- Hardy's a great customer to work for,
because they're so passionate about the product
and he aspires to make the best gun
that can possibly be made.
And the fact that it's being made
in a small town in New Zealand is even better.
We think that it's a really good thing for us
to be involved in.
- The company's just shy of 14 years old.
We started off developing rifle suppressors
for a number of years,
moved into our own line of barrels and muzzle breaks,
and then in later years,
we released the first of our rifles known as the Hybrid,
which is interchangeable rifles and modular caliber.
A very high tech, high end rifle.
Following on from that,
a simplified, more basic version,
without the interchangeable barrel but,
with still a lot of the really, really solid features
that you want in a high end rifle.
The carbon side of the house is something
that's trending really, really well
at the moment, internationally.
It's lightweight,
it looks absolutely fantastic,
and it's incredibly functional.
For the barrels in particular,
they have a few other little interesting characteristics
to do with harmonic dampening
and how it affects the internal ballistics of the barrel.
So we see really, really consistent, incredible results
from the rifles,
but in a package that's very, very lightweight
and looks absolutely incredible.
Kilwell manufacture the carbon wrapping
for us on our barrels,
so here in this facility,
we import the steel straight from Germany,
the highest quality we can get,
we machine the rifling, et cetera
into it, do the contouring,
and then from there,
those contoured blanks are shipped up to Kilwell
and they apply the carbon wrapping for us
right from all of the technological development side
of the base layers,
right through up to the nice cosmetic twill layer
on the outside.
- The biggest challenge with Hardy was the machining
and finishing stages.
We were having them machined out of house
but we decided to bring it in house.
We'd never machined anything like that in house before.
It's been R and D all the way from the start.
We're continuously developing that product for them.
- When it comes to partnering with a contractor
or subcontractor of some description,
we really look to how that company behaves
and how well our fit is in with them,
but the way that they conduct themselves,
especially when it comes to the quality side of the house,
it's just a really, really good marriage,
so we have a hundred percent confidence
in the quality of their product,
that we can feel comfortable releasing it under our banner.
From my perspective,
the thing that aligns closest to us would be
that constant pursuit of excellence
and no compromise on producing a product
that you can be really proud of.
My hat comes off to the guys at Kilwell,
they're a large company, they put out a tonne of work.
They're always really willing to work with us,
communicate with us, and supply us this product,
no matter how difficult we make it for them.
So that degree of flexibility
when dealing with such a robust company
is something that I think is really unique.
It's a fantastic relationship.