Muzzle Force One is a manufacturer of a simple firearm tool that aids in maintaining the accuracy of one’s shot. This is designed is the US and distributed in the US, Canada, and Europe by Kent Wilkinson’s family-owned company that’s based out of North Carolina. Kent has a passion for the outdoors and a love for all of God’s creations. In this episode, he talks about what guns he uses in hunting and how his own product has helped him become a better shot. Kent also reminds us that despite the excitement you feel during a hunt, it’s critical to still be mindful of your ethical kill range.
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LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Muzzle Force One anchors your shot – Kent Wilkinson
We’re heading out to the Carolinas. We’ve got Kent Wilkinson on the show. He’s the CEO of Muzzle Force One. Kent, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me.
How cold is it?
It is currently 21 degrees with a low of eleven. It had gotten colder, far more than we’re accustomed to.
I was going to underscore that in the whole East Coast. I’ve got some friends in Florida and they had snow. I got some friends up in Maine, New Hampshire and they’ve got a lot of snow. It’s unbelievable, what the heck’s going on with our weather. I wonder how that’s going to impact the deer herds. What do you think about that?
A friend of mine told me a couple of years ago that with regards to the temperature, deer got to eat. They’re going to get up and move. This is new for them too, we’ll find out. Our deer season ended January 1st but we’ll still be out there tracking and looking to see what kind of activity we have.
Some of my friends, readers and guests, they’re talking about finding sheds already. Other friends are saying they’ve seen brand-new rubs. I’m confused, what do you think’s going on there?
In our particular area, we think we have an overpopulation of doe. We haven’t seen any sheds at all. Maybe what few bucks we have are out there wearing it out as long as they can. That maybe part of it. I’m not sure, Bruce.
Readers, if you’ve got some thoughts on that, please send them to me at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you and get some input because I’m going to try to find some people that say, “This is the reason why.” I’d love to get you on the show. Kent, let’s talk about some of the things that have been happening to you. You had a 2017 season and how’d you do?
It’s not what I anticipated. We only landed four bucks and three does. Where we hunt, we’re on around roughly 244 acres that two of us hunt. It’s in an area where there’s a lot of what we call counties. It’s basically out in the country. There’s not a lot of people living there but enough people hunting. We may have maybe distressed it a little bit too much. We had a good year. Ducks came in. We have some places where we find a lot of a couple of good hunts. We’re talking about country farms. We’re not talking about big lakes or property areas. Overall, we’re pretty pleased.
What weapons are using to hunt?
For the fowl, I’m using a Remington 1100 and Remington 870. For deer, I’ll switch back from 30-30 Marlin but I prefer to shoot. That’s my weapon of choice.
Do you shoot a .308?
I do have a .308 but it’s an older 1972. For me, it’s too heavy and too old but it’s a pretty good gun.
Peterson Ammunition Match-Grade Brass, they sent me a box of .308 and I’m trying to find somebody that reloads themselves. You started getting into wolf hunting, how did that come about?
I’ve never done it before. I was talking about it when we hunt together. I’ve got a twelve-acre farm on it. Duck season coming in so I started looking into it. I have a couple of friends out in Mississippi and they’re here at Houston, North Carolina that’s been into it. There used to be a lot of dove and quail here, especially quail. I’ve never even thought about waterfowl. I was out there on the farm near the pond and I heard this noise come over and I hadn’t heard it before. The guys that hunt whitetail knows what I’m talking about. It’s a unique sound when a flock comes over when they’re cruising. It’s almost like an airplane, not near as well but they don’t know what it is. To see God’s creation come around and circle the pond and probably two, three, four breaks loose and land on the pond and doing this circle six more times. That’s what I grew up on, was dove hunting. It brought back that passion. It was interesting going after waterfowls. I had a lot of fun doing it.
I’ve shot some geese and ducks in my past. I love the evening flight and they come down and they start buzzing the trees or the grain or however you set up, the marsh. That sound is unique to birds as the winds going across their feathers.
To me, it was cool.
They’re grain-eating, too. The mallards I eat come out of Canada grain. They’re pretty much grain-fed. Treat them right and there are some god-awful wonderful deals that you get off those birds.
I’m looking forward to that. We haven’t eaten them yet but they’re in the freezer.
