Guidefitter Spotlight Episode 08: Cameron Kaufhold, VP of Sales & Marketing at Longshot Cameras

Transcript

Bryan Koontz (00:04) The following conversation is with Cameron Koffold. He's the VP of Sales and Marketing with a company called Longshot, based in Texas. If you've ever shot in a rifle, spent any time on a range, shooting your gun in at 100 yards before the season or whatnot, perhaps then going out to 200 yards, 300 yards, whatnot, you may be familiar with the walk, the range walk. You shoot a couple rounds, put the gun down, take a walk.

Take a sharpie or a pen knife, mark the spots, come back, load up your weapon, shoot another couple rounds, et cetera, et cetera, walk back to the target. Longshot is addressing that challenge by setting up cameras at the target and back to an iPad or an iPhone or some sort of mobile device back at the shooting bench, saving you all of the walks in the back and forths and a whole bunch of other interesting software and technology. So we're going to get into all of that, including.

A little bit about Longshot's founder and CEO, who is a highly competitive long range shooter. I think he won the one mile competition last year. He's now competing in the two mile this year. So join me in this conversation with Cameron. I think you'll learn a lot more about Longshot, who's been a partner with Guidefitter for quite a while. And a little bit more about Cameron himself, who was involved in all kinds of things in the outdoor industry, including running his own guide business in Texas. Welcome to the Guidefitter Spotlight.

Bryan Koontz (00:00) But what are we gonna say? Do you work from home like all the time or?

Cameron Kaufhold (00:03) I've been involved with Longshot since its inception back in 2013. And the only reason that I am working for Longshot full time is because COVID and work.

Bryan Koontz (00:14) Yeah, anytime.

Cameron Kaufhold (00:33) the working remote thing. Um, so, uh, I've been involved with the founder since, you know, he bought his first gun and went to the range, Clay Roden. And, um, I actually worked the first NRA show with him in 2013 with a prototype and we sold a couple of units and we were like, Oh man, this thing might work. He had just graduated from a Texas business school and was like, I want to do this.

You know, I want to be an entrepreneur and I want to start it full time. And I was just starting my career. And so, you know, I was like, all right, well, I'll pro staff. I'll help you work some shows when I can. And, you I'll take out, uh, you know, whether it be dealers or, uh, you know, investors. And so did that for seven, eight years, uh, on the side. And I pursued my career and it wasn't until COVID when he was like, Hey, uh,

I don't need you to move to Houston. You can run our international sales division from as long as you have Wi -Fi. And I live here in central Texas, Waco specifically. And my wife is working for a company called Magnolia, home design, renovation, taking the world by storm. And I'm like, I...

Um, she, she doesn't want to leave and we're not going to leave until, um, you know, they're, they have their own TV network now and, um, you know, taking over the world. So it's like, she's going to do this. So I'm, I can't come to Houston. So if I can do that from, from my house here in Waco, uh, you know, let's do it. And, uh, yeah, I've been doing it ever since and, uh, coming up on three years. Um,

Bryan Koontz (02:24) you

Cameron Kaufhold (02:28) Waco has a little regional airport that's four miles from my house. So I can be anywhere in the world and a couple hours and, uh, you know, works great.

before it became cool.

Bryan Koontz (02:53) became yeah before everyone else.

Cameron Kaufhold (02:56) for California found it, you know.

I've heard that.

Bryan Koontz (03:03) But, you know, and I still any chance I get to go back there, the barbecue is still superior. One would think Montana could do good barbecue, but unfortunately they haven't cracked that code up here yet. So I still do miss the barbecue in Texas. But, but anyway, so I, one of the things I want to ask, I don't know if you know, but I was reading the about a little bit about your founders, Clay and Richard, I guess they're brothers and father and son. Okay. And James.

Cameron Kaufhold (03:28) father and son.

Bryan Koontz (03:31) And it says, with their experience with ICS, the other Brian at Guidefitter and I were Googling what ICS stood for. Do you know what does that stand for? It was like.

Cameron Kaufhold (03:40) I'm not sure what it stands for, but I know that, so Richard Clay's dad and his business partner, James, they had a wireless security camera monitoring business. They still do. And so when Clay came back from college, he went to work for the family business. And so he was dealing with wireless cameras, camera technology, and how those all link together. So.

When he actually founded Longshot or Target Vision, that's what he did. He took some cameras from their wireless security camera business, used one of their third party apps that they used for wireless monitoring. And that's where the first prototype came from.

Bryan Koontz (04:27) That's cool. Okay, well that makes a lot of sense then. Yeah.

Cameron Kaufhold (04:30) And so Richard and James, they have a company called Guard Vision. And so they do wireless security camera monitoring all over the world. And so they were integral in Target Vision getting started because they took their knowledge of cameras and put it into a small portable option.

