This new business features a gun-show spark and a founder who insists on doing difficult things the right way.
MARK KESZLER
Nspire Today! Feature Writer
MITCHELL — The story starts with a casual moment at the Mitchell gun show in late 2023, when a local fabricator noticed steel targets on display, heard they were often out of stock, and thought, we can build those — and build them here.
Back at the shop, the ingredients were already in place: a 12,000-watt fiber sheet laser, a high-tonnage press brake, tube-bending capability, and a water jet. In other words, the kind of equipment you rarely find outside a major industrial park. “Give me the specs and material, and we’ll have targets cut in days,” Roger McKiney told his team. A few quick prototypes later, the idea felt less like a side project and more like a business with a name — Angry Hornet.
Early on, the team pursued a shortcut. A shuttered outfit in Michigan was willing to sell its brand name, social accounts, and CAD files — the promise of a “turn-key” jump start. The Mitchell crew made an offer, negotiated, and bought the package.
Then reality set in.
“The concept was right — design for the recreational shooter who wants affordable, easy-to-set-up steel,” Roger said. “But once we opened the files, we had to redraw and, in a lot of cases, redesign to meet our tolerances.”
You can read the entire story in the October 2025 issue of Nspire Today! magazine. A one-year subscription (12 issues) is only $20. You may sign up for a subscription by sending $20 to Nspire Today!, P.O. Box 454, Scottsbluff, NE 69363, or you may pay with a credit card by calling 308-220-8907.
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