Deep Dive into the Harvest Collection by Barnes – Episode 10

Today, Dale is joined by Colby Adameck from Sierra Bullets and Andy Sparks to discuss the Harvest Collection by Barnes. The guys dive deep into why Barnes wanted to create this new line of ammunition, specifically targeted for the whitetail deer hunter, and other thin-skinned game. They go in to the Sierra Tipped GameKing and why it’s the perfect combination for this ammo, how Barnes came up to their branding piece, and what’s to come for 2026.

#Barnes #BulletPoints #Harvest #Whitetail #DeerHunting #BulletLovers #Podcast #2025goals #Hunting #WhitetailHunting #CollectionShowcase #Podcaster

You ready to rock and roll? Yes, sir. Ready? Let’s go. Okay. Hey everyone, welcome back to another Barnes Ball podcast. I’m your host Dale Evans and today I’ve got Andy Sparks with me to my left and Kobe. Oh, I’m not even Oh, wrong. See, Adamic. Adamic. You got it. Yes. So, I didn’t think about this, but my wife was telling me, she’s like, “It’s like atomic but with a D.” And I was like, “Yeah, that’s a good way to go about it.” That is a good way to go about it. Yeah. So, we’ve got Kobe Adamic here. He is the Sierra marketing manager. Um, and today we’re going to talk about the harvest collection. We haven’t really dove into that with this podcast. Um, and as we’re getting, you know, close to whitetail season, right, back in the Midwest and the South, I think it it’s really important for us to kind of dive deep into this. So, you know, we wanted to bring Kobe on, right, as the Sierra marketing manager, product manager as well, right? Like, you obviously have a pretty damn good grasp on products and talking about TGK, um, the tipped game king. I think it makes a lot of sense. So, my first initial thought and probably a lot of the questions that I think that we got when we first launched this back in April is why would Barnes ever load one another manufacturers’s bullet to a lead core bullet? Mhm. So, I don’t know who wants to jump into that. if it wants to be Andy. Let let’s let Colby though before we dive deep into that give a brief background, right? People don’t generally care about your background, but at least it gives you some credibility. So, it’s just Andy that doesn’t care about your background. Other people care. Hit the high points. Um, sure. Yeah. So, my name’s Colby. Um, I’ve been in the outdoor industry for 10 years, 10 years plus now going on. Um, spent the majority of that time at a brand called Stone Glacier. Um, for those of you that aren’t familiar with Stone Glacier, it was started out as a backpacking brand. Um, manufactured hunting backpacks that evolved into other soft goods, um, technical apparel, sleeping bags, tents, all that different stuff. Um, and while I was there, just got to wear a lot of different hats. Um, started off I was actually their second employee and it was like that internship introduction to an outdoor brand, right? like I was in college and yeah, the dream was being in the outdoor industry and at the time it was trying to find a way to stay in Bosezeman and Kurt had put up a job posting for just summer backpack building and order fulfillment and doing all that stuff. Um, so I got in the door with Kurt back in 2014 and at the time it was me and Pete Munich who was the GM and just yeah doing doing all the things doing building packs, fulfilling orders. We had a little cell phone that we carried around on us for our CS phone. Um, answering emails, running the website and Well, and I think that one thing that’s kind of cool, right, is that I was in Bosezeman at the time. I was actually in college as well. And that’s where we kind of got to know each other when you started working there because I was doing some stuff with Pete, right? Like with both Stone Glacier and Rocky Mountain Goat Alliance. Um, and I actually filmed a Spring Bear Hunt and everything and like I got into Stone Glacier there. So like Kobe and I kind of crossed paths early on. Crossed paths like super early on almost a decade ago now. Oh, so you guys go way back. Way back. Way back. Yeah. There’s like that niche crowd of us that I feel like got in in college, coming out of college, that have have stayed in, stayed close. So, is it is it safe to say you guys are like in the cool kid club? Oh, so cool, man. Okay. You can’t tell. Yeah. You’re definitely I mean, obviously that’s why you hired us. Yeah. Yeah. Um so, yeah. No, I guess getting back to that, um that whole like being a part of a of a brand and a growing brand in the space was super cool. Um it was the point in my life where like the passion was as deep as it will ever be has ever been, right? Like that’s all I wanted to do. Yeah. Um not that it’s not anymore. Um but yeah, so was there did that as time evolved the band the brand grew. Um got into more of the operational side of things. Um, which was also a really cool part of that business is seeing how different systems work and how a business runs and like optimizing it over the years was really cool. Um, cuz you know different things make sense at different points in a business’s life cycle. So, um, seeing that all evolve over a 10ear span was really cool. Um, and then my last two years there got involved in like the project or not the project management, the product management side of things which ultimately was what I’ve always wanted to do there. It was, you know, super cool, super fun to be hands-on with the product and control the product and um see that input come through and the product that we’re all there to produce and sell. Um so that was really enjoyable. And then my last year there um did some brand management stuff for them as well. And just got to the point where it’s with a lot of brands, you’re kind of wearing a lot of hats, right? Yeah. And I mean but but it’s really cool, right? because coming in as literally the second hired employee for that brand and then to see it grow to this giant brand in the space, right? In a very short amount of time, you know, on top of it, right? Eight years, 10 years that it really became one of the top apparel and backpack brands. I mean, obviously backpacks are kind of what got them started, but I mean, they quickly like their apparel took off and yeah, you know, being very highly technical and everything like that was really cool. Um, and like you said with being able to wear so many hats, right, you you’ve been able to see, you know, you come in as just a backpack builder to been doing intern. You call me an intern, right? And and then