When you look at everything that you’re doing with Muzzle Force One, it’s probably been several months or so since we last talked. You were getting the company off the ground. Where are you at? Tell the people what the heck it does.
Getting into hunting feels like you're almost a NASCAR driver. Share on XBack in the beginning, I was sitting on a deer stand. I had a 180-degree window to shoot from. Being left-handed or right-handed shooter, pass it down to maybe 180, 190. Anything off your far right, you have to move in the stand. I’m sitting there and sure enough, a six-point buck feeds off to my right and he’s looking dead at me. I’m trying to figure out how to move over. I’m covered but I think it’s still seeing my head and I’m trying to figure out how to come over. If I switch the left hand then that will cause a lot of movement problems. They’ve adapted it, put in my head. They’ve come up with a strap, there’s a way you can strap up with your shoulder. This one works independently of that because there is a simple loop the passes to the same place a shoulder strap does as a binder. It doesn’t affect the effectiveness or how the stronger strap works. It allows you get that grip where you can offer your muzzle force to your forehand grip, what is your right hand or left and pull that rifle tight to your shoulder.
Getting that confidence means you can make that shot whether you are at 50 yards. We’re not in a place where there are many places you’re going to get much over 100 yards. That’s miles down to Texas. They take those 200 or 300 yard shots in free hand. If you can brace up on something, use a stick, lean against a tree or deer stand. We use it both at the same time with other situations. There’s this freehand shot, this is going to steady your shot down where they can hold that hard even after the first shot. If you’re going to lever both actions, it’ll allow you to recharge your weapon and stay scope on the target so you can make that second shot. That’s where it all started.
Are the products made of leather or webbing? What’s it made off?
What we have is webbing you might find on backpacks and whatnot. We’ve got a lot of different positions because some people like to be a little closer to their muzzle. They might like their gripping further back towards the stock. It’s about eight inches variants to where you can adjust that. The loop part, we have synthetics and we have cloth. When we were out in Indiana doing homeschool testing. We ran across an Amish group. It was a leather shop. I took one of the synthetics and I said, “Can you guys make this?” It’s been one of our bestsellers here and in Germany. They’re both synthetic and full of leather.
We’re talking about rifles, what about shotguns? We were talking about bird hunting and ways to get steady when you’re swinging through a bird. Does it work there?
It does. Where it doesn’t work, on favorite shotguns like 1100 Winchester pump, while 870 is, too. It doesn’t allow to recharge that weapon without coming down the strap. As far as pump-action rifles, it’s not your ideal tool to use. Other than that, for shotguns, it’s ascending and it works just fine like on any other rifle.
If somebody wanted to see a video, are you up on YouTube?
We are not on YouTube but we have videos on Instagram and Facebook. We have our regular Gmail account where you can access all of that.
How much does it cost?
The synthetics and cotton are $24.95. The full Amish leather is $39.95.
They go to the MuzzleForceOne.com to order?
MuzzleForceOne.com or if they have any questions, they can go to [email protected].
You did mention that you’re already in Europe and I find that interesting. How did that come about?
Stephen who is in Germany found us on Instagram. He already had a huge presence. He’s got a couple of different sites where he does the test for different rifle manufacturers. He contacted us and he came to Florida. We put something together and we set up a sister company there. It’s called Solid Hammer or SH1. The problem with Muzzle Force is apparently the Germans still have a strong stigma against the military. They don’t want anything that’s gun-related for some reason. He came up with Solid Hammer and it got hooked up with magazine events called Jäger. They do a lot more driven hunts than we do, geese and does. They don’t have any turkey. They do have different types of deer. A lot of what they hunt is wild boar. That’s where Solid Hammer came from. It roughly translates to wild boar hunting. He’s got control over the European market where we’re concentrating along with the US market and Canada.
The reception in Europe is pretty good or is it okay?
He went to the magazine and wanted to run an ad. They want to see some of the products. I sent it to them and instead of running an ad that we had to pay for, they ran a two-page article on this. It’s a must-have tool to have while you’re hunting. He went from selling six or seven a week to 17 to 25 every day. This is important, at least it is to me. All our manufacturing is done here in North Carolina by American owned companies. Everything from our packaging, the actual strap itself and the binder pin that we use to hold the wrist strap in place are made here in America. Even if it’s sent to Germany, I’ve kept the rights to manufacture here. Stephen talked with some people out of town. Firstly, they can make these things for about $0.34 apiece, which is about ten times less than what it’s costing us here. I’m dead set on keeping it made here even if it’s going to cost more.