Bryan Koontz (04:49) Yeah.

Well, that makes a lot of sense. So like, yeah, the foundations of Longshot are from like quite a history of security camera business. That's pretty cool. Huh. Very, very cool. Well, I don't know how many people that are going to be watching this get out to the range or have experience shooting in their guns. I'm sure most of the folks that are listening to this and watching this probably do. Guidefitter is a pretty tight, you know,

community of like -minded folks, but I know I have a place in Pennsylvania, a farm. I live here in Montana now, but, and, uh, my two brothers, two older brothers and my dad, probably about 10 years ago, eight or 10 years ago, we finally decided to like build an actual range instead of just like going out into a field, putting up the cardboard, you know, so we, we set out a hundred, 200, 300, 400, we could actually get 500, um, uh, on the, on the range. And, um, so we have, uh,

We have metal targets all the way out, but we also have a little portable thing we can set up to zero to a hundred and all that stuff. So I am very, very, very familiar with the whole monotony of, uh, okay, fire three rounds and, you know, you know, open up your breeches and now let's take a walk, grab a pen, grab a pen knife. My dad has usually has a pen knife where we kind of mark our shots and we walk down and then we walk back and then we, then we try to go out to 200 and sometimes at the 300, we usually have a four wheeler with us so we can.

cruise down on the four wheeler, come back. But that whole process of walking down or going down in the car or the four wheeler, very familiar with that. And if someone's using Longshot, like all of that is history. And like, it's pretty, it's pretty awesome. Yeah, go ahead. I mean, cause I think for people who haven't spent much time really looking into what you guys do that love just, you know, either actual target shooting all the time or just shooting in their rifles as part of the season, it's, it's game changing. So go ahead. Sorry.

Cameron Kaufhold (06:37) Yeah, I think.

Yeah, think about all the time you've wasted. You know, what my favorite part is when somebody just mounts a scope, you know, whether they have it mounted for them or, you know, it's bore -sided. Um, but how much time is wasted, you know, if they don't hit the 12 inch piece of paper, you know, well aim, aim at the other corner or aim at the bottom, you know, how much, I know you've been a part of that. Um, how much time is wasted? Um,

The difference with using our products is our cameras are actually downrange sending a live video feed back to the shooter. We guarantee two miles on our LR3 model. So whether you're shooting at 500 yards, 100, or 3 ,000 yards, you get the same instant feedback like you're 10 feet away from the target.

And that matters for clarity. And if you've ever shot at 500, you know, anything over 300 here in Texas, you get mirage. Um, and so you're looking at a really weird wavy, uh, type of image anyway, through your optics. And especially with a spotter and being able to look on your phone or tablet and see that target at 15 feet away in 4k resolution. And, you know, it kind of blows people's mind and.

The thing that, that I have a challenge on the marketing side is most people when they're doing exactly what you're saying, they're so impressed that they can see the target at four or 500 yards with no mirage. That's they're just happy there. And it's my job to try to educate them of not only is that great, but it can do so much more.

Instead of going downrange and having to Sharpie a hole or you know put you a thumbtack on there You know the shoot and see targets where you put your your orange or black sticker on there Inside the Longshot app and this works across our entire product offering in The app you can actually mark those shots different colors So if you and I were shooting at the same target both shooting and aiming at the bullseye, you know my

Bryan Koontz (08:51) Mm -hmm.

Cameron Kaufhold (09:13) my shot markers could be blue, yours could be red, and as we just continue to shoot, we just continue to mark those shots different colors. Never once...

Bryan Koontz (09:16) so cool.

So I would like, so if I'm on the bench, I fire three rounds, we can see exactly where they hit and just go on the, on the little iPad or whatever, just tap like I'm blue and then you get on the bench and you shoot and then you're red or whatever. That is so cool. Yeah.

Cameron Kaufhold (09:37) Exactly and for you know some of your other your other companies who are shooting sub half moa and those kind of things We have a feature so you can not only record you can take pictures But my favorite feature is the shot blinker feature so you can take a picture before and after the shot So if you start ringing them in the same hole It takes a picture before and after and it cycles them back and forth really quickly

So you can see the change in the image. So even if you're putting them in the same hole and just nicking a piece of the paper, you can see where that image changed. And so you can just start, you know, marking sub half minute groups. Um, and it works the same for shotgun patterning. So I know Turkey season's around the corner for a lot of people. We use that for shotgun patterning, you know, instead of just shooting one or two shots at the paper and it, you know,

Bryan Koontz (10:24) Oh, I didn't think about that.

Cameron Kaufhold (10:32) Oh, now I can't tell. You can cycle those images back and forth and see where that pattern moves.