and then to be able to kind of make that progression like very quickly as this brand’s growing and being able to see everything is like just a really cool story. Um, and and being able to be a part of that. So yeah. No, it was awesome, man. And candidly, that’s right. That was one of the hopes and dreams that I had going into a small company, right? Like starting with that brand, I very much so was taking a pay cut to be there, you know, um could have went and chased the corporate monster right out of school and chose not to do that. Um with the hopes that like it would give me opportunities to be involved in different ways, you know, quicker than I might have otherwise been able to. Um, so that experience I would say outside of just working in the outdoor industry, getting to see a small business grow and go through its paces like in and of itself was a really cool experience there. Yeah. Um, and then yeah, back back in March, um, was just kind of ready for that next opportunity. And if I look back at my hunting career, like yes, I’ve archery hunted and I’d call myself an archery hunter to an extent, but much more so a rifle hunter. Yeah. Um and so I think I I don’t I saw the job posting. You might have posted it. I think I reached out to you directly. Yeah. Um new new gym there from just crossing paths and industries prior and right um was something I was interested in right away. So reached out to you guys and went through the paces and luckily yeah it’s it’s been awesome. It’s been really fun and getting to learn a whole new business. It’s It’s funny how, you know, how similar the hunting and the shooting industries are, but also how different they are. Like there’s there’s different crowds. It’s different. Just different in many ways, I’d say. But it’s been fun. Yeah, it’s been really fun. So, yeah. Well, that went longer than I expected. Oh, I forgot to hit record. Just gave me a hard time. Yeah. No, but it’s it’s it is really interesting bringing Colby on as we talk about Harvest, right? That whole idea of like growing a company, right? Like that’s a perfect segue into this, I think, right? Because it was always it’s always been about how do we grow the Barnes brand, right? Um and I think as we have talked about Barnes being known as that western hunting brand, that all copper brand, right? when we when we started when I started over a year ago, it was okay, how do I grow the brand? How do we grow it to not just be you know what they call the knockdown packout champion of the west? How do we just be the knockdown packout champion, right? Like branching beyond the Rocky Mountains. Yeah. Right. And that’s what Harvest really does, right? Is it it allows the brand to grow from a consumer standpoint, from a consumer base to a a geographic base, right? And you’re really reaching the largest hunting segment in the country, right? Which I mean, you know, to be fair, I mean, I think Vortex there there were quite a few people out there that was shooting whitetails stuff back in the, you know, the east side of the country, right, with Vortex and with Pioneer and those type of things. But, you know, it’s almost like overkill in a way for that type of species. So bringing harvest along really like you said like I I think it makes a lot more sense for I I would say the typical white tail hunter in the Midwest in the southeast whatever you want to say um to shoot this cup and core you know little bit cheaper and also we really brought the right calibers I I I think to the marketplace when we brought harvest as well. So um yeah. Okay, let’s let’s dive into I I think we could still kind of dive into like why Harvest Collection, right? Like I mean you kind of hit it a little bit there um with expanding, but I think that we can go a little bit deeper, right? Is um I mean just talk about the price point in itself, right? I mean you look at Vortex essentially our cheapest Vortex is $55 a box. let’s call it $50 to $55 a box where every single thing of harvest um is under that which which is great, right? So yeah, let’s let let’s kind of talk a little bit deeper into I guess why, you know, people in the Southeast would need this over a copper bullet. Yeah. Um, I I think when when we start with the why question, um, I think it has to just go back to audience, right? Like I think we start there at the at the biggest level. Um, western hunters, as serious as they are, as intense as they are, um, is a very small market. Y, right, at the end of the day, you can’t argue with it. It’s a small market. Yeah. And when we started looking at how do we grow the Barnes ammo brand like I just I immediately went to the whitetail market. It’s the largest hunting market in the United States if not the world. Yep. So it’s like okay you know there’s all kinds of business models right? Are you big fish in a small pond small fish in a big pond like yada yada yada. I think you have as a as an ammo brand, you have to have a strong presence in the white tail market to succeed, right? To to be relevant um and to have an impact. And so that’s really, you know, in terms of growing and why is okay, well, what solution can we offer the whitetail hunter? Yep. And paying the vortex product line is fantastic, right? All copper. Um, but as you pointed out, it’s expensive, right? Right. It is more expensive than the typical whitetail hunter would like to pay, right? So, at that point, it became, okay, copper as a commodity is an expensive expensive input, right? How do we bring a product to a consumer that makes us relevant at the price point the whitetail hunter is attracted to? You have to go lead. like you have to go um you have to go to a cup and core bullet, right? I don’t think co copper was not going to be the solution there, right? Yeah. And in order to keep your doors open, right? I mean, at some point it is a business, right? So, you have to you have to keep that in mind. Um and so as we thought about, you know, does Barnes make a bullet? Like we’re obviously sister companies with Sierra, the tip game king is a tried andrue behemoth in the whitetail industry, right, for hand loaders. Y it just made all the sense in the world. They have the bullet there. They have the technology. They have the legacy. They have that experience. Well, let’s leverage that. Right. Other ammo manufacturers around the world use different bullets. Right. We’ve There are other OEMs that load Barnes bullets. They load TTSXs, you know, LRXs. Um they load Sierra Match Kings, Tip Game Kings, right? Why not Barnes? Yep. Right. And