That gives you some uniqueness. Once you go overseas, a whole mess of different things starts to come in like lot size. The lot size changes and it works for some people.
If you go to Walmart, apparently it works for a lot of people. We’re not in this for just making money. Keeping it here, I’m taken to it.
Here’s one guy that supports you and many of my readers would go, “Yes sir,” and fly the flag. It’s neat to see these cottage industries and I talked to a lot them. They got an idea and they start cranking it out. Some make it, some won’t and that’s business. You can understand that. It’s great that you’re still hanging in there growing your business and making it work. Any other products on the line or is this the one product you going to be married to?
This is a unique tool for hunting. Stephen has come up with oversized related gear but apparently there it’s not too bad. It’s pretty unique to come up with. 40% of their outerwear has to be armed. Here in North Carolina, you got an orange hat and you’re good. That’s the only thing coming out now. We’re talking to a guy named Bryan. He’s called Mr. Stealthmode in Hawaii. We’re looking to start working on the distributorship down in Texas and talked to Justin Wagner. Chris Helms and Howard Johnson are helping us out. There a lot of people who are sticking their neck out for us and see if we can get this thing rolling and getting out there. Bruce, you’re helping us a lot too.
When I was doing a prepping for your show, how do you say Bryan Magliba?
He’s the Stealthmode guy.
Hawaii has got some great hunt. I’ve got some friends in California that go there multiple times a year to kill those rams, sheep and hogs. They have one heck of a time and as they said to me, they don’t worry about if they’re going to get shooting. It’s not guaranteed. It never is. They enjoy the heck out of it. Folks, if you haven’t gone to Hawaii and done some hunting, you’d be surprised at what’s available to you over there.
Justin’s side is to follow the hunting product.
I saw him and he did a review of your product, I think.
He did. He does a lot of work with one of the box plugs that’s more for archery, not for hunting. He’s done a great job and a good person to me.
After I watched a little bit of video, I said, “He’d be a great guy to get on the show.” We’re at the time of the show here where I like to say gearing up. What was the last piece of hunting equipment or gear that you purchased and why’d you purchase it?
That Remington .25-06. I like that round, I like the action. The trigger is super sensitive. It’s lightweight and balanced well. It adds enough muzzle force to it and it makes it pop. It turns out that with the muzzle force, it’s going to take some time but I can shoot just as comfortably right-handed as I can left-handed. It takes a little practice but you can do it.
Do you think that’s all because of the muzzle force?
Yeah, because it freezes up. Everything you’re doing in hunting with your firearm is using a forehand grip and your rear hand grip. When you have the muzzle force, you can apply so much force on your shoulder. Your right hand, all you need it for is to recharge your weapon then pull the trigger. It’s not involved in bringing that support and control to your shoulders. I don’t think if that makes some sense.
I’m thinking of Mr. Lefty himself, Craig Boddington. Have you sent one of these Muzzle Force One’s, up to Boddington?
No, I don’t know who that is.
Craig Boddington travels the world. He’s been hunting for 20 or 30 years and he’s a left-hander. He shoots all sorts of guns. He’s written hundreds of gun articles. Do some research and get ahold of him. You’ll send it to a PO thing, but say, “I was talking to Bruce Hutcheon at Whitetail Rendezvous.” Craig’s been on the show, “He thought maybe you’d like to take a look at this.”
Thank you.
I don’t know how many trips he’s made to Africa and Spain. He’s one of these guys that’s hunted all around the world and writes articles about it. Most of the time, he works his guns into the equation. He’d be a great guy to say, “Here’s what it is.” Craig, if you’re following this, Kent Wilkinson’s going to send you one of the Muzzle Force Ones and try it out. Let Kent and I know how it works out for you. Since you said left-handed I go, “Boddington should try this out.”
If you’re right-handed or left-handed, once you get into the hunting world a little bit, you feel like you’re almost a NASCAR driver. Talking about hunters in heels. Real camo girls are a piece of work. We’re trying to get in people’s hands and let him try out and see what they think.
