Original subtitles

Yeah, so a lot of times before hunting season, I'll dial in different rifles in

the range in our shooting center, but there's nothing like just getting out in

the field and setting up the tripod I'm going to use, maybe putting it on a

pack, some different shooting sticks, just getting different angles and seeing

how that affects my shot so I know how comfortable I am with the gun, eye

on the scope, ergonomics of the stock and all that stuff. So I'm just going to

play around at some distance and kind of sight some things in, and it just gets

me more confident.

super important for me to be confident in the product, but it's also important

for me to build confidence in myself.

So this is like kind of all that in one.

My grandpa started a rifle company and I'm pretty passionate about this stuff

myself. So like when I get up here and do this, sure it's work, but it's not.

Like I love to do this.

Being in Wyoming, having like access to these mountains and just public land

hunting right here.

I love to just get out here and use our product so that, I don't know if I'm

going to put my name on it, my dad's name, my grandpa's name. Like, I need to

trust this product, like myself, you know. And I know that sounds maybe, I

know, cliche, but I really mean it.

Like, I want to know and understand our products myself.

Not just in our factory, but out here in scenarios like this.

Because ultimately, like, I need to trust it myself in order for anybody

to.

We're here in our long -range shooting facility.

At this point, usually all have already shot in the underground range and kind

of zeroed them and dialed them in. But whether it be for testing, just to see

bullet stabilization, VCs, how things are holding up, we come down here and

shoot long range. But I shoot it before hunting season.

I come down here, and I really want to see how those bullets perform out to

different distances. And if anything, it's got to be just dialed. You might,

a 100 -yard range, just...

put it an inch or two higher or whatever and go out, you can do out to a certain

distance. But if you want more confidence out further, it's really cool

this. So we can shoot from inside, but we have feel starting at 200 all the way

out to 1 ,000 yards.

And so I'll sometimes just come out here by myself, spot for myself, and it's

just super relaxing and chill and be able to dial on my rifle. So then when

out hunting, I know confidently this gun, this load, and all this data, I

I'm ready to go.

90 % of the time, I'm hunting with something that hasn't come out yet, so

validating it. I mean, I've used cartridges that we've never come out

killed animals with it, and it's just not ready. You could ship them out, 99 %

of customers would be happy, but we've got 80 years of a brand to protect, so

it's got to be just right.

The company started really out of just hobbies of my dad originally. He grew up

hunting. He was very, very poor, and hunting was the way they got their food.

And he didn't really like the fact that a lot of times when you would shoot an

animal, the animal would suffer and wouldn't die, even if the shot was

well. So he did a lot of testing, got the theory that if he could move a

faster.

that it would have more killing power and be more humane. And so he would take

existing rifles that were on the market at that time and rechamber them to his

cartridges that he was developing, and that's really how he got started into

business doing that, and it was years later before he brought out his own

the Mark V.

He wanted to develop something that...

That was higher quality. That was a beautiful piece of art, piece of work,

not just a tool.

Since the very beginning, he moved out to California because he said, man,

that's where things are happening in the 40s. And so he developed relationships

with guys like John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gary Cooper, started to like gain this

following that started from ammunition of really like high speed ballistic

superiority, but then moved into these like.

Super nice rifles.

This is what people, like, knew Weatherby about, like, back in the day

grandpa, right? Like, these, you know, gold stuff and super cool inlays, even

the Monte Carlo stock, the super high gloss finish.

We really moved from ammo, and he just said, man, I'm going to make, like, just

a sweet -looking rifle like nobody else is, packaged with this high speed.

And that kind of started.

The word legacy, I talk a lot about. I don't know why that's a powerful word to

me, because legacy is generational, right?

And there's not a lot of us left in this space that are multiple decades,

multiple generations that are still here. And that's a part.

It's what makes me take my job really seriously. I know that a lot of work, a

lot of work went ahead of me. And so it, I don't know, it makes me

passionate about what I do every day.

There's often going to be those days where you know you have the hard

you know, maybe whether it's difficult because of business reasons or because

people. And no matter what it is in our life, like, we can lose the most

important thing.

I'm Luke Torkelson, COO here at Weatherby.

And I've got a lot of passions at work and outside of work, but family, God,

motorcycles, hunting, guns, woodworking, you name it, I'm in for it.

