All language subtitles for American.Made.S03E06.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC.2.0.H264-ARCHIVED-CEsubs

I'm really proud that we make our
product in -house.

You might be able to hear the CNC
machines going downstairs right now, but

actually make it here.

We don't get something from another
company and then put a different coating

it and slap a sticker on it and say it's
ours.

We have it here, our sick rifle. The
action starts out 34 pounds.

That's the action body for the sick
rifle.

And it ends up at about three.

It shows up in 12 or 24 foot bars of
material.

And we start cutting it with a saw.

And all those chips are in the recycling
bin here.

It means we build it in -house.

100%. And in the U .S., there are not
many rifle manufacturers left.

True manufacturers that actually build
the parts.

There's machine shops that build a lot
of parts for other companies.

But having a machine shop in the company
to where you can control everything,

it's almost non -existent.

It's a comfortable reach for me. My
shoulders can stay square.

Now I can get up on the target, and it's
super easy.

Impact.

I get to do a lot of instructing, which
is super fun.

It's the thing I love the most about my
job, whether I get to instruct up at Hat

Creek or whether I'm instructing for
Seekers Precision, traveling around,

teaching our partners that are selling
our rifles how to become better

So short laces get collapsed first.

Take up those little flexy ones first,
and then get that mobile shooting bench

set up for yourself.

My name is Matty Nelson, and I'm the
director of business development at

Precision. I got hired on originally as
like a sales representative,

specifically for military law
enforcement.

But they needed all kinds of stuff. The
company was growing super fast. The name

was getting out there. But now I can get
in here, support the rear of that gun,

support the front of the gun.

This method is now super stable.

They needed a guy for marketing. They
needed a guy for social media. They

a guy to help run the in -house customer
service team. They needed a guy to help

grow the sales team.

And I fit a lot of those bills and
wasn't afraid to really fail at it.

Impact? Impact is dead center. All three
of those, you just shot those three

rounds, you're inside the bottom of a
Coke can at 660 yards.

I do, that's a complicated question. I
do everything that Mr. Seekins doesn't

want to do so that he can focus on
moving the company to the next level.

So you can lead people by pushing them,
pulling them, dragging them, right?

But if you surround yourself with the
right people, you don't actually have to

lead them.

All you have to do is give them a
direction and give them a little bit of

Matt will tell you, I give them a lot of
rope.

Sometimes he gets it twisted up around
his ankles and I get to pull him back,

but pretty rare.

So I grew up in Orem, Utah, which back
then, all orchards. I grew up on a dirt

road, and it was all just apple and
cherry orchards around me. So I got to

up kind of running amok as a little kid.

I played baseball and basketball for the
high school there. There's a lot of

work that goes into that, especially
playing bowl sports at a very high level

for the varsity side.

If you get bound up underneath, yeah,
kick this foot out so it's a little bit

farther out. I served a two -year
mission for the Church of Jesus Christ

Latter -day Saints down in Brazil.

I had to learn a new language, learn
Portuguese while I was down there. I

speak a word of it before I left, but
could read it, write it fluently, do all

that stuff when I got back, which was
fun. I want you to give me just the left

edge.

Just walking around every day in the
streets of Sao Paulo, like you see some

crazy stuff while you were down there,
and I sure did.

I mean, I got probably in a fistfight
once a week. Same spot.

It was bizarre.

Same spot, wearing it out. It was a good
adventure. Nicely done.

Just shooting.

Did that and thought I would go to
college and have my life figured out,

college and me were just not a real good
fit.

I was taking a lot of different classes,
but nothing that really just blew my

hair back.

And so I took a job as a tour guide in
Alaska, and I went up to Ketchikan,

Alaska, which is on the bottom end of
the sound there, and I was a tour guide

a little island. And, I mean, the war
was on. We were in Iraq and Afghanistan

the time. Instead of trying to, like,
move it over, Just seesaw the gun.

And so I thought, hey, maybe I'll go
throw my hand at that, and maybe I'll

up a little bit more, right? And come
back and go to college, and I'll be a

grown -up then. And then I got to basic
training, and I was a little older and a

little more mature and in crazy good
shape.

I had a good drill instructor that
pulled me aside. He came up, and he had

written on the palm of his hand.

And I was like, what's SF?

Special Forces, you moron. I'm like, oh,
what do they do?

He gave me a book that I read that night
on...

and what Special Forces was and what
they do.

And that was it.

That turned the page, and that's what
immediately blew my hair back. And I was

like, man, that's what I've been looking
for as an adult, to be a grown -up,

purpose and drive, and something that
really turns me on. And going out and

trying out to be a Green Beret was what
it was.

I always knew I wanted to work for
myself.

I just wanted the freedom and the
ability to carve my own path.

The seeking side of my family, most of
them are entrepreneurs.

For me, that was, I mean, that's kind of
what you did. You grow up and you

figure out what you're going to do.

You make it what you want.

I grew up with mom and dad was in
Alaska.

So he was around, but not really
available to help me. So if it was

that was broke, I'd figure it out.

14 years old, I bought a CJ5 Jeep.