Bryan Koontz (10:40) That's, you know, I didn't even consider using Longshot for shotgun shooting and like targeting that. That makes a ton of sense. So how does it?

Cameron Kaufhold (10:49) Yeah, we were actually just talking. We were talking with some of our great friends over from Field to Plate. Um, and they're gearing up for Turkey season. And that's exactly what we were talking about that they were using it for shotgun patterning. And, um, everyone's like, well, I'm not a two mile shooter. You don't have to be. I mean, these guys are practicing shotguns at 20 yards and I use it in my backyard shooting my bow because you, once you pull the arrows, you can still mark the shots and you can know how a specific arrow is grouping without having to.

Bryan Koontz (11:05) Yeah.

Cameron Kaufhold (11:17) fling five and knock off the fletchings and bust the knocks. So, ton of different options and we try to expand people's perception of, you don't have to be a long range shooter to actually see how this app and how these products can help.

Bryan Koontz (11:37) Yeah. So setting the thing up, the system up, I assume it's simply take the camera down by the target, make sure it's out of the way, obviously. And then I think you have different products. One, that would be the transmitter. And then on the receiving end, it's either something like either a computer or an iPad. Or I believe you have systems that also have your own receiver for the long range, the two mile system, I think. But is that it's?

Is that as simple as that or how does if someone were to is thinking about this, how what would they expect to set it up and start using it?

Cameron Kaufhold (12:11) Yeah. So we have a couple of different models, uh, ranging from our new product line, the ranger series, uh, which is coming out in June. So we're going to have a hundred yard target camera for 199 bucks. So someone who's just getting into it, or maybe only sights their rifle in at a hundred yards the week before deer season, they can have an inexpensive. Entry level option to our entire product offering all of our products use the same app free in the app store, Google play store. So.

You know, we don't hit you with a bunch of fees afterwards. Um, so ranging from a hundred yards to two miles, the, the camera goes down range by the target. We recommend 10 or 15 feet away and the camera ball moves. So you, you place that camera off to the side back. So in theory out of the path of the bullet. And then the hardest part about the whole process is when you pull it out of the box, turn the cameras on, they emit their own Wi-Fi signal.

Bryan Koontz (12:42) Mm -hmm.

Cameron Kaufhold (13:11) hardest part is downloading the app, clicking on the Wi -Fi just like you would if you're you know clicking on Wi -Fi at a hotel or restaurant, your house and you're connecting to the camera. After that there's no need for cell service or Wi -Fi ever again. All of our products emit their own Wi -Fi signal so you don't need to be on the grid you can be in the boonies and products work just fine.

Bryan Koontz (13:19) Sure. Well, you're connecting to the camera. Yeah.

And the Wi -Fi signal goes that far? I mean, that's a sometimes look.

Cameron Kaufhold (13:42) So, yeah, the 100 -yard camera you link directly to the camera. The 300 -yard Marksman camera you link directly to the camera. But our Ranger Plus at 1 ,000 yards and our LR3 and LR3 multicam packages, you have a receiver with you at the shooting position. Those two pointed at each other through patented Wi -Fi technology. It's a signal booster, really.

Bryan Koontz (13:52) you

Cameron Kaufhold (14:12) those can be a thousand yards or two miles apart.

Bryan Koontz (14:12) I see.

That's super cool. Right. But the point is you don't need to be in a cell service. You can be out, like here in Montana, we go out on public land sometimes and you can find some really long range to shoot and whatnot. So that's, I think that's an important. Yeah.

Cameron Kaufhold (14:26) Yep, yep, you don't need to be on the grid. You can, and my personal opinion is they work better when you're off the grid because you don't have all the interference of other stuff.

Bryan Koontz (14:34) Yeah, yeah, that is really cool. What should we expect in the future? Are you guys ever going to get into other types of cameras, like trail cameras or things like that, or just sticking with this?

Cameron Kaufhold (14:46) So and I'm actually looking at our Guidefitter site right now and The the Hawk which is our scope mounted camera That's same app different feature, but it's a wireless camera that mounts on your spotting scope So it actually yeah, it allows you to have all the same features turning any spotting scope into a digital scope So the beauty of that opposed to a phone scope or you know the different?

Bryan Koontz (15:03) I saw that.

Cameron Kaufhold (15:14) mounting systems that device stays on your spotting scope and is Wi -Fi to your phone. So you don't have to lose your phone. You don't have to soak up all the battery. You can be 30 yards away sitting in the shade and have your entire spotting scope right on your phone. So another cool feature and you don't have to go down range for that one. It just gives you the live feed through your spotting scope. To answer your question I mentioned earlier the

Bryan Koontz (15:21) you

Cameron Kaufhold (15:43) the Ranger series, we're really excited about that. Technically, we launched it at Shot Show. It was actually the most scanned new item at the Shot Show. So we're really excited about that. Two different models, the Ranger, which is going to have a 100 yard guaranteed range. As I mentioned, a really good entry level system for the novice shooter. Some I've heard ranges in PA and the mid.

