and you know there there's there's only the
Speaker 1: opportunity to make some of that worse if you go
Speaker 1: and start modifying stuff. That'd be my fears. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: stand behind our product. If for some reason you've got
Speaker 1: a shotgun from us that's not uh having a good pattern, like,
Speaker 1: call our customer service team and let us take care
Speaker 1: of that issue for you before you start fixing it
Speaker 1: for yourself. You know what I mean? Yep, yep. Is
Speaker 1: there anything else you wanna you cover on your guys
Speaker 1: a shotgun line anything that you know people may not know, Um,
Speaker 1: give us, give us anything we might not have covered
Speaker 1: on on the shotgun lineup. Really, I think probably best
Speaker 1: kept secret is the E T and I we we
Speaker 1: launched that the eighteen. It launched at the end of
Speaker 1: two thousand and eighteen. That's where the eighteen came from.
Speaker 1: Um it's it's essentially, um, a really really darned good
Speaker 1: inertia shotgun. So if if you if you want a
Speaker 1: three and a half inch gun that's capable of shooting
Speaker 1: and pretty much eating anything you can throw at it.
Speaker 1: Ten I is probably our best kept shotgun secret. Uh,
Speaker 1: if you want a gun that, um it's you know,
Speaker 1: a little more friendly on the wallet that can do
Speaker 1: anything and everything elements for you. Um, they're they're both great.
Speaker 1: I shoot them both a lot. Um and Yeah, other
Speaker 1: than a there's really officially no secrets behind them. UM.
Speaker 1: We've we've been in the shotgun business for a whole
Speaker 1: lot of years, not all seventy seven years of our history.
Speaker 1: Probably only about fifty years have we been doing shotguns.
Speaker 1: But UM, you know, I think weather B is guilty
Speaker 1: ourselves of of forgetting that, um, forgetting that we have shotguns.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's it's not necessarily a primary focus from a
Speaker 1: marketing perspective, but a little known fact is that in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, we shipped more shotguns than we did rifles.
Speaker 1: Like we we're big time in the shotgun game and
Speaker 1: we have a really good system. So yeah, good good.
Speaker 1: I know we were I I preface this, we were
Speaker 1: going to talk shotguns, but I have to ask why
Speaker 1: I'm here. Is there anything new on the rifles side
Speaker 1: that that you know you can talk about or or
Speaker 1: that that's coming coming our way. I was I was
Speaker 1: thinking that you might try to sneak in a question
Speaker 1: about some other things. But uh, yeah, and as a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, there is so. Um we have a
Speaker 1: new cartridge. Our Our latest cartridge introduction is going to
Speaker 1: be the weather be rpm UM, which is our six
Speaker 1: five weather b RPM necked up to. We're currently doing
Speaker 1: our final uh load development with production brass. Um. There's
Speaker 1: already public knowledge out there. UM. Sammy, which is kind
Speaker 1: of like the governing body for cartridges and firearms, published
Speaker 1: the cartridge drawings back in January. Uh, and we've just
Speaker 1: had a hard time getting brass, but we have production brass.
Speaker 1: We're doing final development and sometime early August, just like
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks away, uh, we will be shipping
Speaker 1: the three thirty at RPM. So why three thirty at rpm. Well,
Speaker 1: I think there's kind of a gap in the market
Speaker 1: for an ultra lightweight, shorter barrel, Like we're gonna have
Speaker 1: um probably somewhere between an eighteen inch and a twenty
Speaker 1: barrel in the production rifle line. That's shooting a two
Speaker 1: grain projectile somewhere in the neighborhood of feet per second.
Speaker 1: So that's a lot of energy, uh in a lot
Speaker 1: of performance with a big hole in a really lightweight,
Speaker 1: five pound rifle package, which is pretty awesome. Now does
Speaker 1: bark a little bit like it's you're you're gonna feel
Speaker 1: a little but like it's a awesome bear gun. It's
Speaker 1: an awesome elk gun. Um. But yeah, for anybody that
Speaker 1: wants to punch a big hole with and not carry
Speaker 1: a lot of weight, this is this is the thing
Speaker 1: for you. And like I said, it'll be ready to
Speaker 1: hunt with this fall. Yeah. Hearing you describe the barrel
Speaker 1: length and some of the ballistics, Like instantly, I'm out
Speaker 1: here in Southwest washing like we hunt a lot to
Speaker 1: elk in the timber, Like it's a perfect gun. Like
Speaker 1: I'm leaving the twenty inch barre Old seven mag in
Speaker 1: the truck. I'm gonna grab thee with an eighteen or
Speaker 1: twenty inch barrel seems like a lot better option. Um
Speaker 1: for those that don't know, Luke, we're so that those
Speaker 1: ballistics that you mentioned off like me trying to quickly,
Speaker 1: you know, compute it to what it would be in
Speaker 1: a twenty Where does that put it like with the
Speaker 1: three eight wind maag or is it more case capacity,
Speaker 1: more performance or like where does it sit amongst the
Speaker 1: others out there? It's gonna be a little bit faster
Speaker 1: than a three thirty wind bag. We've got like the
Speaker 1: fastest production three thirty eight with a three thirty eight
Speaker 1: three seventy eight weather be but the difference is um,
Speaker 1: in that seventy eight you have to use our nine
Speaker 1: lug are big heavy action. UM. In this RPM, it
Speaker 1: uses our smaller, more spelt six lug action, so you
Speaker 1: save a pound in the action itself. And then because
Speaker 1: we just don't have a hundred and whatever hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty grains of powder to bird, it's more like a
Speaker 1: ninety then UM we can use such a shorter barrel
Speaker 1: and it's it's proving to be a pretty efficient round.