I’m going through my Rolodex. Two of the neat ladies to come on the scene, Niki Tilley and Brittney Glaze. They’re doing a lot of great stuff in the outdoors. There are another couple of ladies all over social media. If you’re not in social media, I know you’ve got somebody working social media but reach out to them. They’re the type of people that would be good for your product. At least try out your product. I’ve got a Rolodex that doesn’t quit.
Do you want to go NASCAR on me a little bit? Do you know what that means?
No, sir.
Have you ever seen the end of a NASCAR race? The guy breaks them off, they stand up and spends the next fifteen minutes listing off all of his sponsors. When I say NASCAR, that’s what I’m talking about.
You’re from the home of NASCAR. Piedmont, the hills and the whiskey runners. Maybe it was you ahead on the show and we start talking about a NASCAR and how it all started. Guys running the juice.
Yeah, I started up over the mountains and probably there are things in Charlotte-Concord and all of those guys.
Hunting gets you all nervous and excited but you still know what your limits are. Share on XWe’re talking about a lot of different things. That’s part of it because we’re all whitetail hunters, we’ve all got experiences. Stories are what makes it makes it fun at least for myself. There is no question about it. Let’s talk about something that everybody needs to perk up their ears. Taking that ethical shot and we’ve all been in situations, I’m guilty of it. I’ve taken a shot as soon as I shoot, I go, “I shouldn’t have done that.” The odds were against me, but I took the shot anyway. Made for a long day, long night. Let’s talk about ethical shooting.
Where we hunt, 100 to 150 yards shot is the top end of what I’m comfortable with. If it was for longer shot and I was properly set up, with the Muzzle Force, it gives you that torque coming back to your shoulder. You have control with everything about your body. If it’s not a shot that I feel comfortable with, I’m not going to take it. The deer will be back and I’ll be back. They have more of an ethical kill. I feel comfortable with and two or three hours and come back next day trying to track down that target that you thought you had.
For me, I don’t want to wound an animal. Surely, I don’t want it to go off and die somewhere and come out the next day. In our case, we got a good number of coyotes as well. I’d rather take that deer kill. The selfless part of it because I don’t spend two or three hours out tracking something. I’m just being honest about it. If I can take that 50 to 100 yards all day long. If and beyond that, for me personally, I will think about that twice. We don’t have our pennies worth for anything less 200 and 150 yards. At least where we have.
Thinking about that, I like to say to everybody that you’ve got to know your ethical kill range. Some guys, I’ve seen them shoot 800 to 1000 yards. When they pulled the trigger, that critter or target is hit and it’s hit well. For most of us, we can’t do that. It’s come back to when I used to shoot a compound. What was my eight arrows and six arrows in that paper plate, what range was that? It’s the same with my crossbow. All my rifles are dialed in that pretty much their dead on at 300 yards. Even though you say that, terrain, wind, rain and snow. You throw all these ingredients in there, maybe that 300-yard shot goes 150 yards. You have to decide that because as I said at the outset, I’ve had some of those long night shots because I screwed up. That’s not fair to the critter and that was a long time ago. On the farm where we hunt, if you wound a doe and you don’t get her that evening, then in the morning whenever she’s going to be eaten. There is no question about it.
You start to where you’re comfortable with and knowing your limit. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been hunting for 35, 40 years. I don’t know what it is but my heart is all jacked up and I get all nervous and excited. You get yourself calmed down, but I know what my limits are. I met a couple of guys that won’t even think twice about shooting 600, 800 yards but I just can’t and I know that. I’m not going to take that shot. Not that other people can’t, you’re right, they can. Just knowing your limit and stay within them.
Readers, the cold weather is going to go away but get on the range this spring and earn some shells and say, “I can shoot my rifle, my seven millimeters, .30-06 whatever it happens to be, I can shoot that consistently and get a nice group at 250 yards. When you see that buck at 400 yards with your range finder, “I’ll take a shot. I’ll put the crosshairs on the back and pull the trigger we’ll see what happens.” If you’re thinking that way, from this guy, don’t do that. Stalk him, get closer, let him go to live another day. Call it what you want. What I want to say here is, we’re watched in how we do things. You might not think, “This wouldn’t happen or that wouldn’t happen.” People know what the heck you do. You’re kids know what the heck you do. You’re teaching all the time. Be the teacher, that’s my two cents, Kent?