Bryan Koontz (15:48) you

you

Cameron Kaufhold (16:12) You know, the central part of the country woods and terrain, you know, shooting past 100 yards is hard. Um, so a really great inexpensive option to get the full Longshot robust offering. Um, and what I've been telling people, you know, for a one 99 price point retail price point, you're going to get the same user experience as the thousand dollar cameras that people are using to shoot two miles. It's, it's a really great.

Bryan Koontz (16:37) you

Cameron Kaufhold (16:41) product offering. And then the Ranger Plus, which is similar to how the LR3 is set up with a camera and a receiver, that camera system is going to be guaranteed at a thousand yards and is going to be a great mid tier. You know, not everyone has access to shoot past a thousand. And so at a 399 retail price, someone can get, you know, a really great inexpensive offering to shoot out to a thousand yards or.

Bryan Koontz (16:56) Yep.

Cameron Kaufhold (17:11) 500 or you know, it's a really great mid -tier option.

Bryan Koontz (17:14) I mean, when you're getting into price points like that, it's for just feels like that should be part of the standard, you know, hunters shooters kit. Even if you're just zeroing at 100 check, you know, checking zeros. So many people like I grew up back in the Pennsylvania area. And, you know, the routine then was well for us, our family was Thanksgiving. You know, it used to be that the Pennsylvania season didn't come in until the Monday after Thanksgiving, now it's on a Saturday. But anyway, at Thanksgiving you'd grab the rifles and the family would go out and check zeros

Cameron Kaufhold (17:32) Okay.

Bryan Koontz (17:42) And it was kind of fun and your family was there together. And, but then that was also to make sure that you're ready to go come Monday morning and now Saturday morning. But with, with those price points, I mean, I don't know why we like buy one of those set it up and that way it just changes the whole, the whole nature of the game.

Cameron Kaufhold (17:43) you

Bryan Koontz (18:04) Like you said, even if you're not into the long range stuff, you don't even have to.

Cameron Kaufhold (18:04) Yeah, I mean.

Right that hundred yard camera system, you know, we're essentially looking to make an inexpensive item for the the muzzleloader guy or gal the the archer the 22 rifle shooter the air gun shooter, you know, we're a hundred yards and those And those specialties are you know, pretty good pretty good distance But yeah, it's actually funny we we had a

We did a whole marketing series around it that our founder clay, he actually shoots competitively. He's the one of the reigning king of one mile shooters. He also competes at king of two miles. And he said, you know, we were asking him, you know, what was the mindset about the ranger? And, you know, cause it's smaller, it's more compact. It doesn't come with a case. It has built in tripod. And, uh, and he told a funny story. He was like, I invented the LR three.

Bryan Koontz (18:49) Huh.

Cameron Kaufhold (19:06) And I find myself rarely bringing it to the range because, you know, when you have an entire gear bag, you have a rifle case, you've got optics. He was like, I just didn't want to carry another case. So he has one of those Eberlestock range bags with the different dividers in it. And he was like, my goal was to make a camera that fit into one of those, uh, those slots.

Bryan Koontz (19:24) Oh, sure. Yeah.

Nice.

Cameron Kaufhold (19:33) And in the video, there's some really good footage of, you know, him pulling that camera right out of the gear bag. And he did exactly what he set out to do. The camera fits right in one of those, those dividers. And, you know, now it's something that can just live in the range bag. It's not another case that you got to, you know, keep track of and pile in your truck.

Bryan Koontz (19:57) Huh, well we'll have to, that's good data. We'll have to see what we can do to merchandise the Eberlestock range bag with your stuff on Guidefitter. Cause they're a partner of ours as well, but a partner for a very long time. That's super cool. And wow, I didn't, so I didn't realize he is a competitive long range shooter, mile and two mile. Like that's hard for me to believe. I went to a shooting school once at the FTW ranch down in Texas.

Cameron Kaufhold (20:05) Mm -hmm.

Yeah, there you go.

Bryan Koontz (20:23) Really? Yeah. Tim Fallon and the crew, Dog, and some of the other guys that are the instructors. And the first time I went, I've gone twice down there. The first time I went, it was actually Zeiss again. They were introducing some new scopes. So they had kind of rented out the place, sort of like a mini media sort of event. Anyway, and so we went through a little abbreviated version of the school. And day one, of course, we're learning about ballistics and the difference between MOA and other stuff. And how

Ballistics coefficients and all that kind of stuff and and I remember dog was teaching it teaching the classes of an Former I think Marine teams guy and he was like by tomorrow most if not all of you will be ringing steel at 1500 You know meters and I was like, there's no way like I'm East Coast guy, right? I'm like if I can hit something at 400 yards. That is a great day and and sure enough like I rang steel at 1500 yards the next day with with

Cameron Kaufhold (21:14) Mm -hmm.