really what this is about, you and I have talked about it a ton. Yeah. It’s just an option, right? That’s all it is, right? It is an option for the consumer to go shoot something different if they don’t like their current availability. Right. Right. Well, and I think that that was kind of one of the one of the main points that we wanted to make as, you know, the launch happened and we were starting to get I’ll call it feedback rather than flak. Um feedback of why we would do this, right? is like we want to be able to give people the most amount of options out there. That way that all you have to do is be a part of the Barnes family and you have something to shoot. Like regardless of what you’re going to do, it doesn’t matter if you’re shooting a 100 pound whitetail in the Southeast or you’re coming out west to hunt elk that’s 800 lb or 600 lb, going to Alaska to shoot moose, going to Africa to shoot elephants, right? Like we have an option for you and we just want to invite you into the family and give you that option. Well, and and I think it’s I think it’s fair to say flack. Like I I wouldn’t shy away from that. I would say we did get some right there. There was some negative feedback. It was small. I think generally the the general public kind of understood what we were doing. Haters are going to hate. Like you’re not always going to make everybody happy. Um but I think it was important to know too, yeah, we preach all copper because of the performance and all that. This satisfies our performance requirements, right? like let’s start there, right? Let’s start with the fact that this is an outstanding bullet. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think you know it it it satisfies all that, but it is just an option. It’s not like we’re moving away from copper, right? Barnes Barnes Vortex, Vortex LR, all that stuff. It still exists. It’s still out there. We’re not telling you you have to shoot this. Yeah. Right. Right. It’s just an option for you if you’re price sensitive. Right. Right. And and getting back to the price, $39.99, $44.99, there are tried andrue whitetail lines that don’t have this technology and this quality of a product that are more expensive than that, right? I mean, considerably more expensive. Considerably more expensive. This is an absolute kick-ass deal, right? For the brand names, the quality of the products at that price, it’s phenomenal. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I think it’s an interesting, like you said, I mean, you’re addressing another customer need, right? Like you guys have built a reputation around western hunting that is largely around your copper bullets, you know, right? There’s a there’s a trust there for your copper bullets. At the same time, from my perspective, I think it’s a really cool um solution for shooters that are interested in lead because I feel like you guys have built up a reputation just around like in specifically to your loaded ammunition, the quality and how well it shoots and like what a cool option here that you have this price sensitive um offering, right? And people might hear that and think, oh, how’s it shoot? Go look on social media for yourself. like the the groups that are being posted on this affordable, budget friendly, loaded ammunition is incredible. I mean, when we started to kind of like look against competitors, I mean, our tolerances and everything were tighter than some of their literally highest priced items in match grade quality stuff. Yeah. which is again for the I hate to say price sensitive I like to say consumerfriendly price right like like we are trying to look at um you know let’s try to give them the best possible deal and still give them pretty kick-ass ammo right- which is I think what we’ve done with Harvest um but to kind of get back to it right like the tolerances are incredible I mean some of the groups that you know and it’s not just us shooting it right like what you were kind getting at with between social media, different writers that have have used it and tested this, right? I mean, getting sub half minute of angle type of stuff with $39.99 ammo is pretty wild. I think that’s a cool aspect. Like there there’s a portion of this, right? You’re you’re catering to the Barnes crowd and you know, of course you want to do that, but like I get excited because for the Sierra crowd, here’s this awesome solution. You know, here we’re we’re a component manufacturer, right? So, we’re selling to the hand loaders. We’re doing all that stuff direct. Um, but this gives us an option to point a consumer to a loaded product with our bullet. Yep. That we’ve seen the results. We’ve tested ourselves. We’ve seen how it performs. Yeah. That, you know, maybe whatever. If it’s a busy year and they’ve shot tip game king, well, hey, I can point you towards a loaded ammunition option. You know, that is shooting really well. It’s marked as affordable. Um, so it’s another outlet for Sierra, too, right? So, like kind of being selfish, like there’s there’s the story that Barnes is telling, but it’s also a cool opportunity to give additional um resources or support to Sierra shooters that, you know, maybe they want a boxed option or maybe there’s buying it for the grandkids, you know, it’s for their deer hunt or whatever. Well, and and one thing, you know, recently the Hunting Public guys did that cool video um showing off the Harvest Collection, like talking about like what they’re going to be shooting this year, and I felt like it was almost a Sierra ad more than it was a Barnes, you know, like sponsored video, if you will, right? like like yes, they’re a barn/ierra ambassador um and they’re shooting our ammo for everything that they’re doing, but I mean Warb went into extreme detail about just how awesome Sierra was when he had the opportunity to visit when Andy and I were over there. Yeah. Um, so I mean it was really kind of cool to see just how much that being in the Sierra facility, seeing all that goes into making tipped game king, match king, all that, right? Um, really had a had a um effect on him, if you will, and and just how much everybody was like I mean even Ranch Fairy was talking about like I’ve been shooting Sierra Game King for 20 years, right? Right. But I always had to load it. Yeah. And now this gives me an option. Yeah. Yeah. So, let’s We’ve talked a lot about Sierra and the Tip Game King, right? But we haven’t really talked about like the bullet. Yeah. Right. So, like Yeah. Tell us about the tip game king line. Yeah. So, this