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- Barnes Bullets holds groundbreaking ceremony
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DIGGING IT UP • Left to right, Byron Woodland, Economic Development; Juab County Commissioner LuWayne Walker; Glenn Greenhalgh, Economic Development; Juab County Commissioner Chad Winn; and Juab County Commissioner Val Jones turn over the soil at Barnes Bullets new site East of the Mona Interchange. Barnes Bullets President and Owner Randy Brooks watches at right with mike in hand.
By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Barnes Bullets held groundbreaking ceremonies for its new manufacturing facility in Mona on Thursday at 5 p.m.
“We will be building new 25-yard, 100-yard and 300-yard underground shooting ranges at this site,” said Randy Brooks. “We will also build a 60,000 square-foot facility that will hold offices, a lab and a manufacturing plant.”
The new plant will be located 40 miles south of the current Lindon location.
“We are very excited about the move,” said Coni Brooks. “In the back yard of the new home we are building, we have mule deer roaming the hills and mountains, along with elk and bighorn sheep.”
The plant will not disrupt the animal habitat. “We want to leave the area pristine,” said Coni Brooks.
“Coni and I are building a home at the far end of the property,” Randy Brooks said. “We’re acting as the general contractor, with Coni organizing all the subcontractor work. When we’re finished, we’ll have plenty of acreage for our horses and cattle.”
Owners of Barnes Bullets since 1974, Randy and Coni Brooks have worked tirelessly to promote the hunting and shooting sports. They’re similarly dedicated to preserving wildlife and conserving animal habitat.
Prime Alliance Bank is providing funding to build the plant and Barco Construction will construct the facility.
“It will take approximately 8- to 10-months to complete,” said Randy Brooks.
Construction of the underground testing shooting ranges has begun. Like a muffler on a car, said Randy Brooks, noise will be baffled so that the sound of testing will not bother the community.
Byron Woodland, Juab County Economic Development Director, said he was a fan of the Barnes bullet because of his reloading experiences.
“When we moved to Vegas, I turned my wife’s kitchen into a reloading shop,” he said.
He came to know their product as high quality and one which held its mass. Woodland related an experience from his life of the difference he had found in hunting with a Barnes bullet and with a competitor bullet. That experience had convinced him that the Barnes Bullets product was outstanding.
“We are happy that Barnes Bullets is coming to Juab County,” said Woodland. “South Dakota and Idaho recruited them extensively.”
In their continuing search for optimum bullet design and performance, Randy and Coni have hunted both large and small game throughout the world. The all-copper X-Bullet and the recently introduced Triple-Shock X-Bullet Randy developed have set performance standards.
In 2007, Barnes Bullets celebrated 75 years in the business.
The country’s oldest bullet manufacturer, Barnes Bullets, got its start in the early 1930s, when Fred Barnes began making bullets in his Bayfield, Colorado, basement workshop. Made of pure copper tubing with a pure lead core, the bullets were prized by hunters for their dependably deadly performance.
Fred Barnes later sold the company, which became Colorado Custom Bullets.
“In its heyday, Barnes employed more than 100 people. It had dwindled to a two-man operation and the owners wanted to sell,” said Randy Brooks. “I was already custom loading ammunition for local customers in my spare time, so making bullets seemed like a great fit.”
Randy and Coni Brooks, began, as newly weds, operating a dairy farm in Grand Junction, Colorado. They then moved to New Mexico, where Randy Brooks became a saddlemaker. The couple also bought an Indian trading post and made turquoise jewelry.
The couple bought the bullet company in 1974, changed the name back to Barnes Bullets and relocated to American Fork.
The first years were difficult.
Thanks to his parents and a $10,000 loan from them, the business began operation in the 580 square-foot basement of the couple’s home.
“Our first year gross was $12,000 but about 1990, the business started to turn,” said Randy Brooks. “Our employees are what really make us sing.”
In the beginning, the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, Jessica, and Chandra, who was only 3, inserted cores in jackets. They earned piecework wages, just like an adult.
“The real foundation of the business is my grandparents,” said Jessica Brooks, Public Relations Manager/Special Projects.
She said that her parents had been brought up to work. The two personalities of her parents was complimentary. He mother was the frugal one who made certain that finances were secure.
“To know my father is to enjoy the heck out of him,” she said.
Bob and Beverly Brook were given the honor of being the first to turn a shovel of earth at the groundbreaking ceremony in Mona on Thursday.
“My father, Bob, and mother, Beverly, gave unbelievable support. Dad was always here to give a hand. My mother taught school, but came to the shop every chance she got. Barnes would not have survived those early years without our family’s help,” Randy Brooks said.
Not only the Brooks family but the Coni’s family, James and Velda Bennett and family, regularly helped out.Randy Brooks earned money roping steers at rodeos, selling a number of fine guns he’d collected over the years, building custom rifles and installing KDF muzzlebrakes.
Randy and Coni Brooks first made bullets to the original Barnes design, but Randy began experimenting with the 100-percent copper bullet that became the X-Bullet Barnes introduced in 1989.
In 2006, Field & Stream honored the Triple-Shock bullet with the magazine’s Best of the Best award. The Triple-Shock also received NRA’s Golden Bullseye Award.
The success Barnes Bullets enjoys is reflected in the expanding size of its manufacturing facilities. Following the home business, a 6,050-square-foot concrete-block building was constructed next to the family home. In 1996, 40,000-square-foot plant was built in Lindon, Utah.”
“We are very excited about moving here,” said Randy Brooks. “The employees we get from this area, we have enjoyed. We want to continue to make more friends and to do a good job.”
“I take pride in being involved with Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife (SFW) since its inception,” Randy said.
Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife has assisted in purchasing and transplanting bighorn sheep, elk, deer, wild turkey, moose and other species, as well as helping fund critical wildlife management projects. Elk numbers in Utah have tripled to 60,000, and since 2000, the state has had more bulls qualify for the Boone and Crocket record book than all other western states combined.
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