One of the instructors is leaning over me with a spotting scope, you know, calling, you know, calling how many minutes, you know, one minute, right? Whatever. It took me three shots, but it was pretty cool. And, um, and that, that experience. Go ahead.

Bryan Koontz (21:32) Yeah.

That exact experience is so they've been a great partner and Longshot user.

Cameron Kaufhold (21:36) Yeah.

sunny days, you know, shooting, spotting at 1500 yards is a task. And, uh, so they set up cameras. They'll set them up at 15, 18, 2000. And, uh, you know, they'll, they'll use the spotter to watch trace. But then, you know, you look over and all the instructors, these incredibly trained guys are all looking at their phones, just watching our app, you know, being able to, cause there's something about, you know, when you shoot 1500 yards.

Bryan Koontz (22:07) That is cool. Mm -hmm. Oh, that's cool.

Cameron Kaufhold (22:13) It's a huge accomplishment, right? And there's something that I've seen personally, cause I've gone there and done those media events. There's a difference between the instructor telling you you hit steel and then showing or being able to show your phone of this is your shot. You're, you know, you're one minute off of center or, you know, that's exactly where I was aiming or, you know, here's where you hit. Come over another, another minute. And they've seen.

Bryan Koontz (22:36) Totally.

Cameron Kaufhold (22:43) Uh, they use them because it's that exact interaction is way easier for them to say, to show somebody, this is your impact. You know, if you want to hit again, you know, aim top of the plate or bottom of the plate or, you know, who's, who's, whose impact was it? Um, so yeah, I, I totally know how it goes. And I think that's a, you know, that's one. The best way to put.

why we developed the Ranger series is our current product offering has been for that situation, right? The two mile cameras. And we feel like there's a lot of other shooters in that mid tier that could benefit from our products, but maybe we're scared away because of the price point. And now, you know, giving them a couple of different options at a much lower price. You know, we feel like there's a lot more people out there that can really.

save time, energy, money, you know, ammo's not cheap and you don't have to run the buggy out there every time you want to check your 300 yard zero.

Bryan Koontz (23:43) Yeah. Yeah, it's been, it's been six years since I did that school. So they didn't have, they didn't have the, they didn't have your stuff then. And I can absolutely see how that whole, that whole experience of going through a long range shooting school is completely different. I didn't even think about you, right? You can just show someone right on the.

right on the phone and um because i didn't even walk up to the target i had at 1500 yards you know it's too far up the hill or whatnot but that is that is super cool um yeah i don't know why every single range wouldn't just have your stuff i like i belong here in montana there's a a range that's a you know members only range um you have to be like member of the nr and all that kind of good stuff to join it's called the logan range um and that would be so cool if they had somehow just had your cameras like available to

Cameron Kaufhold (24:17) Right.

Bryan Koontz (24:40) rent or lease or just for the members to use or something. Because now I'm just thinking, I think once you use your products, I think it's probably pretty hard to not, right? To go back to the old way that, yeah.

Cameron Kaufhold (24:47) 100 % and I'm I'm a great testament to that of you know, I we have some personal land and most of the shooting I do is a hundred yards and I hate not using the cameras because the You know after five or six if you're shooting good guns after five or six rounds You know, it's hard to tell

Bryan Koontz (25:13) Sure. Hmm.

Cameron Kaufhold (25:14) What's shot up and what's not but being able to one thing I didn't mention earlier is Once you once you really get in depth on the app there's also a extreme spread calculator or shot group calculator built into the app and so you can actually measure your group size without ever going down range, you don't have to go down with a with a not a protractor where they call them the Well, yeah the fancy ones

Bryan Koontz (25:42) That's

Cameron Kaufhold (25:44) But yeah, tape measure a ruler To measure your extreme spread you can do it all from the same shooting position You can do it for multiple rounds too So I can you and I can both shoot the same gun or we can shoot three or four different guns three or four different Loads so I use it a lot for load development when I'm trying to find out which Which bullets my gun likes better and you can do all that you?

Bryan Koontz (26:11) Huh. And that just saves it into like the database in the app or whatnot, then you can pull it up. And I assume you can just probably.

Cameron Kaufhold (26:13) put that in the notes, you can save that data. And so for my personal use, not having to walk down range, pull that target, write in the notes what load it was, and then walk back and do it over again. You can put all those notes on the same screen grab and have that in your Rolodex.