just makes total sense. I feel like when you look at our hunting our hunting bullets, I like to break it down and um you know, I mean, really for big game, right? You have your game king, you have a tipped game king, um, and then you have like our pro hunter, um, our varmint stuff. And so I guess, you know, taking varmint, varmer out and blitzking out because those are more small game varmint sized animals. You’re really looking at your your uh, Game King, your tip game king, your pro hunter stuff. What about match king X? And Magic King X. I’m sorry. That’s the one I was That’s the one I was looking for. Um, and so yeah, a match king X is hugely important here. So if you look at your your game king, if you kind of put these on a sliding scale, on one end of the scale, you’re going to have penetration and weight retention. Yep. And at the other end of the scale, you’re going to have large wound channels. Yeah. Rapid expansion. Rapid expansion, less weight retention. Um, tipped game king falls in the middle of that. Whereas on the weight retention and penetration side, you have the standard game king. On the expansion, um you know, slow impact velocity expansion um big large wound channel, you have you have match king X, right? That middle area, you have tipped game king. Mhm. In my opinion, that bullet fits the need of 80 90% of hunters. if you’re within that 500 yard and in range, right? Which if we’re being honest with ourselves is is a lot of us, right? I I I shoot a fair amount and like when I’m in the field, that’s probably me, right? Um but yeah, what makes that makes that bullet do both those things really well is that, you know, it comes down to the the hardness of the lead. There’s different ways when we put those lead into bullets that we can control how how hard that lead is and Mhm. The softer lead is going to expand easier, right, than a harder lead, and it’s going to get better penetration. So, you’re you find yourself in this middle ground where it’s it’s hard enough to get you the penetration and punch through bone like you want, right? But it’s soft enough at the upper reaches of those mid ranges out to, you know, five, it’s even call it 600 yards. Yeah. um with the support of that tip that’s going to help start that expansion and that softer lead core, you’re you’re really covering the sweet spot for a lot of hunters, right? Whereas on each end of those, you have more special use stuff, I’d call it, right? Yeah. Um, so I I’m excited about this because while this is branded, Harvest is branded as, you know, going after the white tail hunter and is offered in calibers that make sense for whitetail hunters, a lot of those same calibers could be taken and used on a hunt out west, right? And so I think that’s what’s really exciting is you’re going to start to see some of this crossover use. You’re going to sell this to a guy that’s going whitetail hunting and he’s going to have a mu deer tag, a mu deer tag or an analopee tag, right? and he’s going to be able to take the same stuff and go out west with it. Absolutely. I think as as the word gets out even more on the affordability of this loaded ammo and people see how it performs, how accurate it is, I should mention that this this is another bullet that we hold to the same accuracy standards as our as our match, right? So, you’re kind of bringing in again that that match level accuracy, right? Um with that tipped bullet, you know, it’s just a more efficient. It’s more aerodynamic. It uh deflects wind better. So you’re going to have a better BC historically with these bullets. Yeah. Um so it’s kind of while it’s designated for the white tail hunter and consumer, right? It’s going to have a lot of crossover use. So it’s exciting to see. Like obviously we have a big white tail buck on the on on the box. Um and whitetail is probably our number one quote target audience if you want to call it that. But at the same time, I would call it just straight a thin skinned game hunting round. Now, are there going to be people that probably shoot an elk with it this year? Probably a pretty damn good opportunity of that, right? For sure. Um, are there people that are going to shoot bears with it or something like that, right? Or even potentially sheep, right? Like I think that you could do something with that. Um, but I guess what I was trying to get at is, you know, I took this on a hunt last year. I killed whitetails with it. I killed analopee with it. Kobe and I took it on a hunt earlier this spring. Right. And we hunted axis with it. I mean, it’s killed bear. Yeah. Right. It’s been on a bear hunt, right? Exactly. It was in Alaska this spring with um the Savage Crew and Hoodie Who and all that, right? And killed I think they killed like five bears in four days or something up in Alaska with it. So, I mean it does everything that you need it to do. Yeah. And that’s that’s like with the specific harvest ammo, right? Like this has been a staple in the Sierra line for a long time and guys have I’m guessing killed everything under the sun with it, right? That’s a fair point. That’s a totally fair point. Right. We’re talking about Harvest. Game King has killed Tip. Game King, right, has killed countless other things. Absolutely. You know, and and I think it’s important to say and I don’t I don’t mind kind of peeling back the curtain a little bit. When we started talking to the Barnes team about this, they were absolutely reluctant. Yeah. Right. I mean, they were like, “Man, we make really good bullets. Why do we need to do it this way? Like, I don’t know.” You know, they were very apprehensive. And it was kind of like, “All right, I’m gonna give you a chance to go test this some of these things out. Go get, you know, we’ll get a bunch of different bullets, you know, different manufacturers, right? Like, let’s prove to ourselves that this is the right thing to do.” They didn’t know that it was going to be an edict anyway. Like, no, we’re doing this. But like they were able to prove to themselves like this is a damn good bullet. Like this passes, you know, our expectations, exceeds our expectations. So we do have a level of comfort doing this, right? Right. This wasn’t just like kind of created out of nowhere, you know, like or like forced upon us because we are sister companies, right? We we could have went and got a Nosler bullet or something like that if we wanted to as other OEMs do as well. That’s right. That’s absolutely right. Yeah. Why don’t you talk a little bit about like just the process and just like