An interview with Jordan Linsker. We sit down with the owner and founder of Sker Tactical to talk about how to accessorize an AR for extreme shootability to successfully compete in multi-gun or hunting coyotes or defending the home place.
I was working on a story for Inside Firearms magazine when I talked to Jordan Linsker. We were both back from the 2025 SHOT Show so that crazy industry thing we do in Las Vegas was still fresh in our minds. He’s got a company called Sker Tactical based in Las Vegas. Let’s get into it with Jordan Linsker.
Linsker: I’m originally from New York. No one in my family owns guns. No one has any interest in guns. And I went down south. I always was into it.
And me and the boys kind of just started blowing stuff up on the weekend. And it started from just going out to the range to starting to upgrade guns for other people to starting to learn autocad manufacturing and now retailing my own weapon components.
Gary Lewis: That’s cool, man. So you went from New York to Tulane to going out shooting on the weekends. So who is the guy that, that said, hey, Jordan, you want to go shooting?
Who was that guy?
Linsker: It was, it was more of just like everyone in the friend group kind of bought guns while we were down there and living down there.
If you want to hear this conversation in the podcast click this link:
Gary Lewis: Yeah.
Linsker: You know, and slowly everyone just was like, all right, you know, let’s find a good place to go shooting. So there’s a, there’s a great range in Mississippi actually right across the border, you know, From Louisiana.
And we would go out there and it’s, it’s absolute free for all. You can do whatever you want. So we’d be blowing **** up, we’d start fires sometimes, you know, whatever.
Whatever you could possibly imagine, we were doing it. And, you know, we just built like a large group of guys who would go out, shoot, and then start working on guns.
And, you know, that’s kind of how I got my start in, you know, gunsmithing to a degree, just working on personal projects and then expanding into, you know, stuff for other customers.
Gary Lewis: Okay, so at what moment did you say, I gotta learn AutoCAD? When did you do that?
Linsker: That was a little bit down the road. The way it really started was again, this was in Covid times. So ammunition was reselling for three times the price. So, you know, people would go do.
Go to academy sports, wait in line for ammunition. And then, you know, we started going to gun shows and reselling it there, which then kind of evolved into my first bulk purchase, which was, you know, I went in on a deal with a friend.
We ordered 100,000 rounds from a manufacturer and wholesale, you know, distributor, and then we were reselling that together.
So it went from. It was really ammunition first. And the logistics at the time just didn’t make sense. You know, we had an 18 wheeler unload 4,000 pounds of ammunition at our doorstep.
And we had no website. We had, we had nothing. We had nothing working at the time.
So it was, it was pretty insane. You know, I had 50,000 rounds scattered around my house, you know, stored in boxes, you know, 10,000 under the dining room table, 10,000 under the bed, under the coffee table.
It was, it was a nightmare. So I quickly, I. That was, that was something where I took a step back and I said, all right, let me, let me figure out the real business model behind this.
And, you know, the ammunition thing for my friend, that’s what he enjoyed, that’s what he carried on with, and he’s doing extremely well with that now. And I said, you know, guns and accessories are more of the pivotal focus for me.
So I took a step back and I said, all right, how do I reach out to different manufacturers? How do I get into the backside of the industry and how do I create my own unique products?
So it started with, you know, just buying a 3D printer, starting to design different components, and, you know, a lot of it too, is just working with a lot of the large OEMs in the industry.
So, you know, again, you have all the barrels come out of you know, maybe 10 or 20 shops. Everyone works with the same group of people because to start up a barrel manufacturing cell that’s going to cost you a million dollars plus if you’re going to do it properly.
So, you know, very few people manufacture barrels in house. Very few people have the know how to machine stuff themselves.
So it’s easier if you can design, you know, the externals or whatever you want and then reach out to these companies and say, hey, here’s my design. You already make something.
Can we tweak this?
Gary Lewis: Yeah, okay, that’s cool. So what was your first design? Gun purchase?
Linsker: First gun purchase was a POF AR15.
And then, you know, so again, I’m pretty much exclusively into, you know, black guns, Ars,
you know, the tactical side of the industry.
So yeah, the first one was a pof.
Great gun. You know, for the time it was super sophisticated with the Ambi controls. And I said, all right, what are, what are other Good Ambi Control AR15s on the market?
So from there, you know, I started looking into Silencer Co and expanding in that direction. And you know, from there I said, all right, how do I start building and you know, accumulating all the parts for this that look good and you know, are high quality to build out What I think is,
you know, a solid ar.
Gary Lewis: That’s kind of the topic today, but we haven’t introduced you properly. Your name is Jordan Linsker. How can people find you?
Linsker: The website is Sker tactical. We have 400 products there. We have an Instagram too that’s just starting off. And yeah,
we do any component for the AR that you can think of, just working directly with the manufacturer to bring wholesale pricing to high quality parts for customers.
Gary Lewis: Skertactical.com that’s S K E R because it’s Linsker, your last name and then Sker Tactical on Instagram.
Linsker: Yep, that’s it.
Gary Lewis: Okay.
All right, so what we do want to talk about today is how to build out a tactical ar. But while we’re keeping that in mind, I want to go to your website real quick and there’s some things I want you to illuminate a little bit under.
When you click on Contact us, you have range experiences.
So let’s hear about the range experiences.
Linsker: So that started out, that’s actually a funny story that was, that was a product of living in Louisiana at the time where we would go shooting with our group of friends and people would just talk and yeah, you know, the, the word got out that there was a bunch of guys who had a lot of stuff and we had,
you know, pretty much a free range property to do anything you could imagine. Yes. So, you know, people would start to message me out of the blue, hey, I’m so and so’s friend.
Hey, you know, I was referred by this person, could you take me shooting? And eventually it got to the point where we turned it, me and one partner, we turned that into a small business model for, you know, for the time being.