Yes, I agree 100%
You have a crossbow, right?
I do.
Why did you start hunting with a crossbow?
I had a football shoulder injury. I had a hard time pulling the torque back. There’s a fellowmen, Scott, who was at New York. He’s a retired police officer. He asked me and I hadn’t done it before, but he attached one of these to his crossbow. I didn’t have the strength anymore to get that bow back. The crossbow is definitely a strain for me to do.
Some people had crossbows, but all of a sudden kids came on the scene, women came on the scene. Old guys like me with some injuries came on the scene. I wasn’t going to stop hunting with an arrow or crossbow bolt. I still wanted that opportunity and the states have followed suit. Where in most States, you can buy a crossbow license or some say you just find an archery license and you can hunt whatever. What are your thoughts about kids and women using a crossbow versus the compound bow.
It’s using your upper body strength and your lower and larger muscles. There’s a lot of women hunting and I think it’s awesome. Getting out there and I have my kids get out there. The crossbows they have these days, they’re set up like a rifle. It’s not to have the range, 50 to 100 yards to know what you have is not an improper shot. The more we get our youth involved and here in North Carolina, a lot of our seasons will start a week or two early for the youth only. The only thing we can get people in there is we got manners.
A lot of people think we’re just after the kill. Some would say something back to me. I wasn’t allowed to buy my meat in the grocery stores just like everybody else where animals didn’t get hurt. There’s a lot of ignorance out there. We get the kids out there and more importantly, there are women and understanding the benefits of that and there’s tons of it. Imagine what we want to harvest and getting rid of them bobcats and get rid of the feral hogs, coyotes and all of the predators. There are tons to hunt. Getting used to it is probably one of the most important things we can do for the industry as a whole.
I definitely agree to that because it’s a lot easier for a kid to start off with the crossbow. My son started off with traditional and then they went to the compounds. That’s what they hunt with now. They’ll probably go to crossbows or have their kids start off with crossbows. I’ll give a shout-out to Primos Trigger Stick Gen 2. That’s what I use to steady my crossbow. I use that. It’s a single stick and it got a trigger on it. That seems to work well with my Excalibur Crossbow. Especially on the ground or in a box blind, works well. It looks like I’m done. Do you have any more questions for me, Kent?
None that I think of. Did I ever send you any of these Muzzle Force?
You sent me a pink one and an olive one or whatever. The pink one went to Wisconsin. I do most of my Whitetail hunting in Wisconsin. They’re in use in Wisconsin. I haven’t followed up with the people because I haven’t followed up with the people. They do have them, that’s for sure.
Do you want one of the Amish leather ones?
Sure, whatever you’ve got. I’d be honored to use it back here with the guys. First crossbow, I’d like to try it on that.
We got some video up on Instagram showing Scott when he used his and his briefing as well.
Crossbows, once you get them set up they’re pretty deadly. They’re accurate. On behalf of thousands of readers throughout North America, Kent Wilkinson CEO of Muzzle Force One. It’s an honor and privilege, been a lot of fun to have you on the show.
Thank you so much. I appreciate what you’re doing. Good luck in the future.
Next up is a good friend Larry May. Larry is a school teacher down in Tomahawk, Kentucky. He also has Full Range Outdoors. Full Range Outdoors is a self-filming hunting show. It’s more than that, It gets into the hunting tradition. It gets into why we need to get kids into the outdoors. Larry’s been a guest and I’m happy to have him back and he’s going to spin some stories and let us know what’s been happening at Full Range Outdoor.
Important Links:
- Muzzle Force One
- MuzzleForceOne.com
- Instagram – Muzzle Force One
- Facebook – Muzzle Force One
- [email protected]
- Craig Boddington – episode 162
- Larry May – episode 464
- Excalibur Crossbow
About Kent Wilkinson
Husband to one, Father to three and BopBop to two very special grandsons, Luca and Milo! The business is all about God, family and the great USA.
Keeping our products 100% American made is very important to us and we plan to keep it that way. I enjoy hunting, fishing, the outdoors and spending time with my family. Thanks for taking a look.