What Lit A Fire?

By Austin Reville

My name is Austin Reville. I am the owner of 2 If By Sea Tactical Indoor Range & Store as well as the head firearm trainer here in New Prague, MN. This company started in the basement of my 1,100 square foot townhome in 2019 and now is in a 10,000 square foot building with a 2,600 square foot sales floor and 8 indoor firing lanes. The journey to get here has been my passion for history.

 I have always been a bit of a nerd and loved history. It has been something I am passionate about still to this day. My dad has a lot to do with this. Growing up he made sure we understood our past how it could be a guide for our future. This helped me develop into the leader in business and my community today.

However, when it came to this passion, a Youtuber Ian McCollum. He is affectionately known in the gun world as “Gun Jesus” this is in part due to his looks but mainly due to his knowledge. He runs a channel called “Forgotten Weapons” and has amassed nearly 3 million followers. He is a leading expert on several historical firearms and is flown all over the world to help curate museums.

 His passion towards history and towards the mechanical engineering side of firearms lit a fire under me to start collecting myself and get into the why things were done. Since our nation here in the United States was founded with these things enshrined into the Constitution, I wanted to know why they did that.

My current business came from my love of collecting. I was looking to help spread my passion for older firearms and their history when a friend of mine asked to shoot one of my historical guns. He then had a bunch of questions about who made it and why. I gave him a quick rundown on what it was and why.

 Training people in the safe use and historical purposes of firearms is something we truly believe in. We just hosted a series on the AR-15 rifle called America’s Modern Day Musket where I broke down how it was invented and why. We also explained how each part works and what Eugene Stoner was thinking when it came to his design that would change firearms forever.

 This inspired me to get my Federal Firearms License and use it to spread that passion and love for older firearms to others. We here at 2 If By Sea Tactical do everything with a historical bent. This includes our name. It is a reference to Paul Revere’ s famous “Midnight Ride” immortalized in the Longfellow Poem. 

 The ability to take us back to our roots has been awesome to share and spread in our community and we continue to do that through our Youtube series on our channel @2ifbyseatactical “From the Vault” which features rare and historical firearms that we have in our personal collection or come through the shop. 

This seems to have resonated with many others as we have amassed over 20k followers in the past few years.

I do hope everyone that stops in will get a taste of the passion we have for historical items and firearms and catch that infectiousness that got me years ago. We are proud to put on display in our “2nd Amendment Museum” wall historical firearms from various countries, eras, and purposes. Come check us out at www.2ifbyseatactical.coma and I am always excited to share with others.

Connect With Austin

www.2ifbyseatactical.com

Instagram: @2ifbyseatactical

Facebook: @2IBST

Youtube: @2ifbyseatactical.com