Bryan Koontz (26:40) any of the any of the photos or that it's taking to can you store that then and like can you like brag and like text the photo to a friend and be like check this out I think I think I'm good to go for the season you know people love to brag about that you know that's awesome

Cameron Kaufhold (26:47) 100%.

What I do when I, for instance, if I go to that FTW thing, I'm using my iPad and I'm as soon as I get, as soon as I show that shooter, Hey, here's your 1500 yard impact. I can airdrop that to their personal device and they've got it within five minutes. And you know, it's on their personal phone and they're already sending it to their friends.

Bryan Koontz (27:11) Right, it's already on the social media is bragging that they hit the target. Yeah, yeah. Well, very, very cool. Cameron, this is I hope all of our members who listen to this learn a lot more. I certainly have. Anything else that you want to mention or talk about before we sign off? I mean, this has been great.

Cameron Kaufhold (27:13) Right. Yep.

No, I mean I would say look out for the Ranger we're starting to take pre-orders on our website, but You know, we really feel like that is going to really complete our product offering and we're already working and developing on you know, some some new and awesome stuff, but We really have worked. This is two years. We've been working to get this product to market and so being able to

to get the masses into the camera system and being able to appeal to not just the long range shooter, but the novice shooter at a price point that doesn't scare everyone and trying to educate the shooting hunting community about what we are and how helpful and beneficial it is to use our products. That's what we're trying to do.

Bryan Koontz (28:17) That's

Cameron Kaufhold (28:28) We're trying to do it from the grassroots side. And, you know, we're a small company and this will be our 11th year. The LR three is our third generation. The, the Ranger series is our fourth gen. So we've been at this a long time and. You know, trying to, trying to perfect the experience and always, always update the apps on things that we want to see as shooters and as hunters as well. So we're trying to create products that we want and.

Bryan Koontz (28:50) Yeah, that's awesome. I have one more question, maybe two. So I'm curious and I'm sure others that will be listening. What does Clay use? What rifle, what round, what optic, what are his go -tos for his one mile and two mile?

Cameron Kaufhold (28:57) Hopefully, the market can see the need as well.

So it's a great question and the best way I can describe it is you know, I drive a Chevy pickup and You know people who are driving f1 or driving things that You know, you're not gonna see running down the street. Like you're not gonna see these rifles at hunting camp. You're not gonna see them

Bryan Koontz (29:17) I understand.

Cameron Kaufhold (29:36) at the range, I mean, they're souped up sports cars. I believe he won the king of one mile last year with a 33 XC, which all these are hand loads, but essentially a 338 Lapua that is faster and way more 21st century. So it's a, I believe he told me it's somewhere like a

Bryan Koontz (29:47) Holy

Cameron Kaufhold (30:05) 250 to 280 grain bullet that's moving 33 35 hundred feet per second So it is a big heavy very fast moving laser beam Yeah, he's sponsored by night for so it's all night force optics You know the a tech are you know? Those things are incredible And yeah, so those

Bryan Koontz (30:17) That's a lot of energy. I see. Gotcha.

Cameron Kaufhold (30:34) My favorite thing is when people hear that, they're like, Oh, what's the barrel burnout? And it's like, they don't care. You know, as long as they can shoot, you know, a hundred rounds out of it and win a match, uh, they're, they're sponsored by his team is sponsored by Bart line barrels. Um, and so they'll rip one out, put another one on, um, his two mile gun, uh, clay's not a huge guy. Uh, and their team.

Bryan Koontz (30:39) Sure.

Cameron Kaufhold (31:01) GPG Global Precision Group is led by Paul Phillips who's a retired marine, army sniper, marine sniper. He's a bigger guy and he's obsessed with the 416 Barrett. But it's a big heavy round and it beats clay up and he doesn't shoot it all that well. The recoil is just humongous. It's got a...

Bryan Koontz (31:16) Okay.

Wow The ripple effect through your entire body yeah, right the slow -mo videos are really cool when you see that like, you know I believe it

Cameron Kaufhold (31:28) You just see the you've probably shot a 50 cal before you just think all the you know, just yeah, just think about that I Would funny you bring that up because I actually took a video in slow -mo to show him the recoil and we were laughing because it like came out the back of his legs But he is moving to his two -mile gun to be a 375 shy tech I believe

Which is kind of the middle ground between the 416 and the 33 It's not as heavy and not moving as fast, but the recoil management is much better so you can get on target quicker and So yeah, that's what that's what he's using we we did a company shoot out in Texas at the Austin gun club They have a mild target out there and we're or ring and steel with

Bryan Koontz (32:03) That's cool.

Sure.