I put a V6 in it, different
transmission, put a lift kit on it, put

steering on it.

When I started this, I was 20 years old.
So this guy right here would have been

my original.

I bought a little CNC machine and put it
in my garage.

All the neighbors came out and they're
like, what in the world is that, you

know? Because I lived in the
neighborhood.

I didn't get a business license or ask
permission or anything like that. I just

did it. The goal at the time was to just
make enough money to pay this stupid

thing off because it was more than my
house payment.

I was just excited to get it and start
making scope rings.

Like, honestly.

I mean, I was into hunting and shooting
and competition shooting.

So I was like, well, let's just build
some better stuff.

And so we built scope rings and then
scope bases.

I had rented a shop, rented a machine at
a shop and made them there for a little

while. But I would get up in the morning
and go to my real job from about 4 a

.m. till 3 p .m.

And then I would go make scope rings
until almost midnight at the other

So when I got that, that meant I got
some freedom.

I'm still paying for it.

It's really expensive.

So this guy held like 10 tools.

Did you change the tools and cut the
parts out?

You know, I didn't want to take on
investors.

So, you know, our growth is more organic
than forced.

And now they're made right here, that
metal machine.

So a lot of times you have a company and
they're like, hey, we have a product.

Let's build 10 million of these things
and then go see if we can sell them.

Our approach is 100 % different than
that.

It's, hey, let's build 10 of these
things and see if we can sell them, and

let's figure out how to build more, you
know, and then you just grow as you can.

I actually started it because I wanted
some scope rings that weren't super

and that fit on a hunting rifle, like
you use in the mountains, and they

wouldn't break.

Knocking a crack?

What's that? I hope not.

I mean, I grew up shooting guns when I
was basically able to hold them.

And then hunting.

So, you know, guns have been a pretty
big part of my life forever.

You know, grandparents hunted.

We have 1520 elk.

They're about 1 ,532 meters out there.

There's a nice little path that keeps us
at depth of light.

We can get right up to where we're
within reasonable shooting distance of

animals. They stay there and feed.

So I was hunting.

I had a .30 -06.

My grandpa gave it to me when I was 12.

And I shot a dull sheep with it in
Alaska when I was 13.

Shot a couple of deer with it.

and then I put a new barrel on it to 270
because I wore out the .30 -06.

Boy, they're just going to hang it out
in those thick pine trees.

Trying to break brush from a shot this
far is going to be questionable at best,

so I'm going to close this gap just a
little more.

I was just in the canyon up here, like
10 miles away, and so you hike around

glass from the open side into the
timber.

One of the bottom of the scope rings had
split or come loose, cracked on me.

We got 567 meters, three and a half mils
on the gun.

Let's just drop this back leg back.

And I missed a pretty nice white -tailed
buck. It was probably the biggest buck

I've ever seen and had the option to
shoot at.

I missed it three or four times at like
400 yards, and I was just disappointed.

And then that kind of prompted the whole
thing, and I started seeking some

precision.

That was a hit.

I think she's down.

Yeah, there's the tree wobbling. She's
rolling.

How far? Come on, girl.

Oh.

There it is right there.

Of course it is.

Hey, nice spotting, man.

Nice spotting.

So we got a cow elk down.

We put her down right at, I mean, just a
shade under 600 meters.

All right, the good news is we know
right where she is. So I'm not kidding.

I wonder if we divide and conquer. I got
to do a lot of cool things when I was

in Special Forces. I got to do more in
10 years than most guys do in 20.

My religious background, like I don't
drink, I don't mess around. So they

send me anywhere, and I was hands off.
All the cool shooting schools, Sephardic

Sniper School, Halo School.

A couple days shy of three years in
Afghanistan total time. I got about a

and a half in South America.

But got out and I contracted for the Air
Force for a little while, about a year.

We were still in Florida. It wasn't
home.

Me and my wife both grew up in Utah.

Yeah, this will feed my girls for a
while.

I met a guy down there. His name is
Brian Morgan.

Oh, great. Got you. He now owns Hat
Creek here in Idaho, which is the

facility to come to for level one, level
two long range shooters.

I started working for him down there and
he knew Glenn.

I got an interview and was able to get a
job offer from Mr. Seekins before I

walked out of his office.

He asked me, like, how curious are you
about, you know, working here? And I was

like, well, I've got to borrow your
truck when this is over because I've got

go meet a realtor to look at houses
before I come down here. So before Glenn

met me for more than two hours, I was
driving around town in his truck looking

at houses with a realtor so we could get
out here as quick as possible.

Action body material gets staged onto
this rack, comes into this auto band

gets cut down into length. We transition
it over to the machine where it's going

to get machined into an action body.

From that bar, here's it cut up into the
length that the robot's then going to

load.

This is the first operation where we put
the picatinny in, we cut the bore and

the barrel thread into the device, and
then it moves to the second operation

machine.

It gets loaded onto this vertical mill
that then takes it through its next

operation. That produces a finished
action body.

Comes into the inspection room, goes
through its formal inspection, gets put

onto the rack over here of finished
parts.

