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What Happened to the Gould Brothers?

I'm sure a lot of you know this, but for those that don't, for the past 13 years, I have been performing live trick shooting shows with my shotgun as a career. I've done this with my brother, Aaron, and together, we're Gould Brothers Exhibition Shooting or Gould Brothers for short. (Original I know) Whether you've been a Gould Brothers fan for a long time, or just learning this about us, today I'm going to share with you what's next as this huge chapter of my life comes to a close. After 13 years of crazy YouTube video production, and live performances across the country, my brother and I have decided to take a break. So what's the story?

Glad you asked because that's what today's video is all about. But first, a quick backstory. In 2009 Aaron and I attended a Tom Knapp live exhibition at the Reeds gun fair. As soon as we witnessed the showmanship and amazing talent of Tom Knapp, we both left knowing in our hearts that we had been called to perform trick shots for a living. Long story short, we got to it and were determined to make it happen. Just a few years later, I quit my full-time job and began performing shows as a career. None of these efforts would have fallen into place if I had not made one big change in my life. You can watch this video to learn what that one change was.

So fast-forward about 13 years, we've traveled all over the U.S., performed on some big stages, and worked with someone of the biggest names in the industry such as Winchester, Federal, and Bass Pro Shops. One of the coolest experiences was a video that we were featured in produced by the YouTube channel, Dude Perfect. (WATCH HERE)

Regardless of all the accolades, accomplishments, and experiences, we're still forced to look at what matters most in life. This career requires a lot of mental and physical energy, a lot of time, and most of all, a lot of time away from family to travel and perform. We have decided that among these, choosing our families is most important to us. Over these 13 years, my wife and I had two beautiful children. Aaron and his wife have had 3. Throughout the whole duration of this journey, I was optimistic that leaving home to provide for our family would get easier. But as kids get older, mature in their strengths, and become more involved in activities and whatnot, it only got harder to have to leave. Because of this, I knew that the right thing to do was to pump the brakes, and reassess where I want to be as a man. With that said, I will still be performing live shows for 2023 under my new brand, Target Focused Life, but I am also limiting myself to 10 shows for the year instead of the 25 plus that I was doing with Gould Brothers. I will also continue making regular videos for Target Focused Life, and managing the Alexandria Shooting Park that I and a few partners purchased a couple of months ago. To learn more about that, (CLICK HERE)

And for Aaron? It wouldn't be right for me to speak for him, but what I do know is that he will be pursuing what he went to college for, Professional aviation. If you didn't know, Aaron is a pilot! You find me one other individual that can shoot guns, AND fly planes for a living! You may one day bid your pilot goodbye while getting off your flight and see Aaron waving back from the cockpit! Aaron is an amazing pilot and I wish him the best in that new venture. 

So that's what happened to the Gould Brothers. We decided to take a break. My hope is that once we settle into the routine of our new ventures we'll be able to come back and perform some shows together once again. Not because we'd do it to make a living, but because we enjoy performing together, and have a passion to entertain with shotguns.

Whether our targets in the field or our targets in life, we will only hit what we are focused on, so live the #targetfocusedlife 

Stay Target Focused,

Steve