Wednesday Review : Worry - Discord - Berries

Yup, subscribe star now earns $60 a month. Adding to shooting is something we're considering for another series but for Primer it's a big ask to extend range time. We get very little of it and tend to stack various firearms on that day to clear the schedule.

C&Rsenal

I know there were some issues with people bailing on Patreon last year. Was a second funding setup for those people? You mention shorter episodes, what about breaking up episodes in to smaller pieces and posting them over the course of two weeks? The content and depth stays the same but with smaller bite size pieces. I know Ian will break up his shooting and info videos. Is there anyway to lengthen the shooting pieces, like various differences, timing reloads, how fast to cycle, etc?

andrew ray

I think I'll just go night security somewhere with a Galand revolver.

C&Rsenal

Well, if the firearms show doesn't work out, you can always make small animal sketch comedy.

General Jack Ripper

This please!

John S Wren

Thanks for the support

C&Rsenal

Thank you for the support. Sadly we are at 9/10 loaners as things stand. Shipping, insurance, and ammo makes sure thats never completely free. Lightening was sadly a financial net neutral project. We are flailing a bit to stabilize and have yet to find the right idea.

C&Rsenal

I think I've mentioned this before, but another "special" WW1 episode that might be fun, would be where the C&Rsenal gang plus Mark sit down and discuss what features from the various bolt actions of all the combatants, that you'd put together into your "dream/frankenstein" WW1 bolt action.

James Caldwell

Besides some of these other great idea's, I would love to see a C&Rsenal indepth "special" about the history of the cartridge, showing how we got from flintlocks/blackpowder to the modern smokeless cartridge (including cap & ball, volcanic, pinfire and various other deadends)

James Caldwell

Speaking of the 1911 Othais. take a look at this incrediable animation of it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjQrhDKDWFk)

James Caldwell

My second “God Save the King” shirt just showed up in the mail today! Thanks guys! Next payday I’ll be throwing in an order for one of the new shirts. Keep up the great work.

What fraction of your audience was around for last year's t-shirt campaign? I suspect that pretty much everyone who wanted a t-shirt got one last year and doesn't need more. I didn't get one because I don't wear t-shirts. I would love to have a polo shirt though. (Hint hint)

Michael Quinn

All my hopes goes out to you guys. You're the. .. Well. . among the best! Slainte!

Anders Weidik Bendsen

First, I'm bumping up my monthly contribution - not a huge amount but every bit helps. I agree with a lot of the posters who've stated that what you bring to the table that is unique is: authoritative and well researched presentation; quality production; great personality and humor. My recommendation is you follow the WWII weapons path. The WWI weapons are very interesting to guys like me who are serious collectors, but I don't think they resonate with a wider audience and you start getting into the "one bolt action is just like another" syndrome. WWII is still of interest to a wide audience and you have such a broad range of weapons and technologies to delve into - it's a rich and exciting body of work. From a funding standpoint - you might consider reaching out to Patreons for "loaners" - weapons that you could use for videos but not have to purchase - like you do with your machine guns. I have several "hen's teeth" that I would consider loaning for video. One rifle I would love to see a well researched documentary on is the Model 1941 Johnson. I have an exceptionally clean and beautiful rifle that I would be willing to share for filming. And others. Just a thought. For my own part, I love what you, Mae, and the team do. Lastly, LOVED project Lightening, the collaboration was great, the videos were perfect, and the mix of Ian, you, and Mae was a pleasure to watch.

Duly noted!

C&Rsenal

We appreciate the support however it comes

C&Rsenal

I'm sorry to say that selling hand loaded ammunition is extremely expensive. Thousands of dollars in required fees and insurance, plus fees per box etc. That's why handloading commercial sales are gone now, regulated out of existence.

C&Rsenal

Who says what now?

C&Rsenal

Yeah, we're trying to gear up for a book but broad and shallow means finding everything and narrow but deep means... well more hours than I can spare just yet. One day!

C&Rsenal

Interestingly all of our comments have been about wanting Anvil shirts, War Were Declared, and the Pokey. I think a lot of the most demanded stuff is still more narrowly appreciated.

C&Rsenal

Book production is sadly very risky. Until Ian I think most people took a near loss on theirs. Sadly TV doesn't want anyone who won't blame aliens for major historical events these days.

C&Rsenal

That's not a bad idea actually. I'll have to start considering fan involvement on common guns!

C&Rsenal

I feel like people would be open to my twerking.

C&Rsenal

Definitely starting to leak into the collector's view. I wonder if a mid-level show would act as a stepping stone!

C&Rsenal

I'll just start buying things on credit with that endorsement!