because you you were here, right? Colobby came in a little late, right? Um kind of prior to launch, right? Um you were there from kind of ground zero. Yeah. Right. So like from your perspective, talk a little bit about the process and and I mean there were really amazing moments, right? Like huge breakthroughs and there were really frustrating times, too. Yeah. I mean, I think that um that was kind of one, it was, you know, trial by fire for me because it was just as soon as I got hired, it was like, “Oh, yeah, by the way, we’re launching ammo in eight months or something like that, right? A whole new line and everything.” So, I was able to really kind of see what all it took to be able to one develop loads that, you know, the Barnes family is extremely happy with, right? and and just all that testing that goes into that. Um, so that was really really cool. It was also kind of cool to see, you know, these like these guys were kind of butting heads, right? Like competitors, right? Like they’re competitors. Historically, they’ve been combat and it’s like, well, we’re wanting this type of BC out of this bullet. Well, we have this bullet. And it’s like, no, like that’s not good enough. Like, go create something new. So, like literally the Sierra team had to kind of go do that and and manipulate a little things, right? just to make the Barnes team a little bit happier and then vice versa like Barnes had to kind of give a little bit for the Sierra team to make them happy. Um but to see again just like all the different testing between 100 yards, 300 yards, shooting this out to 600 yards, right? seeing the gel test, seeing um all the Doppler data that went into it to really be able to give you true BC and true ballistics for for for all of this. And again, at a budget friendly price point, you know what I mean? Like, we’re still putting it through all the rigorous testing that we do day in and day out for arguably our cheapest ammo that we have available right now. Yeah. Um so, I mean, that was really cool. as well as, you know, kind of going through the process on the marketing side of how do we tell this story, right? Like we’re literally go like making a 180 away from everything that Barnes is known for, right, as a company. Yeah. And we’re going to go a different direction. How do we tell that story and also convey it to one our loyal fan base, but also this new customer that we’re trying to attract? Um, and and how do we hit home with that, right? Like like how do we reach those people that we want to go more go more into that because I think like you had a huge huge part in the branding story, right? And and that whole process. Talk a little bit about why Harvest like not why the product, why the name, like where did that all get generated from? Well, and luckily for me, right, like I grew up whitetail hunting. And to be candid, right, I was probably one of the only people that was a big part of this other than maybe Mitchell, right, with growing up in Minnesota, but like I was one of the only people that really had that background of hunting in the southeast, hunting in the Midwest, and chasing whitetails all over the country on the barn side, right? Sorry. Um so as we kind of did that you know right we started kind of thinking like what makes what sets us apart um in our branding story that other people haven’t told that story. So that’s when we started thinking about you know in the fall right in the Midwest especially there’s two things that people are doing really. They’re harvesting crops and you know, not to have a pun here, but they’re harvesting deer, right? Well, I think a pun is appropriate, right? That’s where it came from. Yeah. I mean, they’re literally harvesting their crops and they’re doing all that and they’re trying to get that done as quickly as possible because hunting season is either in or it’s coming. Yeah. Right. And and there’s only a limited time amount of that. So, as we kind of started working through different names and and and all of that, right, we ended up coming down to Harvest Collection. And to be honest, I was kind of a push back on that because I think that there’s this weird thing about saying killing an animal versus harvesting an animal, right? And I was on the side of like just say what you’re doing. You’re killing something, right? You’re shooting something. So, harvest was always kind of hard. But as I kind of like thought through the branding and thought through this name process and and and we really dove deeper right over the course of two months I want to call it. Um it started to kind of click with me as soon as we finalized a name. Then I was able to really start to let my creative side right and and and I have again some of that background of filming hunts and and doing all that through college. um that I could I could put that story line together, right? So, we came up with the idea of, you know, showing the family life of a Midwest farmer, right? A a young guy that wants to pass on this tradition of both farming as well as hunting to his child, um to his family, right? So, um, we were able to work with, you know, a a team to be able to put that together and and I think that it was really really cool to, you know, that that was one of the bigger projects that I’ve ever done in my life of telling that story. Um, and you know, everybody that we’ve sent it to between again influencers, writers, um, as well as like hearing some of our competitors once that we made that launch like come up to us at NRA. Yeah. I mean, some of my really good front friends from other manufacturers like coming up and be like, “Dude, you nailed that.” Yeah. Like, you told the story as best as you could. Like, this launch is one of the best that I’ve seen. Yeah. Like it it was it was really cool for I think overall for the brands, right? Um to be able to see that um reaction. Yeah. But also just to kind of hear that from, you know, some of our competitors. Yeah. I was I was excited. The employ the the employees here and at Sierra, right, are are huge fans and so that means a lot to me, right? But but the other piece that really made it hit for me was hearing when Randy Brooks saw it brought him to tears, right? That was like the whole branding piece and the name he was like Yeah. Interesting. Brought him to tears just because he was like you guys did like you’re just carrying on the Barnes legacy, right? This is exactly what we had imagined. Right. Well, and if you remember um as well and and it happened to Greg, right, while we’re