And it was fun while it lasted, but, you know, now, now I’m focused on the manufacturing side of things. That was, that was a very fun chapter for about a year into the business.
Gary Lewis: Okay. Because I watched the video and I thought, this doesn’t look like Las Vegas.
Linsker: Yeah, that is, that’s in the swamps in Mississippi.
Gary Lewis: Okay, that makes more sense. And then. So you live now in Las Vegas. Why Las Vegas?
Linsker: It was pretty much a decision. Everyone was,
our entire network was starting to move away after College. Again, I’m 26, I’m fairly young. This was four years ago. And everyone started to relocate. Either go back home or just move on to different career paths and change cities.
So Louisiana is great, I love it down there. But it was, it was a point where the business for it and the market isn’t.
And also just like where I was living wasn’t great for housing inventory and trying to build a business.
So I looked at cities that had, you know, cheap, affordable warehousing nearby.
Good gun climate, politically, you know, political climate for it, and just access to the outdoors. Again, you know, down in New Orleans, there’s not a whole lot of room, so you have to travel fairly far outside the city to get anywhere to shoot.
But here in Vegas, it’s as easy as like a 20, 30 minute drive off into the desert or. And you know, there’s a ton of ranges. You know, again, I don’t shoot indoors anymore.
Outdoors is, you know, far better experience.
So, you know, outdoors in Vegas for ranges, super, you know, super convenient. That’s why I picked it here.
Gary Lewis: Are you a member of one of the ranges there?
Linsker: Yeah, Pro Gun Vegas. They’re one of the largest in Boulder City, which is like 30 minutes outside of Vegas. Great spot over there, you know, highly recommend if you’re in Vegas, check them out.
You can go to their machine gun shoots. You can rent stuff from them. They also have private bays and, you know, members only areas. There’s also a bar there afterwards and pool tables.
So, you know, it’s got a very cool clubhouse.
Gary Lewis: Huh. All right, so what about Your shot show Experience.
Linsker: Shot show. You know, for me, a lot of people go downstairs on the main floor where it’s, what’s the coolest product, what’s out there, you know, what’s the biggest piece of eye candy I can find.
My side of shot show looks very different from what you see online.
Typically I spend, you know, the first two days are spent exclusively in the supplier showcase, which is on the fifth floor. So again, you know, that’s, that’s meeting all of the manufacturers on the, on the industry.
So you know, there’s, there’s people who are doing plastic components and injection molding to people who are doing, you know, just full scale CNC operations for barrels, full carrier groups, whatever you can think of.
And a lot of these companies, you know, the larger ones who, you know, maybe they also have a retail side of things, they also have an OEM division. So it’s really a matter of going there and just talking to people and finding, you know, asking the right questions.
So some manufacturers might tell you, oh yeah, we pump out, you know, 30,000 bulk carrier groups a month. We supply, you know, 60% of the industry in these regions. And you know, I say to them, okay, what type of minimums do you look for?
What’s the pricing structure? You know, what would it be? What would it take to work with you if I was interested? And you know, some people say, oh, it’ll be a thousand a month at minimum that you have to order.
And I’m like, all right, I’m not moving a thousand bulk carriers a month. That’s, you know, that’s a, that’s a lot of inventory. But then you find other outfits that might say, oh, we do, you know, 2,000 bulk carriers a month.
We could allocate maybe 50 or 100 per month. Or if you just want to do a one time purchase and then, you know, there’s follow up questions you can ask like, all right, if I want to put my logo on it, is that something you do?
Some people not worth their time in house, they just pump out white label and then that’s on their downstream customers and retailers to put their logos on it. Some companies will say, yeah, we can do that in house for you.
We can even modify the design for you. It’ll require X amount of quantity, but you know, it’s a, it’s, it’s a game of finding, you know, who will work with you at your, you know, your minimums, your levels and figuring out, you know, what you’re looking for in the industry.
And Just connecting with the right people and sometimes it’s really tough. Sometimes you come across some great finds, though.
Gary Lewis: So how I found you, I was at Shot show also and I spent this time, a lot of hours in the lowest floor,
you know,
not the main floor, down, down low. And, and so I was working on a story for Inside Firearms magazine called Tacticool. You know, the tactical and the cool. And so I found Skir Tactical because I was looking for a flip up iron sight set.
And so that’s how I connected with you originally. And then I thought, man, we ought to do a podcast.
But what, what product are you proud of? What are you known for?
Linsker: So the thing I’m known for most, again, this is something that I’ve designed completely in house, produced in house and then released is the Stribog stacker. So that is the Stribog telescoping arm cheek rest.
So that’s under our Dev group tab on the website. And essentially what that is is it’s a pistol brace compliant cheek weld. So it attaches to the telescoping arms. So it doesn’t modify the brace, it doesn’t touch it, it doesn’t connect to it.
And it provides a surface to put your cheek against instead of putting it against the, you know, sometimes greasy metal bar for the telescoping arm on the brace assembly. So kind of like on a collapsible MP5 stock, you know, people put their face against those metal bars and I essentially engineered a cover that goes over that and it slides,
you know, past the, you know, the gun. So it doesn’t interfere with anything and it just gives you like positive cheek placement for the Strybog. Eventually, you know, I’ve gotten a lot of requests to design one for other platforms.
So that’s something that I’m slowly working on. But that’s, that’s definitely like the biggest thing, you know, that I’m doing or the most niche thing that gets a lot of attention out of the communities I’m in.
Gary Lewis: Okay. Okay. Well, I’m glad we talked about that.
The other thing that I want to ask you about is this mod 3 picatinny finger stop. Is that something you designed?
Linsker: So a lot of that, you know, for the metal components, the accessories, I work with the accessories and AR parts, there’s a few things in there that I’ve designed and you know, I manufacture out of metal myself with, you know, different, different CNC partners.
