The Crushable Vault®

Origin of The Crushable Vault®

We are hunters & target shooters – sporting men and women who live for the outdoors. We work hard and play hard. We believe in the laws of the land, our heritage as well as our legacy. We also know that not everyone plays by the same rules – so we take firearms security seriously.   We were especially concerned about leaving our shotguns unsecured in the back of our SUV’s or trucks while we traveled to an event.   After a round of clays or a bird hunt upstate, we would often grab a nice meal or a beverage afterward – but each of us would try to keep one eye on our vehicles. If they were broken into, the day would be ruined. And these days are tough to come by…

When you think about it, there are few things that we put in the back of our vehicles of similar value – and we are not just talking about the money. These guns are part of our collection, and we want to see them in our children’s hands someday, not stolen out of the back of our vehicle.  

It really struck me while on a duck-hunting trip on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. We were staying at a nice hotel in Easton before heading out early the next morning … you know the drill. The question was whether we should bring our guns inside and stow them in my hotel room or leave them in the back of our vehicles and hope the blanket would keep them safe. Looking back, we must have been quite a sight carrying all of our guns and gear through the lobby! There had to be a better way, so we set out to find a way to secure our shotguns.

We were really surprised when we could not find a viable option on the market. Some solutions required two people to install a permanent unit in the back of the SUV. In my case, I would lose access to my third-row seat and my dog’s kennel would no longer fit. As we started asking around, it was apparent that nobody had a good answer. I even chaired the Fine Arms Invitational for three years and witnessed firsthand how other shotgun enthusiasts/sportsmen were solving this problem, and two things became clear:

1) Most of the sportsmen drive SUVs or pickup trucks – vehicles without a locking trunk; and

2) Nobody had a good solution for securing their shotguns in the back of these vehicles. In fact, we saw about every model vehicle and every fine shotgun over the years, whether it was a vintage Purdey, a brand-new Krieghoff or your father’s Ithaca, and these guns were floating in their cases in the back of the vehicle.

Now we began to see a real need in the industry. Over the years, we conducted more than 100 personal interviews with people, ranging from industry experts and security professionals (military, law enforcement, Special Forces) to sporting enthusiasts, including hunters and the Trap, Skeet & Sporting Clays crowd. And it was from these observations and countless discussions that it became clear that we were on to something. In the fall of 2013 (at the National Disability Awareness Shoot), Dr. Mark Lund & I were engaged in a “save the world” conversation with several friends after dinner. We shared our observations and decided that night that we would form a company to look at the feasibility of what would become the Crushable Vault.

We had a very solid vision of what we needed and worked to assemble a team to move this project forward. We reached out to our friend Christopher Merritt for some guidance. Chris has extensive industry experience in the Outdoor & Sporting Arms industry, including over 7.5 years at Beretta USA as chief operating officer and general manager and 5.5 years at Orvis as general manager. He also has significant experience as a marketing consultant focusing on the Consumer, Manufacturing, and Social sectors. Chris was intrigued by the idea and soon became part of the Stack Arms Team.

Chris helped us assemble one of the finest design teams in the industry, headed up by Mike Quartararo. Mike headed new product development at Orvis for Hunting, Fishing & Pet supplies and took to this project with such a passion and enthusiasm that we were soon heading in the right direction.

A few things guided us as we were developing the Vault. It had to be of the highest quality to instill confidence. That meant using superior quality materials and finishing. It had to be easy to use, but secure. Lightweight for travel, but robust enough that you would entrust your finest guns to its safekeeping. After a lot of work, it is now our pleasure to introduce the Crushable Vault®.

We would like to thank all our friends who attended the Fine Arms Invitational and the National Disability Awareness shoots. We raised a lot of money for some terrific charities and learned a lot from each other along the way! Hope to see everyone at this year’s event (http://ndas.nra.org/).

Thank You,

Brian D. Booth
Founder