These finished parts will then...

get transferred over to the quality
control department, and the quality

department does another inspection on
those parts before it's moved on to

tumble, blasting, coating, and then
finally into final assembly into the

What I actually do is kind of shepherd
all of the parts and problems once they

leave the quality control floor.

So from manufacturing, they go to
quality.

And as soon as they leave quality, it
goes to coding, it goes to assembly, or

goes to shipping.

So from there, it's really up to me to
figure out the logistics of what parts

we've got to have today, what parts
we're going to need next week, what's a

burner thing.

And I've got a fantastic team that
assists with all that because there's no

I could do it alone.

50 -plus parts go into making a complete
rifle every day for us.

Almost all those parts, from the start
of the raw material, there's not much

that we do not make ourselves in -house.

You are truly getting something that's
made in America by Americans that love

the product that they're building, that
use the product that they're building

every single day in the outdoors.

What we're doing today after lunch is
finishing off the culmination of a

weeks of athletic and mental events
here. This is the Seekins Sweltering

Office Olympiad. The Triple S -double
-O, it's an annual tradition. It's part

the culture here at Seekins.

And back by popular demand is tug -of
-war today. So we're about to go judge

that contest.

What's the wig look like?

Oh!

There we go.

Look at that.

Peter Drucker said, culture eats
strategy for breakfast.

Meaning, if everybody's enjoying
themselves and everybody's involved in

vision and is excited to go to work,
you're going to crush it. More than

somebody who just has a corporate
strategy written out.

Because you can't sell that unless you
have the culture in place.

Want to talk on their team?

Tug was built for recoil management. He
works in our quality control department.

He does a lot of the accuracy testing.

That's the guy you want behind a
lightweight rifle. That is recoil

its finest right there. So stepping up
and saying, hey, you, you, and you,

go out and let's do a tug of war. You
know, it started off small the first

But if I look confident and excited that
this is something that we all ought to

do, a lot of times that catches on and I
can get people to do it.

If you've got a population that is
excited to come to work, can joke around

each other and with with management uh
feels free to come right through your

door and chat about better ways to do
their own jobs better ways that they

parts could flow i think we've got the
best of both worlds

at 10 years

in the military i talked to the missus
and she was like yeah it's a good time

punch you got two kids that you don't
even see right now because i was gone an

average of 300 days out of every year
between deployments and schools.

I think, like, PTSD and TBI get kind of
misclassified a lot.

The guys I was with were all apex
predators, right? You don't see lions

up in the Sahara during nap time like,
oh, oh, I can't believe we did that to

that zebra. That's not, you know, that's
what a lion is. That's what they do.

It's not PTSD in that sense.

Look at the TBI that we get, all the
explosive charges that we set off that

we're in close proximity to, all the
training that we do in very close, small

cement rooms with a lot of gunfire going
on, all that percussive stuff.

I did step on an IED. I blew myself half
to pieces.

I was lucky enough to walk away with all
my limbs as they were. It messed my

left leg up in the thigh significantly.

It broke my right foot, shot me 20 feet
up in the air, and I came down and

landed in the same hole.

Incredibly lucky. My buddy, his dog was
incinerated in front of him. He lost

both his legs on something that was half
the size.

I tell people I got a full deck of cars,
but they've been shuffled pretty good.

I'm always thinking about 17 things at a
time, making ground on maybe five, and

the rest is just clutter, but I can't
ever calm that down.

He can feel all of his muscles through
the saddle just like he can feel all of

your muscles coming through your body
through the saddle onto him. What your

heart rate is, what your emotions are.
If you're thinking it or you're feeling

it, the horse is feeling the same.

But being on a horse is one place since
then that I've been able to completely

focus just on the moment, which is why
they've been so good for me and

ultimately why we ended up with this
property that I have and the horses.

That's been a saving grace for me.

It's an amazing feeling that is not
comparable anywhere.

But for me, it makes my mind calm.

That is as free as you'll ever be, is
riding on the back of a horse through

United States.

The team we have is exactly the one that
Glenn recognized as the one that will

help him enact his vision.

for the future of the company. Major
awards for the Olympics.

Everybody's got ideas, and one guy only
has so much.

So if I can take seven or eight other
people's brains and use them

to make the company better, I mean, is
that better than one?

I would think it is.

I'm lucky enough to have a background
that checked out to get hired on at a

company that was started in somebody's
garage.

It is a living proof that the American
dream is still a thing.

And that has grown to 75 employees and
their families that are all dependent on

how well each of us perform to ensure
the success of the company year after

year. Things are flowing nicely.

We have a nice buffer between shipping
and assembly and QC and manufacturing,

and we're able to average 400 bolt
rifles every week without breaking a

now. I think everybody here deserves a
huge round of applause for what it's

taken to get this far.

Yeah. And, yeah.

So we're only five weeks away from...

from feeding last year.

Yeah. And this will be the seventh year
in a row of the best year ever.

Yeah. Thanks. Thanks to everybody.

It's taken me a little bit to get the
team that I have, but the team that I

is, I mean, it's solid.

You know, we're, everybody is focused on
making sure that the next person is

successful.