But for a lot of that, it’s just reaching out to companies that already make Stuff and they put their name on it and their brand tax on it. I have these as white label components.
So it can either be sold as my brand and gets laser engraved with my logo on it or for other people in the industry who are looking to add new products to their lineup, you know, this is stuff that’s readily available for them to help build out their business as well.
Gary Lewis: Okay. And then the stribog rail cover.
Linsker: The strybog rail cover, that’s just again a plastic component that I work with a different manufacturer to get and you know, I source it from them and then you know, that just retails through me.
Gary Lewis: And so that’s, that’s a nice little item that can make the gun just a little bit more comfortable. Is that how I’m reading it?
Linsker: Yeah, exactly. You know, there’s a rail under there, a metal rail and you know you can’t put a vertical grip on a pistol. So that’s just a cover to cover up that integrated picatinny rail.
Give you just something more comfortable to grab onto.
Gary Lewis: Okay. So when you build out an AR for tactical, for maybe for multi gunning or coyote hunting or defending the home place,
I think about the things first. Like I want scope mounts and for me it’s always going to be worn scope mounts and, and then whatever optic that I, that I like for the application.
But then what comes next? I mean you obviously have to have a few mags,
but what comes next when you’re building out for comfort and usability?
Linsker: Yeah. So you know, I offer a ton of different accessories, but if we’re talking about building the core gun, if you want to head over to the AR15 parts tab and then you can just click on the tab itself that says ar15 parts we can pretty much go through.
You know, a lot of websites have things set up in a structure where you’re kind of digging through parts, trying to remember and hit a checklist of oh, I need this, I need that.
You know, like do you start with your lower receiver and then mag release trigger, bull carrier group, you know, like what’s the order you go through? So I built out my site to go down in a list style.
You know, if you’re holding a gun vertically from the muzzle at the top to the buttstock on the bottom,
you can go piece by piece down the line through every single component and figure out what you need and pick through, add to your cart and it’ll all ship to your house and you can build it, you know, in the comfort of your house.
So, you know, if you’re looking at the muzzle brakes now, you know, again, are you looking for something that just has a, you know, flash suppression and is a flash hider, or are you looking for a triple ported brake to kind of mitigate recoil?
So, you know, we can start there and then from there, you know, crush washer, small component that you need moving down to the gas block. Do you want just a standard gas block for an AR15 or are you looking for something with, you know, 20 plus, you know, clickable adjustable positions to really tune your gas system?
So, you know, I just offer as many different parts in each category that I feel necessary to, to give people the option to choose what’s best for them and build out their AR15 from scratch.
Gary Lewis: Okay, so personally, let’s talk about muzzle devices quickly. What do you like?
Linsker: I really like the mod one that I have. If you take a look at those pictures I sent over, you’ll see it in that photo right there on the first one with the white background.
So, you know, our mod one is right there. Super clean looking.
Again, easy to install. There’s not much that goes into it. It’s a good nitrided steel muzzle brake. You know, you can go spend 70, $90 for a muzzle brake or you know, all the way down to 15.
Some of those might not be the highest quality or the most intricate of designs. So I look for the middle of the road where, you know, what’s the best thing I can deliver for best value and has what I think is the best aesthetic for it and good performance.
Gary Lewis: Okay, so then going down barrels, that’s fairly straightforward. What about handguards?
Linsker: Yeah, so right now we have three different offerings on the site. And again, you know, if you’re, if you’re more in tune with the tactical side of things, you might recognize that a few different companies offer the Alpha series that we have.
And that’s because a lot of companies work with this one manufacturer. So a lot of people order from them. And then, you know, again, I put my logo on it.
I have it just shown in, in black, no logo right there. And again, you’re looking at just a good handguard, you know, something that’s high quality. You know, you’re talking, you know, 6061T6 aluminum,
you know, nice relief cuts on it, fully chamfered and everything. So there’s no sharp edges and, you know, just good products for the value. That’s really what it’s about.
Gary Lewis: But what about building a personalized tactical ar? So if somebody has the gun that they, they bought or they built. What are the, what are the five things that somebody might do or that you would do if you were a user on the other side of the counter?
Linsker: I see, yeah. So again, if I just bought, you know, an AR15, whether I’m new to it or, you know, well, seasoned optic is probably the first thing you want to go for.
You know, that’s probably most essential. Then after that I would probably go with some sort of rail system, you know, rail cover or front grip. And then from there, you know, once it’s comfortable and you have it, you know, usable to that, to the point where you have something for your hands,
you have something to look through and you know, accurately shoot with, then. Do you want to go with a flashlight? Probably.
It depends on the applications that you’re looking for. But it seems like the general trend these days is to put a flashlight on things. So, you know.
Gary Lewis: Okay, so let’s, let’s linger there on flashlights for a minute.
You have a category called lights and lasers and so I’m going to click on that.
And three, three offerings.
You have your alpha, your delta and the standard weapon light. Personally,
tell me what you think. Do you like having a remote mounted switch with a little wire or do you like to be able to push a tail light button on the light?
Linsker: So yeah, I do, I do tail, remote tail switches on everything. So all three of these lights are compatible with the Surefire tail products.
We also offer our own in house. So we work with a manufacturer who does a lot of buttons for different companies in the industry. And we just get them white labeled and you know, so you could pick the alpha, for example, and then if you scroll down, you’ll see we have the plug tail cap available for it.
And then after that in the control unit section, there’s eight different options that you have for, you know, weapon mount, oh, weapon light buttons. So, you know, there’s picatinny ones, M Lok ones.
I prefer the first one. I think that one works the best for a top mounted button solution. But again, you know, like if you want an integrated pad so you have momentary on it, you know, the picatinny button, plus pad unit,
you know, the sixth item in the lineup. That’s a great option as well.
Gary Lewis: Do you end up wanting that control button under your. Are you a right handed shooter?
Linsker: Yeah, I’m a right handed shooter.
