GTW
FEATURE
B a r r e t t
s u c c e s s o f t h e h i g h e s t o r d e r
What would constitute success for your company? Yearly growth? Earning
enough to provide for your family? Well, Ronnie Barrett and his Barrett Firearms
empire has taken success to a whole new level, providing to 73 state departmentapproved
countries across the world. This is a true success story.
The second of four sons, Ronnie Barrett
was born in Tennessee, 1954. From
a young age it was easy to see that
Ronnie had a creative side, taking influence
from his father – an artisan in furniture
and cabinet making – and his mother who
had quite a talent for art and painting. This
creativity, combined with growing up in
a home where guns were a way of life for
protection and recreation, meant that Ronnie
had the perfect platform to develop and grow
his eventual Barrett empire.
Ronnie began his business career as a senior
at high school and within a year opened
Barrett Photography Studio in 1973. He
became an award-winning photographer,
earning multiple recognitions from the
Tennessee Professional Photographers
Association.
In 1982, during a photo shoot of a riverine
patrol boat ,his entrepreneurial career took on
a whole new dimension and into a journey
of unrivalled success in the shooting industry.
Ronnie had an idea for a shoulder-fired
.50-calibre rifle. He hand-drew his ideas for
the rifle while working from his dining room
table. “I didn’t have any drafting or engineering
qualifications,” said Ronnie. “I showed my
sketches to machine shops and they laughed
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at me. So, I searched around and my fatherin
law had a friend who had a garage that I
used. Bob Richards and his son Rich would
work hours and hours on my designs and, after
a while, we started carving out a monster of a
50-calibre rifle. It was huge! It weighed 55lb,
very crude but I was so proud of it.”
Ronnie didn’t know it at the time but he had
just built the first prototype for what would
become the world-famous Barrett M82A1 –
M107 rifle, which was adopted in 2002 by the
United States military.
Ronnie began to grow his company. “We
started off making 30 guns, I hired my first
employee. All of these guns were made at my
house but, after a while, the machine shop in
my town that was making boat carriers said
ithad a little spot for me. We got these guns
out then started making the next batch. I went
back to the bank, borrowed a little bit more
money and raised the price to $37,000 built
another 30 and these guns cost me $6,000
apiece.
“I was not only showing off these rifles at
trade shows but also at military bases.” It was
with the military that Ronnie got his big break.
At the time the military needed a rifle that
would, as Ronnie described it, “reach out there”
Ronnie’s gun was tested at 3,000m and the
military loved it.
“Just after the 9/11 attacks when the army
was going to invade Iraq, we were there with
the right gun and the right time,” said Ronnie.
“The marine core ordered 100 rifles, the
army wanted 125 and so did SOCOM and the
Air Force. We were in and we were heading to
the front line.
“Our rifle went to the desert and proved
itself in the harshest possible conditions so,
when it comes to our civilian business, our
customers know they’re in safe hands.”
Ronnie’s children inherited their father’s
talent and entered into the business. Ronnie’s
son Chris Barrett holds multiple patents on
new innovative firearms that the company
produces, while daughter Angela directs
the many aspects of the creative marketing
department.
Murfreesboro, Tennessee is still the home
and world headquarters for Barrett Firearms
Manufacturing, with approximately 80,000 sq
ft for administration, manufacturing, research
and development, engineering, training, sales
and marketing. Averaging 130 direct jobs with
another 230 ancillary Tennessee jobs. Barrett
Firearms is the official United States Depot for
the M107 rifle, handling all of the major repair
and overhaul of the weapon system.
/www.guntradeworld.com