Cameron Kaufhold (32:26) You know 6.5 Creedmoor and you know, it's a you know, 98 minutes of angle at a one mile shot I gets you know, you're just lobbing them in there and he pulls out the 33 XC that he won the competition with and it's you know guys who've never pulled a trigger before you're just like dude just point and shoot and You know, it's it's why we got some cool videos on on YouTube Like our our creative director who's not a hunter not a shooter

Bryan Koontz (32:43) Wow.

Cameron Kaufhold (32:55) It's like to just lay down and pull the trigger and you know, he's ringing steel at a mile with with a sports car of a gun. But a lot of fun, a lot of fun, expensive to shoot, but a lot of fun.

Bryan Koontz (32:56) Oh my gosh. So what is your Chevy pickup gun? You're a shooter as well. So what's your go -to? You probably have an arsenal, but.

Cameron Kaufhold (33:15) I do. And it kind of, people always ask me, you know, what's your favorite caliber? What's your favorite gun? And I'm like, it depends.

Bryan Koontz (33:21) It's kind of like what's your favorite ice cream and what's your favorite song or what's your favorite food and what's your favorite song? Yeah Yeah, they're one of our partners, yep

Cameron Kaufhold (33:25) Depend it depends on what I'm doing where I'm doing it But I'm sure you're familiar with proof research there in Montana They just built me. Yeah, they just built me a custom 6.5 Creedmoor which is Just a treat to shoot You know great range gun It's one of my That and I've just got a an old Ruger

Bryan Koontz (33:51) That's

Cameron Kaufhold (33:52) 6.5 Creedmoor with a MDT stock on it. Those two are my fun range guns and we do a bunch of land management here in Texas. So if I need to go shoot a bunch of dough and I'm gonna just be taking headshots at 500 yards, those are the guns I'm bringing, because they're just absolute shooters.

But my new favorite is the guys at Weatherby built me a 6.5 300. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but it's essentially a 6.5 Creedmoor bullet on a 300 Weatherby Magnum. So it's a, like I'm shooting a 129 grain hammer bullet, 3 ,400 feet per second. So it is, it is awesome. And, uh,

Bryan Koontz (34:21) I'm not, no. Mm -hmm, that's zippy. Yeah.

Cameron Kaufhold (34:48) They built me one of those all it's really cool. A custom Longshot branding. It's a great mile shooting gun. But it has become my personal favorite because I do some, I do guiding on the side and like we shot, I think I guided five Redstag hunts this last year and we're shooting Redstag at 590 yards and they're just rolling over.

Bryan Koontz (34:50) Hmm

That's awesome. Yeah. I had no idea you guided. That's pretty cool. That's awesome.

Cameron Kaufhold (35:18) And so there's not a ton of calibers with that much energy on target at 500 yards and that's been a really fun gun.

I do. Yeah. I have a guide business, uh, with a friend of mine. We guide in central Texas, East Texas, um, everything from white tail to axis, red stag, uh, kind of a little bit of everything, pigs, um, and then do some fishing.

Bryan Koontz (35:44) What's the guide business called? FC Outdoors.

Cameron Kaufhold (35:52) FC Outdoors, FC Outdoors, Texas on Instagram. Yeah, just a fun little hobby project. And my favorite part of it is when we come into camp, it's in our business plan that anyone who comes into camp, we start the first day at the range. You're going to shoot on Longshot cameras and you're going to show me that the gun you're bringing.

Bryan Koontz (36:16) Mm -hmm.

Cameron Kaufhold (36:20) is a sub minute gun. And I do some guiding with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Youth Program, great partners with the Dallas Safari Club as well. And our sweet spot is girls 11 to 17. Most of them bring their dads or their moms or grandpa. And after the first year, you put an 11 year old on grandpappy's 30-06 all wooden gun and you know,

Bryan Koontz (36:22) Nice.

Cameron Kaufhold (36:48) hit 12 inches, they're scared of it. And so same thing, we make them qualify on the Longshot system. And it kind of built from that of, you know, we've sold a lot of cameras and gotten a lot of cool experiences just from people coming into camp and me not even having my Longshot sales hat on just to, Hey, here's a device, you know, we're going to be able to see our impacts and here's your extreme spread. And like what.

Bryan Koontz (37:12) Yeah.

Cameron Kaufhold (37:18) What is this thing? This is awesome. Like yeah, this is this is some really great technology at an affordable price and Let me put my longshot hat back on and here's a here's our Guidefitter page So yeah, it's been a cool way to kind of merge all my passions together

Bryan Koontz (37:19) Yeah, right, right.

Yeah.