Gary Lewis: Do you like to have that control button under your left thumb?
Linsker: Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much all the time. Again, some people argue that they like to Have a little bit of space, um, so that way they can reach up to the button so they’re not gonna accidentally actuate it when they’re just clamping the gun.
I find that, you know, I can just put my hand there and not really press into the button. So I typically like to have that directly under my thumb at all times.
And you know, out here in Vegas, it’s convenient because you can go off into the desert at, in the middle of the night, you know, do whatever you want. And you know, so night shooting is definitely a big activity out here.
So I’ve trained, you know, fairly, trained myself fairly well to, you know, have a button there but not, you know, push it by mistake.
Again, some people, some people, for their purposes, they, you know, they want to put that a little bit farther forward from their finger or they want to offset the button so they don’t, you know, actuate it.
There’s, you know, there’s all schools of thought. Everyone’s entitled to. Whatever works for, you know, for you is really what it comes down to.
Gary Lewis: Sure. And then you offer some laser devices too. But I want to talk about the mount now for, for back, back to our personal tactical build out.
What do you personally like for mounting the light?
Linsker: So, you know, again, it depends on if you’re running other things on the front of the gun like a suppressor and you know, if you have a laser unit, if you have grips or, you know, whatever you’re going for up there.
Iron sights.
Generally, I find the 25 degree offset light mount is a great standard mount for any of the flashlights. Actually it’s compatible with all three. So that way, you know, it’s again, two holes.
It mounts, the light mounts into that mounted to the side of the gun. It’s at a good angle where it’ll clear most things and you’re not going to have to finick with it.
But if you have a bunch of other things up there, iron sights or a suppressor or, you know, other items, I find the 45 degree offset, the very first one, that has four different holes.
So you can kind of raise it, lower it, push it back a little forward. And again, it’s only a few, you know, it’s a few millimeters in either direction, but it really lets you get a super tight lockup with a laser unit or whatever’s off to the side of it,
so you can kind of mess around with the configuration. And if you’re running a suppressor and you need something to, you know, eliminate that shadow, you can go with one of the inline mounts that’ll hang forward and, you know, act as a diving board to get that light farther forward to eliminate the shadow on the gun.
Gary Lewis: Okay. Some other options that you list on here that are kind of interesting are picatinny index clips and wire guides. Wire guide mounts. Wire guide kits.
Linsker: Yeah. So if you have, you know, again, some people just like to run the pressure pad. And when you buy a pressure pad from either us or, you know, surefire, whatever, there’s no way to really mount that to the gun.
So a lot of people, they’ll duct tape it, they’ll wrap it, you know, whatever they’ll find. They’ll take ties, cable ties, and tie it down to the gun.
We like to do things a little bit more efficiently here. So, you know, we have the pressure pad slot mounts here. So there’s, you know, four or five different options for that button or sorry, pad rather to slide into and mount in a different, you know, variety of ways.
Gary Lewis: Okay. And then one of the things that you talked to me about was the M lock covers. So why don’t you talk about how that makes the gun more comfortable?
Linsker: Yeah. So if we go over to the accessories, you know, tab inside of things. Again, there’s. There’s a ton of manufacturers out there who make rail covers. And a lot of them are all the same.
You know, they function pretty much the same. It’s. It’s a rail cover. There’s nothing too crazy about it. So I, you know, I said, all right, I don’t really like having a ton of branded things, you know, with a ton of different brands and different, you know, marks all over the gun from other companies.
I like, you know, something that’s clean, simple, and, you know, I don’t want to be a walking advertisement for.
That’s really what it came down to. So I said, how do I find all of the manufacturers who make these parts? And then can I order them without any logos or, you know, if I.
And if I decide to put my logo on it, can I do it fairly discreet? So, you know, again, we have M lok rail covers, picatinny rail covers,
you know, one’s made out of metal, plastic, G10, fiberglass. Those are the ones that I sent you a pair of.
Again, you have some companies out there that charge, you know, $30 for a small rail cover,
you know, made out of G10, you know, fiberglass infused polymer. And for me, I said, all right, these don’t cost anywhere near that. Can I cut the price in half and still make it, you know, profitable and offer a good, know, good product to people.
And I, I found a company that does it. They make them in bulk. You know, it was a huge order that I had to place. I had to buy 300 of them or something to, to do it.
But you know, it brings the price down where I can, you know, I can undercut and deliver, you know, the same product at a far superior price to people. And you know, for, to me that’s really what it’s about.
You know, again, doing this in college and starting to buy gun parts, um, you know, it was like, why, why is this so expensive? There’s, there’s no reason that a rail cover should cost this much.
There’s no reason optics should cost this much. You know, we’re talking thousands of dollars for, you know, top of the line products and stuff. And you know, I just said there’s no way that this can really be this much.
So how do I get into the backside of the industry, navigate my way and find the people who make stuff and do it at reasonable prices and make good quality stuff?
So that’s really what it came down to.
Gary Lewis: Okay, so back in the spirit of building out a tactical ar, do you, do you like to have a foregrip or a finger stop?
Linsker: Yeah, I really prefer out of the angled grip stops that we offer.
That’s the number, the mod one right there. The mod one angle grip stop, that’s probably my favorite.
Again, I find it comfortable. It’s a nice medium ground between angled and you know, a little bit vertical.
You know, it depends where you’re kind of placing your hand on it. And you know, I, I run that on two or three different guns of mine. But again, you know, my, my whole thing is if you like other styles of grips, we just try to stock as many different possibil,
you know, possible options for people.
You know, a grip is a grip. So you know, as long as, as long as it’s not going to break on you and it’s comfortable, go for whatever you choose.
Gary Lewis: Why, why the foregrip? Let’s just talk about that for a minute in case somebody’s not fully aligned with our thinking. Why the foregrip?