C&Rsenal

Just being here is everything we'd want. We now have about 30,000 viewers who don't miss a Primer episode. If they all chipped in $1 a month we could do much, much more work!

C&Rsenal

I appreciate it but I'm not sure how much getting 7 extra people in the door is worth!

C&Rsenal

Cross your fingers, there is only one gun we need to find now that's arguably not going to turn up in the next year. Everything else that we though impossible has shown itself so far.

C&Rsenal

Just gotta find the guns, and the info, and the time to experiment with the filming, and the equipment to do the special shots like actually seeing clays break instead of being bored and guessing what's going on in the sky... etc. I wish just one thing was as simple as you would think it is!

C&Rsenal

I'll chip in my 2c for what it's worth. My interest in a historical firearms channel is more from the point of view of the history not the firearms per se. I actually came to the channel because of the stuff you did for the Great War channel. I don't actually own any guns but do have a long standing interest in military history. If I'm being completely honest, a series about collectable shotguns would be of very little interest but I'd be all over a series about, say, firearms of the American Civil War. Cap and Ball and British Muzzle Loaders have done a good job looking at British and European firearms from that period but I've not found much about what was happening in the US. One of the things I find interesting about the WW1 stuff is the way that in about 30 years or so, the world went from single shot black powder guns to things like the Lewis Gun. I'd love to see some stuff talking about going from muzzle loaders to cartridge firing breach loaders and early repeaters and the 1850's to about the 1870's in the US would be a good opportunity to showcase some of that. You could also look at some stuff from the Wild West or the Indian frontier wars. I'd love to see a series about wild west pistol dueling and the guns used for that, for example. What I think I'm getting at I think is that there is a lot of potential for generating interest from the wider military history community for this channel as well as from hardcore gun enthusiasts.

Adam Snook

I generally don't buy merch ... I have no use for stickers, not into posters, and don't need more t-shirts. But since a couple of shirts were to help Mark, I did decide to buy 1 of each. Can't say however I'll be inclined to buy more in the future. I 'm already at the top patron tiers for both C&R and Anvil.

Arturo Ceron

Another thought - benefit auctions. Perhaps some extra ammo that was made for an episode but not used and such like. Being able to buy a weapon that was featured on C&Rsenal (assuming you'd ever want to part with anything that's purchased and not loaned) would be really attractive to some people. However those may be too small scale and labor intensive to be worthwhile. Are there other opportunities to expand the brand, Mark Novak's Anvil as part of C&Rsenal is brilliant and anything that brings more eyes will likely benefit contributions to Primer. Of course it would be imperative to maintain the kind of quality you have in Primer and Anvil, and not dilute C&Rsenal with low quality content - but once going I'd hope it could operate without a lot of your attention.

Kevin Halgren

I'll be perfectly honest, this year's t-shirts just don't appeal to me the way last year's did (and I only discovered the channel last year so it was also all new for me). I would have purchased more of last year's t-shirts if offered this year. I didn't get the complete set at the time, they wear out, etc. but I don't know how feasible that is for you. As Pest666 and Chris Dooley mention above, some basic branded items that are more regularly available such as a standard t-shirt, button-down shooting shirt, and/or a mug (I really love a mug, btw) I'd buy in a heartbeat. But I understand there are issues and risks in managing any sort of inventory as well. As it is, I'm likely going to skip this year's shirts, but I will increasing my monthly contribution.

Kevin Halgren

Y'all do good work. I don't care what everyone else says. :-)

Michael Cox

This. I'd love a C&Rsenal logo'd shirt and coffee mug. And given my clumsiness prior to coffee consumption, the mug would likely be a semiannual order. Heck, an Anvil logo'd "Do The Maintenance" shop apron would be cool as well.

Christopher Dooley

For those who may not be as interested in this year's t-shirts as last year's, consider getting posters! :-)

There's a saying that goes something like, "Do what everyone else is not doing and do it really well and you'll be successful". Well that is what you're doing so keep up the good work. But if you insist on improving then here are some things that would make a difference to me. 1) Split the episodes in half and make them 30-45min each and make them 2 part series. I too am my own boss and work long hours and it's hard to find time to squeeze in long episodes. I end up just watching half at a time. 2) Stick to your theme of World War Firearms. Maybe a WWII series. Then maybe an interwar series. 3) Lastly my piece de resistance suggestion. I won't even charge you for this one. Your secret sauce is that your entire show is a splendid advertising campaign for your own series of books. When you're finished with a video series, then publish the book. I want a form of your content that won't vaporize off a chip, or get lost in a cloud somewhere, or that FB or some other media outlet can take from me. I want cold hard patented plastic pokey history in hard copy.