That's so cool that you're involved with with youth like that. I mean, it's You know get some get some off their phones Except for when they're looking at where they hit the target But um, it just gets them outside gets them doing neat stuff that they can then go talk about and feel in a sense of accomplishment and stuff that not many You know kids are doing these days like maybe like they used to That that is that's super cool

Cameron Kaufhold (37:55) Yeah, it's it's one of my favorite things to do and I'm a girl that actually I have a six and a four year old two daughters and You know, I've had both of them in the blind with me since they were two and a half which my wife felt like was too young But they're just they're growing up in it, you know, we were at our ranch last week doing nothing but fishing they all have their own poles they're all self -sufficient and You know, I like to offer that same type of knowledge to

Bryan Koontz (38:18) Oh yeah.

Cameron Kaufhold (38:24) these girls through the guide program. I do a whole butchering class, you know, not only teach them how to shoot, but, you know, teach them what happens after. And, uh, you know, it's, it's really cool. They're all fighting over the meat. They want to, they want to show their brothers and their dads. And, uh, so it's a really cool thing to be a part of. And, um, as a girl dad, I'm just trying to, to do all these guys a favor and, uh, you know, raise some really, really cool and self -sufficient girls out in the woods.

Bryan Koontz (38:26) No kidding.

Ha ha.

That is awesome. Well, I also have two girls. Mine are a little older now. My oldest just turned 21 like a week ago. And then my youngest is 18. So they also, when they were little, little and kind of growing up, we mostly, they mostly live, we mostly live back in Pennsylvania on the farm. So yeah, they grew up catching crowd ads and I taught them how to like be the boss when...

Cameron Kaufhold (39:01) Oh wow.

Bryan Koontz (39:16) holding a fish to take the hook out and, you know, all of that stuff, you know, so they're, they, uh, then they lived in Austin for a while and now in Montana. So they've had quite a, quite a breadth of experiences, but, uh, but you know, give them, uh, give them some time to get outside and go camping with friends now. And that's, that's what it's all about for them. So I never got them into hunting tried. They fell asleep in the hunting blind, like multiple times, but they do enjoy fishing now and stuff and being outside. So that's, that's really cool to hear. Well, you.

Cameron Kaufhold (39:18) Yeah.

Bryan Koontz (39:45) You're doing a lot of stuff. I love it. We're going to have to work with, we're going to have to check now to make sure that we have your outfitting business on Guidefitter as well. If not, we'll work with you to get all that tricked out so that someone's looking for a great experience with, you know, a Texas outfitter that you're there.

Cameron Kaufhold (40:01) Yeah, I'd love that. I hadn't even thought about it, but yeah, that makes, that makes all the sense in the world. We're, uh, we're starting to book for next year. And, uh, you know, it was a really mild winter. I mean, it's March 15th and I mowed my yard for the second time already. I mean, it's, it's 73 degrees and, uh, overcast right now. And so from the last two years that we've had, you know, three years ago, we had the great freeze of Texas where it was.

Bryan Koontz (40:14) Yeah. Oh my gosh.

That's, yeah.

Cameron Kaufhold (40:31) you know, zero and negative one for, you know, five days and the whole state broke. Um, it was really hard on the, the wildlife population. And then last year, you know, we had a couple of days where dip down into the seven, eight degrees, which from Montana, I'm sure you're giggling, but for Texas, you know, it's, it's the, they're not used to it. Cause I mean, think about the white tail deer. You gotta be, you gotta survive. We had.

Bryan Koontz (40:31) Yep.

Oh yeah, that's...

Cameron Kaufhold (40:58) 36 consecutive days over a hundred degrees last summer. So you got to be nimble and survive that. And then, you know, mother nature hits you with a seven degree week. Uh, it, it. Stunted a bunch of growth. So we're excited. Had a very mild winter and, uh, a really green spring so far. So we're expecting a really great, a really great fall.

Bryan Koontz (41:01) Right.

Awesome. Well, we'll get you set up for sure. We'll make sure that your page is tricked out and that people know more about that in addition to Longshots. So Cameron, Cameron, thanks again for this. This was an awesome conversation. It was really great getting to know you finally. And I'm looking forward to the other Brian here at Guidefitter and I were talking to you before we got on about a long range shooting score we're gonna plan it to go to here in Montana this summer. And hopefully we'll be able to.

Cameron Kaufhold (41:30) Very cool.

Bryan Koontz (41:47) I can use the product myself. I've never used the Longshot system and I'm looking forward to that and introduce it to a whole bunch of other people here in Montana too. So, yeah. Yeah, and then you're, and then like I said, then you're hooked and you'll never go back. I can see that already.

Cameron Kaufhold (41:55) I think that'd be great. The best way to learn about our product is to use it. That's a...

Yes, that's a great way to put it and that should be our tagline. Yeah. All right. Well, it was a pleasure.

Bryan Koontz (42:10) Awesome. All right. Well, yeah, thanks a lot, Cameron. I appreciate it.

Cameron Kaufhold (42:14) Alright, have a good one.