at NRA, I think it was like second or third day of NRA during like the launch of this. He has this guy come up from like Ohio or something that had dri driven down and came to the show and he’s like first off, first thing he did, he walks in the booth and he’s like, “Where are one of those Harvest shirts?” He’s like, “I’ve got to get one of those.” So, he ends up getting a Harvest shirt and he’s like, “I just want to tell you guys that seeing the branding piece come out and like everything go and like watching that video, he’s like that spoke to me so well.” He’s like, “You He’s like, I’m a TTSX guy.” And he’s like, “I’m not changing.” He’s like, “But you nailed it on the harvest thing.” And it’s like, “Okay, like perfect.” Yeah. We’re not asking you to change, right? Again, it’s just about options, you know? Um, but I think it’s safe to say like I would I would say it’s not perfect right now, right? I mean, give give a little sorry, give a little hint on, you know, what’s coming, right? I mean, between the two of you, right? Like we’re not done. We’re definitely not done. Um, we did again get some flack, right, of like, hey, why’d you only come out with these nine cartridges, right? Like, why would you put a 223 in there? Yeah. Um, and again, right, like it’s a thin skinned game. Like you don’t have to think there are I mean, we did a lot of research of like what nine calibers like if we’re going to come out and I think that we truthfully were going to come out with like seven or eight. The original number was seven and then we ended up expanding it to nine because we’re like, well, we can’t leave that off the list. We can’t leave that off the list because it still makes sense. So, you know, for example, it’s like, well, why would you do 223? Well, you could also argue, why would you do 300 wind mag? Yeah. Right. Do you need 300 Win Mag to shoot a white tail that’s 150 lbs? No. But there’s also a hell of a lot of people that shoot a 223 to kill whitetails in the Southeast, right? But also, it’s a great cartridge for hog hunting. Yep. You can shoot coyotes with it. You can shoot, you know, varmint with it. like that. That’s the way I look at it is like we tried to be very well-rounded in our initial launch, but also understand that’s only initial launch. Like if you look at any ammo line across the board, they always have an initial launch and that just gives us opportunities to expand the line further as years progress um and as the ammo matures, right? we kind of see where the holes are and what people are quote asking for, needing, wanting. Um, and then that gives us that opportunity. I don’t know how much I want to hint at things just because I want people to be able to get some of this this year rather than saying like, well, I’m just going to wait until it comes out next year. Yeah. There’s more to come, right? And and on the Sierra side, Sierra’s going to have a huge part of that, right? Yep. Yeah. I think it’s like getting back like you know deciding on the calibers that you come out with and why that many it just gives you flexibility right I think if you go too many then you get on the weeds of having to push it out you know every caliber you add is a production to support that caliber and that’s adding time on your project right so you’re balancing how do I come out with a with a product offering that’s going to cover the masses right and appease a lot of people and give a space to grow and evolve this and you know fill gaps over time and be nimble like what’s what’s the hot caliber allows us to be flexible with what the market’s doing, right? Um, so yeah, I would say definitely expect this just like you would with any other ammo line or any other bullet family. They evolve. There’s additions that come. Well, and I I think it’s also something to say, right, is that uh retailers only have so much shelf space, right? So if you come out with 20 offerings right off the bat, they’re only probably going to buy three or four of them. Yeah. Right. Versus if you can come out with seven to nine, maybe they pick seven of them. You know what I mean? So you also have to think about that when you’re coming out with that. And this gives us that option, right? is like let’s say this year they they picked up seven of them and then we come out with I’m just making a number up here people but like let’s say that we come out with another five for 2026 right and then they pick up three more of those well now we just got a little bit more shelf space for harvest or for other lines right like it expands um their opportunity right so I think that that makes a makes a lot of sense and one of the reasons why we have to think that way as Right. And and from their perspective and from Barnes’s perspective, right, you have to see it succeed a little bit. Right. Right. We have this proof of concept and this is something new. This is this is a western hunting brand brand that’s that’s merging into a new market. So, as we need to see it succeed or you need to see it succeed, so do the retailers. And I mean, I think you guys want to see it succeed as we do. Yeah, we all do. Exactly. It just means more bullet sales for everybody, right? Yeah. Why don’t you go through the list of of of available calibers? Okay. Right. Just just to be just to be Yeah. So, we already kind of talked about 65 PRC and 223, right? And I think that that’s kind of and 300 Win Mag. Um, and that’s basically top and bottom, but we can also talk about we got 308, which is like the number one cartridge that’s sold essentially across the country. Yeah. Um, weird. 308’s pretty popular. Yeah. Weird, right? Um, with that we also have 300 6, which again weird, like if somebody doesn’t, which I don’t have a 300 6, so it’s kind of weird for me to say this, but it’s like if you don’t have a 300 6 in your safe, like what’s wrong with you? That’s the one cartridge that you’re going to find on a shelf somewhere. What’s wrong with you? Yeah. What’s wrong with him? I know. I I know. I have a lot of guns in my safe, and a 3006 is one that I’ve never bought in my 30 years of hunting now. Um, I just figured everybody got handed one down from their grandfather. Is that not true? I I I got a 3030 handed down to me from my grandfather and then I went to 270. Yeah. So, I went with the better cartridge than the 300 6. The more efficient cartridge is why. Okay. Um, 65 Creedmore. Yeah. Right. Um, somebody could say 65 need more, but you know, for a deer, it’s it’s great. Hey, I’ll stand here and support all the 65 guys. I’m here for you. Yeah. Yeah. I never owned a 65 Creedmore until I started shooting matches and 65 Creedmore makes a lot of sense for a match. Yeah. Um, okay. 223 270. Um, again, my personal favorite when it comes to white tail deer hunting. Uh, Warps Warp shooting 270 is shooting 243. 