My first thought looking at the t-shirts was 1) compared to last year that they are more tailored to the C&Renal crowd than to a larger crowd (firearms/history fans, aka forgotten weapons) and 2) They are much more humerus than the previous shirts. With those 2 things I would expect the gross to be less than last year. Having said that I personally can't wait for my patented plastic pokey t-shirt. :-)

David Burnham

Just for your convenience, I'm fairly certain YouTube's premium options allow for downloading of videos, but short of that, there really isn't anything more convenient than JDownloader. Give it a URL, select your preferred format, Bob, uncle, etc.

E_Blaho

I'm of the opinion that your best bet to further financial success - or rather, stability - is to leverage your considerable expertise outside of the ad money-merchandise-crowdfunding model. If you haven't already, you will soon establish a significant, well-earned reputation as a serious authority on an interesting topic. Getting recognized is a sign that this is already starting to happen. Hopefully you can then "monetize" your gained expertise through more serious endeavours, like TV appearances, consultancy, book collaborations, conferences, seminars, etc. You are apparently already well acquainted with a certain long-haired gun nerd who pretty much did the same and is now releasing his first book, likely the first of many. That's my hope, anyway...I'm sure Headstamp Publishing would love to partner with you on a written version of the WW1 portion of primer, and I'm sure the end result would be the end-all and be-all of WW1 firearms books. It'd be one hell of a project to write it, but hey, you've already done the research and the photos...

E_Blaho

Something that would be nice for me, but a rather sticky question for you is would you ever consider "selling" downloads of your main show episodes? It would be a bigger matter of convenience for some people like myself who would like to have a personal archive of your content that doesn't require streaming over the internet. Like for travel or when the internet is out. I know you have the backup on the other site, but it is still not mainstream to surf that site and it is inconvenient fo me to use an YouTube video downloader to personally archive your videos for offline use. For the record I have not downloaded any of your videos yet, YouTube even with it's demonetization seems to still consider your content documentary and you have not given any indication of your videos or channel being taken down.

AznTeaBag

Wasnt there talk of possibly doing Q&A sessions with fans and supporters of the show?..Crozier would look pretty cool with his own Brodie helmet with the C&R logo on the front or a berry painted on the front. I do plan to buy a shirt or two when I get paid. This probably sounds dumb,but when y'all able to do the 1911 episode, what about a segment in the episode where it's a compilation of videos fans send in of them shooting their M1911's from different era's,either military models or civilian models?

James G. Jones

Love what you do, and it's a crime that you dont have more viewers and support. Maybe you need to add some twerking or explosions? Or both! I wonder if WWII guns might bring more people in since it's probably a wider collecting community since the guns arent as rare and show up in more movies and games? Who knows...you should have over a million subs easy for the quality of content you put out. I dont understand people...

Ian Rupert

I’m seeing your videos outside the channel on all sorts of groups. French weapons..Curios & Relics just 2 off the top of my head on Facebook. A couple Bayonet videos and I’d probably see you on that one too. The word is out! And I agree with a plain logo always available T-shirt as mentioned above. I know that planning for how much to stock and carrying inventory and shipping..well it just gets deeper and deeper doesn’t it. Keep on keeping on.

Seagunner

Worry less. When my t-shirt arrives I'll wear it to to town and be the envy of cool 😎 cats everywhere. Sales will grow exponentially and you'll swap out your ramen for sirloin. Or something like that

Wayne Dygert

I’m happy with what you do. I try to support the best I can

Harold Snyder

3. You should have a basic black non artisanal logo shirt that's always available via drop ship and comes in yeti sizes. And mugs. And hats. And dick towels. You don't even need to push it. We'll find it. We want to support you. You could still have seasonal cruelty free special edition collectible brightly colored high effort stuff too.

Pest666

You need to start looking into appearance fees [I forget what they're called; encomiums?] for events & the like who need your crowd-drawing capabilities to boost their ticket sales. I haven't been to one of the *useless* Cross Roads of the West gun shows we get here behind the Granola Curtain in *years* [heck, probably over a decade?] but I'd definitely think about going if I knew you were going to be there. Internet notoriety has to be good for *something*, and hey, who knows: you might be able to turn up something good since as part of the show you can get in early w/ all the dealers before the crowds show up?.. ;-)

Bruce Brodnax

Bought two T-shirts again this year, as the first two have been surprisingly nice and comfortable. Heck, I'd buy some that just said "C&Rsenal" on them at this point. You put a lot of time and effort into to making firearms history (and, as a result, history in general) very approachable and interesting. At this point, any topic in that field that you present is going to garner some attention. I've actually been watching the shotgun videos as well - can't wait to see more about these!

Austin Leeds

I like your ideas. All of it. Go with it.