TFB Behind the Gun Podcast

Cameron Tapler, Director of Branding and Product Management at Palmetto State Armory, joins TFB Behind the Gun for a look inside one of the busiest companies in the firearms industry. Cameron began his PSA career as a manufacturing compliance manager, moved into a corporate role overseeing compliance across the company's FFLs, and now works where branding and product development meet. We talk about his path through the company, how PSA has grown since its 2008 founding in South Carolina into a manufacturer with a catalog spanning ARs, AKs, and well beyond, and what it takes to move a new design from concept to production.

Follow Palmetto State Armory:

• Website: https://palmettostatearmory.com

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PalmettoStateArmoryVideos

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/palmettostatearmoryofficial

• X: https://x.com/palmettoarmory

In this episode of TFB Behind the Gun, Owen Miller, Vice President of the American Suppressor Association, joins the show to break down the August 2026 ruling in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF. After the One Big Beautiful Bill Act dropped the NFA tax on suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns to $0, the court held that the registration system built to collect that tax no longer had a constitutional basis. Owen explains who the injunction covers and who it doesn't, why machine guns and state suppressor bans are untouched, what the DOJ's decision not to appeal means for the case, and how gun owners, manufacturers, and FFLs should approach transfers while ATF guidance is still pending.

Follow the American Suppressor Association:

• Website: https://suppressor.org

• Join the ASA: https://americansuppressorassociation.com/join-now

• Texas NFA case page: https://suppressor.org/litigation/texas-nfa

• X: https://x.com/AmSuppressor

Jacob Albaugh and Mike Herne of TENET join Luke to talk about building hunting suppressors that cut recoil without the weight and length penalty of a traditional brake-and-can setup. Jacob explains how a former ATV racer trying to tame a punishing rifle ended up producing 3D printed Grade 5 titanium suppressors in Dayton, Ohio, and why additive manufacturing lets TENET build internal geometry a CNC machine can't cut. The guys cover the recoil-first Limited series, the HORIZON 1-port and 2-port brakes and how to time them, the Outdoor Life test that put TENET's Reserve prototype on the map, and the quiet-first VESPER series that grew out of it.

Follow TENET:

• Website: https://www.tenet.inc
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tenetinc/

Tom Willingham, founder and CEO of Range USA, joins TFB's Behind the Gun to talk about how a career in commercial real estate turned into building the largest indoor gun range and firearms retail chain in the country. Tom opened the first location in Blue Ash, Ohio in 2012 at age 51, after a bad first experience at a gun shop convinced him the industry needed a more welcoming, mainstream retail approach. We trace that growth from a single Cincinnati-area store to 51 locations across 14 states, including the company's newest opening in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, and talk about what staying rooted in Ohio still means for Range USA's culture as it keeps expanding nationwide.

Follow Range USA:

• Online Store

• Instagram

• Monroeville location

Dan Wolgin of Ammunition Depot returns to TFB's Behind the Gun to talk about AmmoVault, the company's new reserve-and-storage service that lets shooters buy ammunition over time, have it held in a climate-controlled facility, and ship it whenever they're ready. We also dig into Ammunition Depot's new partnership with the NRA, which adds a checkout donation option funding NRA and NRA-ILA litigation, and get an update on Rhode v. Bonta, the long-running challenge to California's ammunition background check law where Ammunition Depot has been a plaintiff from the start. The case is now before the full Ninth Circuit following March 2026 oral arguments, with a ruling still pending.

Follow Ammunition Depot:

• Instagram

• AmmoVault

Martin from FALCO Holsters joins TFB's Behind the Gun to talk about the company's 1989 founding in a small Slovakian garage, where it got its start making falconry gloves before growing into one of the most recognized custom holster makers in the world. We trace that history back to founder Ivan Kovac, a forestry teacher who started sewing gloves for his students' falconry classes, and talk about how the shop's home in the Štiavnica Mountains still shapes the way FALCO builds holsters today. Martin also gives us a first-hand look at gun culture in Slovakia, a country that spent decades under communist Czechoslovakia and landed on a system with more parallels to the US than most countries in the rather gun-unfriendly European Union.

Follow FALCO Holsters:

• Instagram

• YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czuchJUdnX4

Aryan, known online as Mocka or @mockashoots, joins me on this week's episode of TFB's Behind the Gun for a conversation about competitive shooting, content creation, and what it's like owning and shooting firearms as a civilian in the UK. We talk through his background across his competitive shooting career, then dig into his other, newer role in the sport: commentary. Aryan has breathed some new life into shooting sports in the way of live commentary for major matches, including Polenar Tactical's Lynx Brutality, and has real opinions on what's missing from most shooting-sports commentary compared to how other sports handle the play-by-play.

Follow Mocka:

• Instagram
• YouTube

In this episode of TFB's Behind the Gun Podcast, I'm happy to welcome Evan Murdoch, founder of Murdoch & Co, the first company producing a fully stamped, one-to-one semi-auto version of Britain's L85/SA80 in the United States. Evan grew up in England wanting to own an SA80 of his own, and when he couldn't buy one, he built one instead, founding Murdoch & Co in 2022 and working with Jonathan Ferguson, Keeper of Firearms and Artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum, to verify the EM-85 against original service rifles.

We dig into the EM-85's use of genuine Ministry of Defence and Enfield-made parts, why that scarcity caps the Collector Series at 100 rifles for $12,000 apiece against a $4,500 base EM85A3, the engineering fixes addressing the SA80's early reliability problems, the A1, A2, and A3 configurations tracing the rifle's real service history, and where Murdoch & Co is headed next with Cadet and Light Support Weapon variants in development.

• Murdoch & Co website: https://murdochandco.com

• Murdoch & Co on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murdochandco

On today's episode of TFB's Behind the Gun Podcast, Russell Phagan — founder of FAST and a longtime fixture of the Brutality match series — joins us again to talk about FAST's newest addition: the Auto-Rifle Division. It's the first division of its kind in a mainstream two-gun series, built specifically for NFA machine guns and FRT-equipped rifles, with belt-fed and heavy-barrel setups finally getting a place to compete. We get into how the division came together, what equipment and stage requirements competitors need to know before showing up to the Parma, Idaho debut this October, and what it says about where practical shooting competition is headed now that FRTs have cleared federal court.

Learn more:

• KE Arms: https://www.kearms.com
• XTech Tactical: https://www.xtechtactical.com
• Red Right Hand: https://redrighthandllc.com
• FAST Matches: https://www.fast-matches.org

On today's episode of TFB's Behind the Gun Podcast, we sit down with Derrick Ratliff, founder of Horizon Firearms and VP of Kaspar Outdoors — the same conversation that started on the range at this year's Relentless Rifleman. Derrick's name is tied to the .22 Creedmoor and a reputation for custom long-range rifles, but Horizon is just the entry point into a bigger operation that includes iota Outdoors and, through Kaspar, brands like Circle Y Saddles. We get into how the .22 Creedmoor came to be, what it's like running a saddle company and a precision rifle company side by side, and Derrick's read on Relentless Rifleman as a first-time competitor — plus what it's actually like to talk shop with the guy who built the rifle you're about to shoot a match with.

Learn more:

• Horizon Firearms: https://horizonfirearms.com

• iota Outdoors: https://iotaoutdoors.com

• Kaspar Outdoors: https://www.kasparoutdoors.com