In 2017, in Cash, Arkansas. On the heels of a dry-ground, snow goose crush fest, Michigan basement-ballistics prodigy Brandon Cerecke leaves a grip of 2 ¾" #5 hand loads with the guides of Mat Schauer's Northern Skies Outfitters. Born out of necessity, he wanted a lethal shell for his young son that wouldn't knock him into next week with the recoil but couldn't find one on the market. So, as a third-generation metal finisher, he turned to his dad's old press and built some. Turns out they served their purpose. Birds on the end of their line were dropping like flies, and the guides were noticing. But unknown hand loads in clear hulls take some convincing to try, even when you see the results with your own eyes. 

 

As the story goes, the shells were tossed into a blind bag and largely forgotten until weeks later when Schauer's guys eventually chamber a few of these bismuth loads. The performance they saw blew their minds. This stuff ain't steel – it's way better. Like the bygone days of lead, they're stoning birds at 50 and 60 yards. No cripples – and eventually, no more shells left. 

 

When Brandon returned the following year, the boys at Northern Skies were salivating in the hopes he'd brought more with him — it was all anyone talked about during the off-season. Soon after, on tailgates, blinds, and barstools, the hushed word spread like a brushfire among the nation's notoriously secretive waterfowlers. Rumor had it, there was a devastating new non-toxic load, and it was actually affordable — and yeah, you could get some…but you had to know somebody who knew somebody who knew Brandon. To say that the legend of the 2 ¾" Shorty #5's copper-plated destruction happened organically would be a massive understatement. 

 

By spring 2018, with a surge of demand building, Brandon knew he was on to something. After a flurry of calls to Schauer and other industry legends to figure out a game plan for how to bring his shells to the mass market, BOSS was officially born. But building a business isn’t something you do on your own, and from the beginning, a cast of characters was assembled to get it off the ground. Insert Meg as recruit #1 in Michigan, the first of the extended “family” to join the arsenal of misfits that found their way to the shop to bring this idea to life. Load shells, answer phones, fulfill orders…she did it all. Next came Dirk, Brandon’s longtime friend and partner-in-crime, working side-by-side to stretch a thin budget on a small-town dream. With boots on the ground (made of gold if you ask the rest of the team), he quickly became an industry favorite, friend to all, and a sure shot in the blind. Lisa, the local waitress, picked up the phones, and Scott, the avid hunter and corner-office banker down the street, climbed on board to crunch the numbers. Working together, the team grew BOSS Shotshells into Michigan’s very own David in a Goliath-sized industry, adding more misfits to their rag-tag crew along the way. 

 

The phenomenon that became copper-plated BOSS can be traced back to a problem many waterfowlers feel in their bones - a nostalgia for lead's performance mixed with disgust over what it does to the environment. In search of an answer, BOSS found a third way in copper-plated bismuth. With the non-toxic properties of steel and the deadly impact of lead, BOSS shells increased accuracy, decreased crippling rates, and respected the environment. A win-win-win.

 

Above all, the BOSS brand lives old-school values: Conservation. Real woodsmanship. Patterning shotguns. American manufacturing. Customer service. In this, the #unmuzzled brand and our direct-to-consumer business model was born. We fully credit the stoke coming from the #BOSSmen community for the continued groundswell. Your support, comments, and suggestions helped build this movement as much as anyone — and the rest of the BOSS story is a narrative we're writing together.