Speaker 1: So UM that's where we start start being able to
Speaker 1: chop the barrel lengths down. So originally we thought we're
Speaker 1: going to be launching with the barrel, and through our
Speaker 1: testing we're like, man, we can we can really get
Speaker 1: this down, which you know historically Weather he is big
Speaker 1: on velocity. We still are, but that usually comes to
Speaker 1: mean you've got to shoot a longer barrel as well.
Speaker 1: So we're really happy to have this added to the
Speaker 1: line where we've got a short barrel Magnum performance rifle
Speaker 1: in a lightweight package because I don't think there's anything
Speaker 1: else like it in this weight class. Are titanium action
Speaker 1: with the carbon fiber stock in the back country two
Speaker 1: point I was going to tip the scale like almost
Speaker 1: exactly five pounds. Geez, that's that would be nice to carry. Um, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it sound like it sounds like good round. Maybe I'm
Speaker 1: don't want to speculate because I shoot heavy Magnums as well,
Speaker 1: but maybe not super fun to shoot. But I'll trade
Speaker 1: off packability sometimes for for um, you know, you don't
Speaker 1: ever feel the shot when you're shooting at a critter. Anyways, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the trade off onto the new three third
Speaker 1: RPM is that we do have some some magazine length
Speaker 1: restrictions so what kind of You're not going to have
Speaker 1: much room unless you single feed, Uh to shoot a
Speaker 1: projectile more than two and or fifty grains? Yep, yep.
Speaker 1: That makes I shoot accustom made three edge, which is
Speaker 1: all single feed, which most of the time, if we
Speaker 1: do hard jobs, a good thing, but there's been sometimes
Speaker 1: where it's been a very bad thing. Um, so yeah,
Speaker 1: keeping those in Like I'm shooting a three inerd grain
Speaker 1: out of it, so it's it's definitely single feed. So yeah,
Speaker 1: thats a really long, floaded, great cartridge then yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but but no, instantly like you started to describe that,
Speaker 1: and like I say, a perfect brush gun, Um, you
Speaker 1: want of the ex you're thump in the back country
Speaker 1: in a super lightweight package. It sounds like it's going
Speaker 1: to fit that bill and check that box. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're excited to bring out to market. Yeah, thanks thanks
Speaker 1: for sharing that that new information. So we'll roll back
Speaker 1: to shotguns here and we'll kind of close up. So
Speaker 1: with everything we've talked about shotguns, if you were a
Speaker 1: new user just looking to get a multipurpose shotgun that
Speaker 1: you can go out and you know, shoot a limited ducks,
Speaker 1: go out in turkey hunt with all spring, and then
Speaker 1: you know, want to maybe go do some upland like
Speaker 1: what would be your shotgun choice and maybe explain why
Speaker 1: I personally would probably choose our element tungsten. Uh. There,
Speaker 1: there's no cameo pattern on the gun. It's a black
Speaker 1: synthetic stock with the tungsten sarah coat, so it's basically
Speaker 1: fully weather proof. If your camo changes over time, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna have clashiness with your cameo pattern. It can
Speaker 1: do duty as a waterfowl gun as a turkey gun,
Speaker 1: I would choose the twenty six inch barrel over the
Speaker 1: just so it's a little shorter, a little more friendly
Speaker 1: for doing double duty. If it was purely a waterfowl gun,
Speaker 1: i'd i'd go for a twenty eight. But if you
Speaker 1: want something that just run, uh, run and gun no
Speaker 1: matter what and where. Um, I think that twenty six
Speaker 1: inch barrel is the way to go, and the element
Speaker 1: tungsten perfect. Well. Thanks for that information, Luke, and thanks
Speaker 1: for coming on the Cutting Distance podcast. We really appreciate it. Um.
Speaker 1: Like I said that, I don't have a lot of
Speaker 1: experience waterfall hunting with it, but it performed perfect. And
Speaker 1: then me and Dirk are real happy with our our
Speaker 1: Turkey setups and and they they did well. How can
Speaker 1: people find more out about whether it be how do
Speaker 1: they reach you guys? Um, I know you guys are
Speaker 1: all over social but you know, give your give yourself
Speaker 1: a plug. And I really appreciate having you on here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: weather be dot com. You can find you know, all
Speaker 1: of the ormation on everything that we talked about and
Speaker 1: more there at weather be Inc. On Instagram, um, and
Speaker 1: then you know Facebook and other places as well, just
Speaker 1: as weather be. So we'd love to have you come
Speaker 1: follow us. Probably the best thing to do is to
Speaker 1: sign up for our newsletter on weatherby dot com. We
Speaker 1: definitely get throttled a little bit by social media, so
Speaker 1: even if you follow us, you might not see everything
Speaker 1: we post every time. But um, we're not a company
Speaker 1: that sends out you know, like six emails a day
Speaker 1: or like kind of like one a week or one
Speaker 1: every other week, and we try to make them meaningful.
Speaker 1: So uh yeah, join our join our email newsletter is
Speaker 1: probably the single best way to stay in tune with
Speaker 1: what we've got going on. Yeah, well, thanks a lot, Luke,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining, and good luck this fall. Or any
Speaker 1: of your shotgunning trips you have coming up. Thanks Jason,