Linsker: So, you know, on a, on a conventional AR with a, you know, just standard hand guard, you’re, you’re going to kind of not break your wrist, but can’t your wrist and break the natural alignment of your hand.
You know, again, like there’s not many times if you look at the way you hold things, your hand and Your wrist, you know, are in the position they’re in because, you know, that’s the way humans are designed.
So if you have to tilt your wrist out that far and kind of twist your hand away over a long time, it can either be uncomfortable or you just don’t have anything to grab onto.
You know, you’re holding the rail itself, which might get hot on you, or the hand guard. You know, it’s just if you’re holding out there for a long time while shooting, it’s not the most comfortable.
So if you have something that’s slightly angled to kind of, you know, naturalize the grip angle at which you naturally grab things, it’ll just make it a lot more comfortable.
Gary Lewis: Also, if the grip has some sort of a stop on it, you can push that up against a barrier.
Linsker: Yeah, so we actually have, right below that we have the gas pedals and barricade section. So we have things that go on the very front of the handguard which you can, you know, instead of using the grip itself, so that way you can still use your grip and have a barricade stop at the front of the gun.
So if you’re shooting against a ledge or, you know, on, against a wall, you can push up against that using, you know, any of these products right here.
Gary Lewis: So that would be the hand stops or the finger stops, the finger stops.
Linsker: Or the gas pedals and barricades. So there’s, you know, I have three different barricade options.
Gary Lewis: Oh, I see. Okay.
Linsker: Yep.
Gary Lewis: Yeah, right. Okay. What about a bipod?
Linsker: So I actually just started working with a manufacturer that I met at shot show last year for bipods. And you know, they’re carbon fiber bipods. They are definitely on the more expensive side of the offerings that I have.
Again, they are not a, they are not a cheap product. You know, you come across a lot of knockoff bipods of some top tier brands out there. And finding a good bipod manufacturer is surprisingly difficult because the people at the top who make stuff like Atlas or, you know,
Accutech, they don’t license out their names and they don’t want to do any white label products. So, you know, I found, I was fortunate enough to meet with and find a company that does high end carbon fiber bipods that come either in Picatinny or ARCA rail configurations.
And you know, there’s the rubber feet that come with it as well as the steel spike feet. So, you know, I found these, I found these guys, I met with them and you know, I ordered a few samples, I tested it ran them, you know, ran all the, all the three different versions on my guns.
Everything checked out. And I said, all right, you know, how do I work with you to, you know, bring this product to market? And, you know, again, they do stuff for other companies where they modify different styles.
So this is a lineup that they did and helped work with me to kind of, you know, change the design and make it my own. So, you know, these bipods, they have five different locking positions.
They have adjustable feet. So again, on some bipods, you have like the lock collar design where you can extend the legs to fixed positions. But these have a collar that you rotate and kind of like on a tripod where, you know, you unlock it and you pull out the,
the leg extensions. You can really dial in the exact, you know, the exact degree of how long you want it. And you can adjust either side independently. So if you’re shooting on a tilted or canted surface, you can still, you know, maintain a good plane for your rifle when you set it down.
Gary Lewis: Have you done any competition multi gun, that sort of thing?
Linsker: So I’m not. Not much of like a multi gunner. I would say for me it’s more of going out to the range and, you know, just kind of having a good time with my friends.
You know, I’ll. I’ll throw products out there to, and give to people to run them hard and, you know, test it. But I’m not, I’m not so much into the competition side of things.
Again, I’m more on the nerdy side of, you know, finding an engineering product.
Gary Lewis: That’s cool. That’s cool. Okay, what about an ergonomic Magwell grip to being able to quickly change magazines under stress while you’re moving? Is that. Do you have anything like that in your catalog?
Have you put anything like that on any of your guns?
Linsker: So I don’t do any Magwell grips because having your hand that, that close in is typically not the best position. You want to have your hand out on the rail so you have better control of the firearm itself.
And on top of that, a lot of my customer base, we do, you know, aftermarket and billet receiver sets.
Again, Mil Spec sets and Mil Spec lowers. Great,
you know, great starting point. But there’s so many cooler and, you know, form functioning products out there. You know, again, silencerco lowers, POF lowers, radian. All these companies make stuff that have fully Ambi controls integrated into them.
So, you know, when you put a Magwell or if you’re trying to put a Magwell grip onto A gun like that,
these billet receiver sets are not to mil spec design. So yes, things are not going to fit them. So I don’t carry anything like that for that reason.
Gary Lewis: What about on the personal gun? Do you use a sling?
Linsker: Yeah, so we’re actually working. I had a manufacturer I was working with for slings and I just wasn’t that thrilled with the quality behind them and the functionality of them. So I took them off the site, I got rid of them and right now I’m working with three different manufacturers and I’m going to see who I,
you know, award the contract to to work with.
And you know, right now we’re in the testing phase on that.
Gary Lewis: So what do you personally like? Do you like a single point sling or a two point sling?
Linsker: So for ars, typically two point, you know, a two point adjustable is the way to go. It’ll give you the most control and most vers, you know, versatile use of it for.
Gary Lewis: That’s kind of how I feel too. Ah, let’s see what else the, the charging handle. What do you like for a charging handle on your personal guns?
Linsker: Ambi. That’s you know, essentially if anything, anything for an ar. Again, you know, I want it to be ambidextrous and I want to have as many features as possible.
Gary Lewis: Do you grab it with two fingers like that or do you hook it with your pinky or your thumb? How, how do you find yourself grabbing the Ambi?
Linsker: Just, you know, again, index finger on the left side. Again, I’m a righty so I’m going to come back with my left hand and you know, pull it from the left side.
So. Yeah, but you know, again if I swap hands I want to have the option to use, you know, my right hand to, you know, actuate it from the right side as well.
And I don’t want to have to, you know, spend the time to put both fingers around it or try and you know, manipulate it in a way that is, you know, more cumbersome.
