Its that time of the year, time to get the windows opened and the winter dust knocked out. We’ve had a ton of changes and growth through the winter and into this year in ways I never thought imaginable. And its hard to believe that in September of this year Brushbeater will be 10 years old. I’d say we didn’t do too shabby for always going against the grain, explaining and training on real world techniques always fighting upcurrent from the phony tacticool bullshit. Two #1 bestsellers and, God willing, many more to go. More on that later though.

There are new dates on the training calendar running through the Fall, and at least as of now that’s all I anticipate doing for the remainder of the year. Rumor has it there will be a couple of new courses we’re offering going into the Fall which I’m very excited to offer focused on handguns. One is a 101 level handgun course that I think the community really needs based on feedback I’ve got from students. The second more on par with Fighting Carbine. The bottom line on both is that they’re going to be fun, informative and fostering the welcoming & laid back atmosphere the now thousands of people who’ve come to train with us have experienced.

We have a new YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/@BrushBeaterTeam ] and Instagram page [ https://www.instagram.com/brushbeaterteam/?locale=undefined&hl=zh-cn ] up as well focused on training and equipment tasks. The crew is having a ton of fun with it and I hope you are too. My goal is to do much the same as we’ve done with Brushbeater in the beginning – offer real world experience with proven concepts to make you more dangerous. End of story. You won’t see mesh networking, chin weld optics, dumbass fads or any of the other fake shit flooding social media. Oh and, as some of y’all know, my smartass sense of humor dunking on them.

The used gear corner is rocking and rolling as well. Most of the stuff doesn’t sit for long and its doing exactly what I had intended on it being – a chance for guys to trade up into better equipment while giving folks looking for less expensive options quality equipment without rolling the dice on junk. Keep in mind we haven’t even had our grand opening yet. But on that note, 14 June is the date, which also just so happens to be the Army’s birthday. We’re going to have a heck of a good time, I’ll be back from the Montana courses and ready to throw down.

Onto the couple of questions I’ve been bombarded with – where’s the optics line and, related, what impact is the tariffs going to have on the future of radio and signals intelligence equipment? Taking it from the top – Khyber Optics is rolling right along, a bit behind schedule, but that’s life. Anything worth doing takes time and believe me, from the feedback of the guys handling the prototypes, this is damn sure worth the effort. As some know the tariff situation threw trade in the entire manufacturing sphere for a loop, much of which has not yet been felt in the industry but will by the end of the summer. This is affecting every sector of the gun sphere, as well and is not isolated to just trade with China as some have already forgotten. But due to the entanglements and uncertainty its affecting South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and the Phillipines as well as trade of raw goods between them, which is affecting the production. My end goal is to bring final production here to NC, creating local jobs for the community that raised me at a time we could really use it. That is down the road a bit but we’ll get there, one step at a time. The optics themselves are utilizing Japanese glass and internals to ensure the highest quality while maintaining a realistic price point. I’m not interested in chasing contracts, I’m more interested in arming you in an affordable way. But I’ll let them do the proving. Our mini red dots will be here sooner rather than later.

Onto the Communications and Signals Intelligence equipment – yes, its not so good news. But not the worst news. The first part is the reality that all of the RF equipment on the market, regardless of pricepoint, brand name, or housing of assembly, is produced in some way or another in China. You don’t have to like that and you can scream about that reality all you want, but the facts don’t care about your feelings. And until major changes happen in the US labor market coupled with EPA regulatory reform AND the policies remain consistent for a decade, that is simply not going to change. Since we know none of those things are likely either, you can bet the automated electronic manufacturing sector likely is not going to change for the better anytime soon. You don’t have to like it, I damn sure don’t, but that’s the reality. That said, as I stated on the last episode of Radio Contra, I planned on short term upheaval in that market and stacked enough of our biggest selling tools deep to last us through the Fall. Do not panic buy anything, I’m not going to run out, and more importantly, I’m also not going to price gouge as drop shippers on scamazon and fleabay are already doing. My own strategy in anticipating these moves back in November-December was to increase our on hand stock to the highest inventory we’ve had just so we could keep the prices consistent. Our competition can’t do that and they don’t give a damn about you, either.

What’s this going to do with the thermal market? That situation is not as rosy at least for the time being. IrayUSA is certainly feeling the crunch as is all of the others. I have the final US stock of the RH25s for the time being in the shop. There may very well be a shortage of the other brands as well due to manufacturing shortages as a result of the tariff situation. None of the companies are immune to this, not even N-Vision or Armasight which have final assembly done in the US. So I’m not telling you to get into a panic, just know that some of the entry level units may become unavailable short term. We have a new shipment that just arrived yesterday afternoon. It’ll all come back, we’re all feeling the crunch in various ways, and while its not the end of the world it might get frustrating for a bit.

So last, ending things on the best note: as I said on Radio Contra, sometimes you gotta take a couple steps back to take ten steps forward. And dialing a few tasks back, wrapping up a few more projects, and expanding my team here is freeing up the time to get back on task for some new books. Going through the summer I anticipate completing The Guerrilla Dispatch Volume 3, another yet to be announced book, and maybe time for a horse of a different color, Lord willing.

Shoot for the moon and you’ll hit the stars. 🙂