243. Yep. Which is the next one that I was getting to. Um, and yeah, Warp talked about that, right? That that’s a handed down gun that he got from his grandfather. Yeah. Um, and it’s 50 years old, right? But it still shoots lights out. My My stepdad hunted with a 243 for as long as I could remember. I went to He was like almost like, “Why do you need a 270 when you can kill them with a 243?” Um, but again, white tail, it’s it’s great. 243, 7 rim mag, and 300 windmag. Um, again, I think seven mag is on the upper limits. 300 win mags on the upper limits for whitetails, but at the same time dead is dead as as I’ve said many times before. And and not that we have to like justify what we do, but like to some degree I think we should. You know, you commented on all the research we did, right, as we went through this lineup. It’s like those last two may sound kind of oddballs, but like when you actually dive into the research and figure out what people are using in different parts of the country, they pop up as one of the top 10 most used calibers for whitetail. Yeah. Um, in my previous job when I worked with North American whitetail, Hannes shot 300 Win Mag. It didn’t matter where he was at in the country, he was going to shoot 300 Win Mag. Yeah. And even for me, I was 19 years old and it was time for me to buy a new rifle. I went and bought a seven rim mag and I hunted with that for the next 10 years and it didn’t matter again where I was at in the country. I had a seven rim mag and I knew I could kill anything. They’re the classic cartridges, right? If you’re going to go buy one gun to do it all, those ones are always in the conversation. Absolutely. Yep. Yeah, makes sense. What is What What else do we have? What what else should we talk about? Um, I think that we can talk a little bit about, you know, we we did get a little bit of flak about like why did we go with like 180 grain for a 300 6 versus like the traditional like 150 grain or 165 grain. Um, one of the reasons was that we did want to go a little bit heavy for caliber, right? Like we get a lot of flak on the Barnes copper side that everything’s too light. So then we made heavy bullets and we got flack that everything was too heavy. Like why would you do this? Yeah. I I think it’s fair to point out like for every offering we’re only coming out with one grain weight, right? Right. Like trying to simplify, right? Give options but make it simple for the consumer. Right. So they’re not sitting there going, “Okay, here’s a 308 and there’s four different grain weights. What do I need?” Right. Here’s your offering, right? This is your 308. Yeah. Absolutely. Um, so with 308 we have 165, which I think is kind of a traditional offering in a lead um offering, but excuse me. Um, with 30 out six, right? It is 180 grain. But again, I mean, if you’re only going to be shooting a white tail, let’s say 200 yards, right? Like going down to 160 grains, you’re only going to gain 50 100 foot per second out of the muzzle. Like what’s a big deal? you know, I think that it makes more sense to make sure that you’re getting that penetration. And I think that made a lot of sense for us, right? And again, I mean, we tested multiple different because TGK does have those type of offerings that we could find what fit best for our loading like like what we could do for the testing, what was going to give us the best gel results, right? And and all of that. So, every single one of these were handpicked. Yeah. Right. like when when we were looking at the the 30 caliber bullets, right? Obviously, we could have put a 165 in there instead, but it was like, well, the 180 just shoots that much better for the 300 6. I think that goes a little bit to your like we offer one caliber or we offer one grain weight per caliber. It’s just making the consumer’s jobs easier, right? There’s been a lot of thought that’s gone into that. So, rather than ah do I need this or do I need that, you need the one that we’ve decided on because we put a lot of thought into, right? put a lot of R&D into it, right? I mean, we tested all of the bullet grains, the different grain weights, right? These were the best performing time and time again. 100%. You know, and and going even if you talk a little bit about like heavy for caliber, you brought it up, right? You’ve seen that across the board at Sierra, right? That is like all the rage, right? And that’s part of your job now. It’s like how do you how do you match that trend, right? Right. Yeah. It’s definitely heavy for caliber is the hot thing right now, right? And I think it makes sense where shooters are today. Um, you know, everything is making shooters more capable today. Yep. Compared to where they were 10 years ago from the equipment, from just how often people shoot, how seriously they take it. Like it’s it’s a new game and there’s no denying with those, you know, heavy for caliber offerings that your ballistics are better and you know it everything supports it. So yeah, 100%. This has been a lively podcast. I’m super passionate about this one. This is I’m so pumped about this and like where we’re going and and the future of both of these brands. Like this is just the beginning. Like I I get I’m jacked up. Yeah. I mean I’ve also had an energy drink. I know. Like we have energy drinks and coffee that we’re like sipping on this entire time. So maybe that’s part of it. Yeah. Um, I I would say, you know, one of the cool things as well is, you know, again, you you always like to drop little nuggets for our listeners is this potentially opens doors to be able to do more things with Sierra and the Barnes family, right? Um, as Sierra has, you know, or continues to be a component only company and with Barnes being the loaded ammo side of the of the house, if you will, for the family, um, I think this this only offers us more opportunities to give other people opportunities or options. Yeah. I think, you know, you talk a little bit about the flack, right, of like loading someone else’s bullet. I would say it was pretty minimal. Yeah. Right. Like I before we launched, I think I woke up in the middle of the night one night and was like, “Oh my god, what if this is just flat out not accepted, right?” Like in the market. Like that was a real concern. Yeah. Right. And I think a few people pointed it out, but again, it’s just an option, right? We’re not telling you to not shoot copper if you want to shoot copper, like all that stuff. Um but I think the reception has been overwhelmingly positive. Y and so it does make you start thinking like okay how do we how do we continue to marry these brands and how do we continue to leverage decades of experience in both houses to just create the most amazing product for consumers right because that is at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about because if we don’t do that there’s no point in us being in business right there’s no there’s no point of us existing and to be honest like if we’re not doing it like the consumer tells us because they’re not buying our product and from everything that I see it’s hard to keep some of this harvest stuff in stock. Yeah. Between on our website and on retailer shelves. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I don’t know. I would just say again big picture, it’s cool to see I think the walls getting broke down between both brands, right? It’s it opens both sides up to a lot of data, a lot of intrinsic knowledge. Yeah. A lot of collaboration pointing out where there’s gaps, pointing out where there’s opportunity. And like you said, it’s just alluding to some of these opportunities that are coming to fruition now. and options down the road. So, it’s exciting times. Yeah. I mean, you know, you you kind of hinted at it a little bit, right? And you’ve only been here whatever it is, six, eight months now. Um, but seeing that growth between these two brands working together is incredible. And also seeing, you know, Sierra guys helping Barnes guys figure out something or vice versa, right? Barnes guys like kind of going back and forth when we’re in our weekly R&D meetings and everything to be like, you know, they’re kind of bickering like, “Oh, I want 117 grain or I want 120 grain or I want 119 grain.” And it’s like, “Well, just do the freaking 117.” You know what I mean? It’s almost like you need that outside source. And that’s what I feel like both of them kind of play. Yeah. is that everybody in in the walls of either Barnes or Sierra, you know, gets going down a one-way track, but then they can’t see the bigger picture and then like a Barnes person can kind of come in and like do that or vice versa. Um, one last thought that we haven’t hit on is where is this going to be available or where is it available already? I think that that’s pretty important um for our audience to listen to or potential new audience. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean certainly available on our website right now. Um you know we have obviously major you know most of our business is built on the success of retailers right so you know you can find it at various retailers whether they’re you know online retailers or brickandmortar right but it’s going to be available across the country there are I don’t know if I want to say like store names right um but what I’ll say is it is based on who is buying it is available whether it is you know small mom and pop in your town right four big national global retail chains, right? Have also bought have also bought into this, right, and will be assorting it in their stores. So, when you think about where you’re going to have it, there’s probably not a store any further than 20 miles from you is my guess, right, where this won’t be carried. Yeah, I was going to say it feels like the distribution has been massively successful. Yeah, there’s going to be a lot of options for consumers. So, yeah. Yeah, I I think I would be now they’re they may not carry every caliber, right? Because like Dale alluded to, you know, a retailer is going to buy four, you know, four calibers. This retailer is going to buy the three other ones or five other ones, whatever. Um, but there’s going to be ample selection out there. Yep. Right. And if you can’t find it, you can always order it on the website. Well, and I was also just going to say that, you know, like if you’re on our website and you’re not ordering it from there because you want to go look at it in store is that you do have the find a dealer tab on our website. That’s a great plug that you can Thank you. I love that. It’s almost like I’m the marketing guy or something, right? That’s great. Um that you can use the find the dealer tab, right? and and look at what retailers around you that maybe one doesn’t have Harvest and they only have Vortex or Vortex LR or Pioneer or whatever that it is, but like maybe there’s another one that’s 3 minutes down the road. And again, if you’re already on our website, guess what? You can order it directly from there and it’s probably going to be on your doorstep in about 2 or 3 days and you don’t even have to spend any gas money to get it. Oh, nice. Nice. So, and you can get free shipping if you’re 150 bucks or more. Yep. So, Yep. That’s right. But yeah, at at the end of the day, I think this is a kick-ass deal. I’m really excited about it. I’m excited about the future of it. Um I’m excited how far it’s come from just conception to like being executed. Yeah, I mean, we were definitely um kind of in a time crunch to get it done when we decided to launch it, right? We could have definitely pushed it all the way back to 2026 launch and instead we were like no we want to get this out like this is a great product and then it gives us opportunities to expand the line which we are doing in 2026. Yeah. So be excited for that. Um and I think that the expansion of this product like or the line extensions of this product are uh going to hit home for a few of those states that might not be able to do it right now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s fair, right? So, so stay tuned for early 2026, right? Especially if you’re in some of those states that have restrictions. Restrictions, right? Um, it’s coming. Yep. Absolutely. Any last parting thoughts here? Atomic with a D. Yeah. How was your first Bullet points podcast? Oh, it was great. Yeah, you’re doing a great job with it. Um, it’s fun to see. This is my first time to the Barnes facility. Yeah. So, I’m excited for my tour to come. Yeah. and go shoot at the underground range a little bit. Yeah, if I can talk into that. Heck yeah, absolutely. Yeah, why not? We got we got a few a few uh guns to choose from and I think we can probably scr up some ammo. I was going to say let’s go shoot some harvest. All right, sounds good. All right, thanks guys. Nice.