So again, a Mil spec charging handle, you know, you don’t get much of a grip on it and you know, you can, you can use it just on the left side.
You don’t have to put your fingers on both sides of it. But you know, with these larger levers on these charging handles and having the ambidextrous functionality behind it, you know, there’s no reason to go with a mil spec offering.
We don’t even offer, you know, like a traditional mil spec charging handle for that reason. So you know, again if you’re going to build something from scratch, you’re never going to pick a MIL spec charging handle to go in a gun.
For the most part you’re going to probably go ambidextrous or something that if it is single sided, has, you know, just a larger latch on it and is a little more custom.
Gary Lewis: What about the safety? I, I like having an ambidextrous safety. Is that something that’s important on your personal guns?
Linsker: Yeah. So for, for us the, we have three, we have three selectors. Again if you want the MIL spec one, we do offer that just in case you want to start out with that.
But we have two different Ambi versions of that selector.
You know, one in a dimpled pattern and then one with a divot, you know, flat pattern on it. And these, these selectors actually have a 90 degree throw which is traditional and then you can also convert it to a 45 degree throw.
So if you take the barrel and rotate it to the other side and flip it, you can use a, you know, there’s basically the detent positions in them are closer together.
So rather than having to flick from, you know, horizontal to vertical, you can flick in between and again, just a little more comfortable, a little quicker, you know. So that’s, that’s, if you’re a three gun shooter and into competitions,
most guys are already running that type of stuff. And if you’re looking for that, you know, we have those as well now.
Gary Lewis: Okay, which leads us to the pistol grip. What do you like on a pistol grip?
Linsker: So for me I prefer hard plastic with a storage compartment in there. You know, again there’s, there’s no reason to not have storage in there. You might as well have a trap door on the bottom rather than just an open hole.
So our mod one kind of, you know, encapsulates all of that right there. But if you are looking for, you know, a larger rubberized, textured grip, then we, we have that as well.
We’re currently working with two or three other manufacturers. Again, we’re seeing, you know, we’re waiting on things to come in and we’re going to see who has good grips, you know, who can do it affordably.
And you know, is that a product that we want to carry? So right now we, you know, by the, by the end of next month I’m hoping, you know, we’ll have a few more options there.
Gary Lewis: Mm. We kind of jumped over it. But what do you like for sighting systems on your personal guns?
Linsker: So again I run my iron sights on Everything. But do I really use them that often? To be quite honest, no. You know, this most of the time or all the time?
There’s an optic on everything that I have. So you know, again I have,
you know, three different pistol sights and you know, one of them is kind of an Acro styled optic. So that’s something that you know, you can put on a rifle as well.
It comes with our ERS model, comes with a riser and you know, if you look at the front of the website, there is the stribog and you can see, you know, that optic actually on that gun right there on the stacker photo.
So but you know, right now I’m looking at working with a few different manufacturers for you know, T1, T2 style optics. So you, you know, like an aim point, you know, red dot tube site.
So there’s, there’s a lot of companies out there who make them and OEM, but it’s a matter of getting them in, seeing who, you know, who does it best. Know, are they strong, are they good quality and putting them through their rigors, which is typically a three to four month test.
And you know, I try to put at least 2,000 rounds on each optic and then you know, do a final beat down to see if it survives. So you know, the current optic lineup that we have, that manufacturer makes for five or six large companies in the industry and this is from their kind of white label division of their products.
So, so again, you know, they, they make quality stuff for other people. I figured it out from, you know, just speaking with them, going to the facility, touring it and everything.
And you know, I said, all right, I trust them enough to place a sample order and then from there test, you know, put every optic through its, you know, through its testing phase and if it completes it, it makes it to the final round and then it goes up on the website.
Gary Lewis: Do you use a suppressor?
Linsker: Yes, I do. I have a Obsidian, a rugged Obsidian nine for my pistols. So.
Gary Lewis: Okay, what about on the ars?
Linsker: Ars? I’m actually waiting on one right now. I ordered a Otter Creek Labs polonium K. So that should be coming in in you know, a few weeks or probably a week from now.
And then obviously I have to go through the whole waiting process on that.
Gary Lewis: Okay then how about a suppressor cover? Have you thought about that for your ar?
Linsker: Yeah, so a lot of it’s, it’s kind of funny, there’s a lot of people who have been posting and about their suppressor covers burning up and I’ve seen A trend on Facebook where people are moving to, again, you know, people are trying to use like high resistant fabric like nylons.
And nylon, at some point it’s going to burn. No matter how heat resistant you think it is. There’s, there’s a melting point on that, but silicone on the other, on the other hand, that has, you know, a temperature range that can get, you know, over a thousand degrees Fahrenheit without melting.
So there’s been a trend I’ve been seeing online of people taking dish mats and they cut them up and they wrap their suppressor in it.
It’s, it’s a little janky, but those seem to actually be working for, material wise, the best. So there’s one company that I came across that is starting to do silicone suppressor covers.
And I’m, I’m in the process of trying to talk with them on, you know, is this something that you’re willing to offer on my website and can I do it without any logos?
So that’s, that’s in the beginning phases. It’s, it’s funny that you’re, you’re talking about that,
but, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of manufacturers out there too, who just make silicone products. So now it’s a, it’s a decision in terms of the molding fee and figuring out the size and making something that works well.
So, you know, luckily silicone, super cheap. So if I can find a manufacturer who maybe they say, oh, our minimum order is only like a thousand pieces and they cost five or ten dollars to produce, and then those get marked up from there, you know, that’s something where I could say,
all right, you know, if I only have to buy a hundred or a thousand units, whatever it is, to build my own product, you know, maybe I’ll look into that route when it comes time.
Gary Lewis: Okay, that’s interesting. Another thing that you offered that I found, I went out looking for and came to your website was a picatinny phone mount.
Is that something that you’re going to continue to carry?
