Episode Details

Wendy Corr:

Well, hey there, folks, and welcome to The Roundup. We are a podcast that features interesting people from the Cowboy State. And the conversations that we've had so far with the podcast have just been so interesting, and really opened up the world - and opened up Wyoming - to people that we might not have met in our daily lives, but people that we should meet!

And our podcast guest today is a guy you need to meet. We are coming to you from the podcast space at Gunwerks, which is a pioneer in the long range shooting industry. And the guy who has made this possible - this truly has come out of his brain - is Aaron Davidson. And Aaron is here with me today… I'm actually here with him today at his space, and his amazing facility here in Cody.

Aaron, wow, what you have done, I'm so pleased to get a chance to introduce the rest of the state to you!

Aaron Davidson:

Thank you, I appreciate the compliments very much.

Wendy Corr:

Well, you have earned every one of them - especially, I have to stop and think how young you are, to be able to have put all these things on your list of accomplishments.

Aaron Davidson:

So, I'm not as young as I look. I've got this technique. As I get older, I get fatter, and that stretches the skin. So it makes me actually look younger,

Wendy Corr:

So really, is that the secret to eternal youth?

Aaron Davidson:

It is to the appearance of youth.

Wendy Corr:

Okay, I like that very much. Well, still, I have to say, Aaron, you have accomplished so much. You started out just this kid from Powell. But you have made this truly, I guess I don't know if we call it an empire? But you certainly have made your mark on the long range shooting industry. And this industry is growing and growing.

So tell us a little bit about - we'll come back to kind of your origin story. But tell us a little bit about, why long range shooting? How did you get interested in creating a space and a product that people clamor for and are willing to pay thousands of dollars for?

Aaron Davidson:

Well, I think I can probably do that and give you, like, the short version of the origin story at the same time. So I grew up in a little town 30 miles east of Cody, Burlington. Small town.

Wendy Corr:

300 people, right?

Aaron Davidson:

Or less. And I was into hot rods. I had probably a dozen different hot rods, from Barracudas to Camaros and Impalas and Cadillacs, and Chevys. And I was very into the work, and the investment of time, and the learning experience of creating. And I built cars from scratch, I learned how to paint, I learned how to rebuild motors, and I was into it.

Now, I never had a car to drive in high school. I didn't actually finish any of them until I was out of high school. But I was just working on a lot of them.

And I got married, went to college, and I would start selling cars to pay for books and tuition or whatever, you know, rent. And I might sell a car for $10,000. And then I'm like, 'Okay, well, now what am I going to do?' I didn't have a shop to work on cars or anything like that.

So I started buying a gun. I would buy a gun and a scope, maybe for $1,500. And then the next progression is, well, you've got to learn how to reload, so you can feed it ammo. And what I found very quickly was that going to the range and you know, developing a load, and shooting a good group, it was cool, but it got boring really quickly. Because once you did that, you're done.

And the idea of maybe s