I'm a doer.

First time I met Adam technically was a phone call, my interview.

Adam moves very quick, whether it's in his personal life, in business, or just

kind of hanging out. He's not.

great at sitting still. We're always trying to push the envelope forward. And

just remember being intrigued in one of our first conversations about if we

could just get the financial part of the business to match up to the brand part

of the business, that we'd be in really good shape.

And that line kind of stuck with me. And I'm like, I think that sounds like a

really good challenge.

The brand was in a spot where it needed maybe a little modernizing. And I was

really intrigued by the opportunity to make

Weatherby's products and brand is slightly more relevant to a younger

and I was really happy to be a part of that.

There's so many aspects to the Weatherby brand, but I think what people can

really take away is the ballistic superiority.

So typically cartridge for cartridge, we're the fastest.

There's superior craftsmanship. All the hands that touch our product right here,

made in America, and brand prestige.

I think that there's not another.

gun company today that has a present owner operator that's anywhere close to

Adam as far as being front and center, interacting with consumers, and being an

active user, I think that's pretty powerful.

I think what originally drew me to Weatherby was opportunity.

I think it was the intersection of passions for me.

Now, six years later, it's a different set of things. The intersections are

slightly different, right? I'm still super passionate about the brand, about

location, but now it's the people and the family that we've built because it's

not just a company. Like, we're truly a family. We're family -owned, family

-operated, and it's a really special place. My kids say, like, have fun at

with your friends, Dad.

It's like not going to the salt factory, you know? It's pretty awesome.

Good job, Luke. How do you feel, sir?

They say it's not a good idea to beat your boss, but I'm too competitive to

try all the way. It's because he's using the pretty one, so it's just... But

what about the last time when I beat you? Shut up.

Good times, good times.

Yeah.

The solitude about being outside.

And I think before I got into hunting or backpacking or any of that, I used to

cycle a lot.

And Adam would ask, you know, he'd ask me, like, oh, are you going to go run

today or cycle? And I'd be like, I need to get some wind in my hair.

Which is the same type of feeling that the mountains or...

some sort of hunt getting out in nature does for me um i'm pretty high strung

and so like i need some wind in my hair but that's what i need and hike in the

mountains with adam it's quiet there's space even if you're not like most

time we don't talk the whole time like a lot of times i just need space to have

clear my head i think it's

the beauty of nature The beauty of creation.

Adventure usually requires risk, and I like that.

I'm not naturally an adventurous person.

I'm more like, let's just do what's going to be predictable.

And Adam has helped me enjoy the unpredictable, running this business.

hunting all over the place, it's definitely unpredictable.

And I've learned to experience just a lot of joy in embracing that.

God, would you be with us tonight as we come to you in song and as you teach us

from your word.

We pray that we'd just humbly come before you, that we'd worship you

that we'd learn just a little bit more, and that we'd apply a whole lot more in

our life. We pray that we would not be merely hearers of the word, but doers

also, and that as a result that this community would be changed.

And all God's people say, amen.

The quote I love is, without risk, there's really no need for faith in God.

it's the points at which we step out and take risk that we go, okay, God, you

got me through this.

You have me. And so if there's that risk, Brenda knows that if we're

about something, she's like, that's what Adam's going to do every time.

And that's probably why I'm here today. It's weird. I went into full -time

ministry for a lot of years.

People go, why'd you do that? You left your family business?

I don't know. That's what I was passionate about. That's what God called

do, and I didn't think twice about it.

And then when I came back to take over Weatherby for that third generation, I

never looked back again, and I don't have any regrets.

That adventure, I think, is what's brought us here today, and it's that

adventure spirit that's going to lead us forward.

This is March 1st of 2019, the day that we gained occupancy of the building.

So as you can see, the factory floor is totally empty.

We got a sea of people out here ready to set up shop and everything. So when you

walk in the factory floor, it's going to look a little bit different. But it's a

huge move for us. We had to move our people. We had to move all our things,

up shop here. It was kind of a gigantic, gigantic thing.

It was one of the single biggest pivotal points in our history.

It kind of showed people like Weatherby's not done, Weatherby's not

Weatherby's not dead.