Linsker: Yeah, so we actually just sold out of those. I’m about to place an order for more of them from, you know, my manufacturer. So, yeah, we sold out, I think last week.
You know, again, that was something that I had only purchased a handful of maybe like 10 or 20 to start. And I put them on the site to see how they would do. And people, people seem to really like it. Again, it’s convenient for filming downrange, you know, steady shots. So if, you know, if you’re looking to do that, you know, that’s definitely a good option for, you know, kind of the, you know, casual shooting experience where you want to get some footage.
Gary Lewis: In this whole journey, on this whole journey of tactical and cool, like, one of the things that stood out to me was this PMAG stand and supposedly, tell me if I’m. Tell me if I’m wrong, but you can put this, slide this onto a pmag and then your rifle will sit on a bench on the pmag if everything balances out okay. Is that right?
Linsker: Yeah. So, again, you know, for most. For most ars things, you know, things are naturally balanced around the center. Again, if you have like a. You know, on different weapon platforms, it might be a little more front heavy, it might be a little rear heavy.
But, you know, for. For most ARs, you can probably balance in the middle if the magazine is flat along the bottom. So if you have a gen 2PMAG, and we’re actually working with a new manufacturer who makes a compatible version for the Gen 3PMAG,
you can slide this on. It’s super easy. You push in the bottom of the pmag, you push that button in, you slide the COVID plate off, you slide this one on, and now you have a stand on the bottom of your magazine.
And it’s great for display purposes. Also, if you’re shooting and you want something to kind of position it on, that works too, but I would say it’s more of a display purpose for me at least.
So, yeah, I have those on probably five or six different PMAGs and just makes it, you know, easy to, you know, set guns up for photos and, you know, kind of just if you’re, you know, displaying something or showing.
Showing stuff to friends, great way to have, you know, the gun standing on its own.
Gary Lewis: Mm. Okay. When you’re going out to the range, do you. Do you end up bringing a lot of gear with you too much?
Linsker: Yeah, it’s, you know, again, there’s, you know, as I’m testing dozens of products each time, and, you know, I’m bringing out so many things that need to be tested and need to get put through their paces because, again, I’ve ordered stuff from companies that are seemingly reputable, and you think,
oh, there’s no way that they would make this poorly. Right. But there’s, you know, there’s a lot of. There’s a lot of things in the industry where companies might have ordered a production run of products.
They came in, they weren’t good, and then they try and offload them through Back channels to other wholesalers, which make it down to distributors. And then these distributors then say, oh, we have this new product in, you know, and they put a fake name and a fake brand behind it,
where you’re like, okay, I don’t, I’ve never heard of this, but I’ll test it and I’ll see what happens. And, you know, I order some, you know, sometimes you order stuff and the quality is just not there.
So, you know, anytime a new product comes in, it has to be shot with. It has to be tested. So a range day for me looks like four or five ars going out.
The sniper rifle as well, probably a shotgun.
You know, again, recoil testing on stuff, making sure it’s not going to fall off or break. And then, you know, pistols, depending on the product, if it’s pistol applicable, I’ll bring it out.
So, yeah, the car gets, the car gets full very quickly.
Gary Lewis: Are you driving a pickup or, or SUV or what? How’s that look?
Linsker: So right now, right now I have a sports car. So it’s not, not the most feasible for that, but.
Gary Lewis: Okay, well, since we’re talking sports cars, what is it?
Linsker: It’s an Audi S5.
Gary Lewis: Oh, okay. Well, what color? No, don’t tell me, don’t tell me what color because we don’t need, we don’t need the people to be watching for you out there.
I’ve driven Audi S5, so I know what you’re. I know what you’re talking about. I appreciate those too. Okay, so let me ask you a few, few questions. Do you like, do you like watching any sports on tv?
Linsker: I’m not into sports. Not into really? It’s just guns, you know, guns are.
Gary Lewis: That’s what I was hoping you were going to say, but I was just checking. Okay,
rating one to 10, one being you don’t like it and 10 being you know, that’s the best.
Electric cars, one to 10.
Linsker: You know, it seems like there’s a trend towards them. Am I a fan?
Not necessarily. But again, like, you have, you know, you have like the hybrid Ferraris coming out and the hybrid Lamborghinis that are starting to kind of pave the way towards that for the supercar and hypercar market.
And, you know, it’s. I’m not a fan, but they do look good. And you know, again, in terms of power and torque behind those cars. Yeah, you can’t match that with a conventional combustion engine.
Gary Lewis: Right.
Linsker: So there are advantages to it. Am I a fan? I don’t know. Again, like, we grew up in A time where there were no electric cars. But 20 years from now, one.
Gary Lewis: Pick a number. One to ten.
Linsker: Pick a number. One to 10. Am I a fan of electric cars? I’ll take a neutral five.
Gary Lewis: Okay. All right. What about electric bikes?
Linsker: Those are interesting. Those actually have a pretty big military application because traditional bikes, gas powered bikes, make a lot of noise. And you’re starting to see everything from SWAT teams to seal teams looking at electric bikes because they make no noise.
You can get from point A to B extremely quickly with them and maneuver them through tough terrain. So electric bikes, I think, you know, there’s definitely an advantage there. I’m going to give that an 8 out of 10.
Gary Lewis: There you go. Okay. Feral cats.
Linsker: Feral cats. 0 out of 10.
Gary Lewis: Artificial intelligence.
Linsker: That’s an interesting one. So, you know, I’ve used AI to actually help code parts of my website,
you know, so on the back end when an order comes in, typically you just get the email receipt saying this is what the person bought. And then I have to go, or, you know, one of the people who works with me goes around, picks all the product out and,
you know, it’s a little bit of a cumbersome, difficult process. Now I have a packing slip generator that I went to ChatGPT and I said, hey,
I need for, you know, people, you know, for my shipping department, I need a easily printed out list of the products that were purchased, connected to an order and, you know, with the name of the product, the SKU on it, and something that can easily be slipped inside people’s packages to show that everything was,
you know, picked correctly and get sent out again. You see all the large companies, Primary Arms, Optics, Planet, all these guys, you know, every time you order something, you have an order list in there.
