The Ballad of Kevin Brittingham

I know what you’re thinking, and rightfully so.  “Who is this Kevin guy, and why do I care?”  Hang tight, and let me learn you.  This started before I really got into guns, so some of this info is from what I’ve scavenged and remember hearing here & there.

Kevin Brittingham started a little company called Advanced Armament Corp a while back.  They got popular back in the late 2000’s, back when it was basically them, Thunderbeast Arms, Liberty, and a few other small shops making cans for the civilian market.  From what I can gather, the main competition was between Thunderbeast Arms (aka TBAC) and AAC.  AAC had an advantage over the rest in the form of their founder Kevin.  Kevin is a little like John Moses Browning, he’s always thinking up new stuff to try out and isn’t afraid of a totally new concept.  TBAC made good, high quality cans, but AAC was superior in terms of innovation and helped pave the way for SilencerCo and the current market leaders we know today.  In fact, they actually developed the original Honey Badger for the US military during this time.  AAC is credited by many for helping to get the silencer market to it’s current size.

Anyone who is familiar with the silencer market of 2018/2019 will know that AAC does not enjoy a position anything like I’ve described thus far.  What happened to them is truly a tragedy.  They were bought by Cerberus Investments and bundled into the Freedom Group (now Remington Outdoors) of companies they owned, and Mr. Brittingham was retained to run the company as General Manager.  That’s not so bad though, right?  Besides the former owner (Kevin) getting a huge payday, what really changed?  Well, everything.  AAC went from being a creative outlet for Kevin that happened to be profitable, to another entry on Cerberus’ ledger, and the only thing that matters in the ledger book is the $$$ next to it.  Needless to say, things like innovation, quality control, and market response went right out the window.  It wasn’t long before Mr. Brittingham left.  Some say he was fired, some say he quit.  There was a lot of drama, and maybe a lawsuit or two, before the dust settled.

Soon after his departure from the 3-headed, company destroying harbinger of doom, he got hired by Sig Sauer USA.  2012-era Sig USA is a maker of decent pistols and importer of bad semiauto rifles.  At this time Sig was transitioning into the single-source, one-stop-shop solutions provider they are today, and silencers were part of that vision.  So,  what’s a company like that going to do with an out-of-work silencer designer?  Create an entire line of silencers from the ground up, of course! 

So that’s what they did.  Kevin was the head of an entire class of products from a company that had never offered them before.  He had a huge budget, no ‘legacy’ product lines he had to deal with, and basically given the freedom to go for it.  The current lineup of Sig cans shows that he did his job well.  His influence can even be seen in the Sig MCX rifle.  But, Kevin gonna Kevin, and after a few years he was once again on his own.  He’s what some people call ‘chronically unemployable’.

Having learned his lesson, Brittingham created his own company, again.  This 2nd company of his is called “Q”, and makes… wait for it… silencers.  Oh, and rifles.  They make those too.  Actually, the rifle side of Q is what currently is getting them the most recognition.  Between their introduction of a truly new bolt action rifle and the formerly-vaporware Honey Badger SHOT 2017, Q’s rifles are probably more widely known than their cans.

-and that’s weird.  He started a Silencer company (…a “silencer co”, if you will…), got hired on to create silencers for another company, and now opened up another silencer company!  Here’s the list of their current silencer offerings (Dec 2018): El Camino, Erector, Full Nelson, Half Nelson Trash Panda, Jumbo Shrimp, and lastly, the Thunder Chicken. 

Q’s silencers are well designed, packed with features, very lightweight, and aren’t terribly expensive.  Shoot, the names alone should make them Instagram famous.  But, for some reason the rifles continue to be the big draws.  At least Q seems to be rolling with it.  In the last 12 months they’ve released a pistol version of the Honey Badger and a .224-Valkyrie/.300BLK convertible Mini Fix.

So, why am I doing this short biography on the guy?  Because next week I’ll be discussing how his singular influence has personally affected you and the market you purchase from today.  Plus, a little backstory never hurt anyone.

See you next Friday, -S_S