It's this brand that everybody knew of.

And California was kind of this historical thing.

Where's Weatherby going? Are they going to be able to thrive out there? So by

moving here to Wyoming, it actually signified, I think, to the industry, to

hunters and shooters, like Weatherby is going somewhere.

I think even just by being here and being hunters and being in the West and

having the Bighorn Mountains right here, it actually gives us a...

More authentic nature to the outdoors. There's just a number of things.

So it was huge.

The first time we came to Sheridan, everything was just like a perfect fit.

Sheridan's an isolated little mountain town here on the northern border of

Wyoming, just a few miles away from Montana.

You know, the benefits for our community are obvious and pretty direct. You've

got 100 -plus people employed by a wonderful...

family company.

That's pretty spectacular.

You don't see too much of that anymore, especially moving lock, stock, and

barrel to a small town anywhere in rural America. So that's pretty awesome. You

see all that come in.

You know, I like to think that the Weatherby's decided to move here because

was a great choice for their family and for their lifestyle.

They've built it as a family business, and now they're in a place that values

family businesses, and I hope they're here forever because they've helped

Sheridan for the better, even though I don't think that that was ever Adam and

Brenda's plan.

When I talk about Adam's passion and his magnetism, I really believe that's a

lot like Roy.

We have people call all the time, old timers, and they say, oh, I met

Roy and he had so much passion and, you know, he brought me into the back and

showed me the factory. And so there's so much about Adam that is like Roy.

But there's also so much of Adam that is like Ed.

And Roy and Ed were like exact opposites. They were extremes of each

And I think Adam takes that intuition about people and what they need to feel

invited, included.

He takes that from Ed, and he takes the passion from Roy.

And I believe that he is a balance of both of them.

And there's one thing that I've heard over and over about Ed. It's from an

employee who said he was the nicest man they'd ever met.

And I think if you go through the industry, other people would say the

thing, that he was honest, faithful, and kind.

And so I think Adam has this beautiful legacy with both his grandfather and his

dad, and he gets to be himself but get these beautiful traits from those who

have gone before him.

Weatherby has a lot of American Dream to it. I mean, number one.

Starting with my grandpa having nothing and making something.

Wyoming, just the way of life, the freedom, the open space.

When we talk about our team and who is a part of Weatherby, I think they

identify with all that.

And so it's the outdoors. Sure, obviously it's firearms, it's

it's family. It's the family business.

140 employees. That's something that can be a big company to some. That's a tiny

company. And so there's still, we try to have still that family atmosphere.

There's a cool piece of pride, I think, that our employees have that, you know,

on the side of every gun, it's Weatherby, Sheridan, Wyoming.

And there's something about that that they love. Like when they see stuff

or they walk into a gun store, like they see a product and they think, like,

well, I was a part of that.

You know, when you talk about... made in America or American made or this multi

-generational family firearms business, people resonate with that. People

appreciate that and people value that.

In the end, I think there's a respect that people have for that.

Probably, I don't know, probably eight or nine years ago, we did that like why

we exist statement.

More than the products we make, why do we exist on this earth? And we said we

exist to inspire the dreams of hunters and shooters.

We take a bunch of materials, wood or carbon fiber, titanium, steel, aluminum.

We blend those things together and make something pretty cool at the end of the

day. But it's more than just a tool. And so I think what we make is a

really cool tool that people can use to go make memories with. And, you know, I

often say if our product generations from now could tell stories, The stories

would be of successful hunts.

The stories would be of sitting in a tree stand for five hours talking with

son about life. And our products get to do that journey with people.

And I think that's really cool.

I think when someone picks up a gun and, you know, it picks up a Weatherby, it's

like you know that the quality is there. You know you can depend on it. You know

it'll be backed.

by the people that run the company.

And I actually think a lot of people buy a Weatherby for all those reasons, but

also because they've learned and know about what's important to the company,

faith, its family, its father and sons and daughters and wives and husbands.

It's more than just a tool you're going to take out. It's something you can have

pride in.

And just so many people have said in the past that, I bought this because I want

to pass it on to my son or my daughter, and they can pass it on to theirs.

Life's not all about guns.

It's not all about products we sell, stuff we ship out the door. It's not all

about revenue.

It's about people.