So ChatGPT actually helped me code, you know, part of the website, which would have costed, you know, hundreds of dollars to pay a web developer to do that. I’m not, you know, I’m not trained to do that and it was able to do it really well.
But you know, at the same time, I think there’s definitely a slightly scary future for AI. So I’m not sure where I stand on that. Yeah, again, there’s good things, there’s bad things.
I’m gonna go with the neutral five. You know, I don’t know what the, you know, what the outcome will be.
It’s, you know, it’s interesting though.
Gary Lewis: Okay, how about barbecue sauce?
Linsker: 10 out of 10.
Gary Lewis: Yeah, so, but did, did it start out that way with you or did that happen when you moved to the South?
Linsker: What, barbecue sauce? Yeah, probably. Yeah, probably moving to the South. Yeah, that was.
Gary Lewis: Yeah. Okay. What about long range shooting schools? Have you ever thought about taking one of those?
Linsker: So I actually built recently or not so recently now it’s a few years ago, a very expensive bolt gun.
You know, you can see some photos of it on the website.
And I’ve never gone to a class. I’m decent with it. Could I be better? Yeah, probably. Again, classes, you know, for. For certain people, I think they’re highly valuable.
For myself, again, I’m not. I’m not such a proficient shooter. I don’t care to be, you know, I put a lot of rounds down range, so I’d say I’m above average.
Yeah. But by no means do I, you know, do I strive to be that great. My focus is bringing good products to market. Yeah. You know, I’m not here to, you know, be a flashy Instagrammer and, you know, move fast, shoot fast, you know.
Gary Lewis: Yeah.
Linsker: You know, any of that, you’re going to.
Gary Lewis: But you’re going to help the guy that wants to do that.
Linsker: Exactly. My whole thing is how do I get the right products that those people want, you know, and offer them to the. To that market.
Gary Lewis: Yeah. Okay. Well, you’ve got a great website and it’s really clean, it’s really easy to use and. Okay, so I got one more question for you. The moon landing, 1 to 10.
Linsker: I mean, pretty sure it’s real, but again, that’s. That’s before my time, so, you know, I’m not sure, but pretty sure that’s real.
Gary Lewis: So you’re gonna pick a number, though? You’re gonna pick a number?
Linsker: I’ll give 10 out of 10 on that.
Gary Lewis: Oh, okay. All right.
Linsker: There you go. I don’t know. I believe it. Do you?
Gary Lewis: Do I? Yeah, no, I’m. I’m a one on that.
Linsker: You’re a one on that?
Gary Lewis: Yeah, I’m a one on that, but it doesn’t matter.
Linsker: Hey, look, again, I don’t know. This is what I was taught in school. I was raised in raising it. I don’t.
Gary Lewis: That’s what I was taught in school, too, but I found out a lot of other things weren’t real either.
Okay. What I know is real is the Second Amendment’s real and I like guns.
Linsker: Yep. That’s. That’s about it. That’s about it for me as well.
Gary Lewis: What about the Ruger 1022? Let’s. Let’s make that the last one to 10. Ruger 1022, 10 out of 10.
Linsker: I really want to build a custom version of that. I actually have all the parts picked out. It’s just a matter of actually going through and, you know, building it and, you know, purchasing everything.
Yeah. You know, again I, I’ve looked at, you know, the simple ones, you know, that you can buy off the shelf from Ruger. Great. But for, you know, for my purposes and what I build, I’m going to pick, you know, like the facts and aftermarket, you know, action.
And then there’s a few barrel companies that do some pretty crazy looking fluted barrels and then, you know, there’s a bunch of really great chassis companies. So if I’m going to do it, it’s going to be, you know, I’m going to build a Ferrari for a gun out of that thing.
Yeah. You know, I’m not going to buy one off the shelf.
Gary Lewis: Mine right here.
Linsker: Very nice. Awesome.
Gary Lewis: It needs a little bit of, it needs some more thought and I’m going to change some things on it. But I’m with you. I think it’s a really cool platform.
And as I was looking on your site, I was thinking he’s probably going to want to add a section on 1022s at some point. Maybe I get you back on when you do that ruger 1022 build out and then, then we can talk about that.
Linsker: Yeah, absolutely. You know, again, I think that, you know, I still have a lot of AR products to get through but luckily those manufacturers make, you know, 1022 products as well.
So that’s something where, you know, hopefully in a year, maybe two years at the latest, I’ll have, you know, an entire custom 1022 build out. You know, this year is really about getting the FFL and being able to produce full custom guns rather than just offering all the upgrade parts.
I really want to be able to create packages out of everything that’s already on the website.
Gary Lewis: Well, you’re doing a great job. Once again, why don’t you tell people how they can find you?
Linsker: You guys can find me@ skirt tactical.com you can look through all the products. Again, the phone number on the website is straight to me. So if you have any questions about compatibility or you’re trying to build something or if you want it built by me and then, you know, shipped out as a,
you know, semi complete upper. Happy to do that for you as well. We also stock a ton of products that are not on the website. Name brand things, everything from Geisseley Rails to Ballistic Advantage Barrels you know, you name it, we have it in stock as well.
That’s more for the retail side of things. In person.
Again, people stop by, they want something custom built and, you know, we stock those products as well. But the website is solely for the stuff and the products that I’ve worked on developing with, you know, my partner companies.
So, you know, if you see something there, let me know and we’ll get you taken care of.
Gary Lewis: Jordan Linsker Sker Tactical skertactical.com Sker of course, is S K E R thanks for being on the podcast, Jordan.