RECOILSYSTEMS

ABOUT THE PEOPLE:

Justin Manes || Founder:

Summary: Cal Berkeley grad "Go Bears" - Navy Enlisted - SunGard - Informix/IBM - Several tech startups - Current; Founder HIVEBOARD, RALLYSITE.ai and RECOILSYSTEMS.

Lex Turner || Co-Founder:

Summary: Alabama grad "Roll Tide" - Navy F14 Pilot, Top Gun Grad, Squadron Commander - Airforce Reaper Piloted Drone Program Commander, retired Colonel - Several GOV related businesses and consulting engagements - Current; Captain United Airlines. Constellis Consultant.

ABOUT THE BUSINESS:

Why it Started: IAugust 2025. I (Justin) tried my first performance shooting match in Aug 2025. It went as you might expect, not well. Followed by copious dry-fire practice my second match also was underwhelming. The problem as I saw and see it is that training without recoil reinforces habits that need to be undone in live fire. My intent was not to start a business, or even build a recoil simulator. I was on the hunt for an existing product to solve my problem. What I found at best were various pneumatic systems, that really did not solve the issue. Being a guy who solves issues by making things I decided to build a better recoil system, or at least give it a go.

The First Prototype: I Octorber 2025. After an obsessive amount of thought and conversations with my AI DeepMaker (DEE) an idea emerged to move the body instead of the gun, and to use electrical muscular stimulation (EMS) to do it. I bought an EMS device, a TENS 7000 to be exact, and ran some experiments. It worked well enough that I knew it was going to be at minimum a decent solution, and possibly more. I still was not thinking of this as a business, but was now committed to building a full function prototype. From early testing to a functional prototype was was an endlessly satisfying few months of building electronics, software, and wearable devices that would eventually become the business RECOILSYSTEMS and product IMPULSE. In that period my shooting and even shooting practice fell off the cliff, giving way to the obsessive building and testing of IMPULSE.

The Ben Stoeger Validation Test:I December 2025. In those few months I integrated IMPULSE to Ace VR, DryFire Smart Mag, and the MantisX TitanX. I also watched a lot of videos, especially dry-fire, and especially Ben Stoeger. By Mid Dec. I knew I had something. I was starting to think this might be a business or at least a product. But I knew it needed to be validated. I reached out to Ben Stoeger and asked him if he'd like to give it a try. He agreed and on Dec. 22 in a hotel room in Wisconsin I watched the master running my recoil sim rig, for a pretty long time. It was surreal. His response was, "it's interesting." He went on to indicate that it made AceVR now move into being interesting too. He also had some complaints; the backpack rig was not janky, the guns looked un-finished, and the recoil was not snappy enough him. But his most important sentiment was that although this does not feel like a real gun's recoil it gets you to do the same things. He was also interested in continuing involvement, indicating he would do a review video when I had pre-production models / something to sell. If you're familiar with Ben then you know that equals good stuff.

Shot Show: IJanuary 2026. My second round of validation testing was Shot Show. I did not have a booth. I had the opportunity to ride Ben's coattails and a hotel room full of demo gear. Quite a few people tried the system. Most of them using the MantisX TitanX, in the Mantis booth. The results held to essentially what Ben's initial reactions, (it feels different than real gun recoil, but makes you do the same things). Thank you to Ben, Austin, Mantis, and all who gave it a try.

Lex Turner: IFebruary 2026. Until February it was just me and DEE doing it all. I knew I needed some human compadres if I was going to get anywhere. A friend Ben B. introduced me to Lex Turner. Lex has become a super helpful guy and has an open offer to this day to become a full partner in this. Beyond bringing lot's of connections in GOV and related spaces we are having a blast together and he is a friend.

Constellis / SOF / SWAT Validation: IMarch 2026. On a call with Lex in early March he asked what I'd most wish for. Being a product guy who lives in fantasy set in the future I told him that I would like to fly in his small plane to the Constellis Training Center North Carolina, land on the long rifle range while GBRS Group is there, show them IMULSE, and end the meeting with them asking how they can get some rigs. Lex laughed and said, "That IS some fantasy." A week later he came through! We did not meet with GBRS Group, but we did meet with several active Constellis operators all of whom had SOF and SWAT backgrounds as well. Greatest single meeting of my life! These guys spent several hours digging in. They convinced me that SOF and SWAT were the best starting markets and that CQB, Force-on-Force, and Gear Change Checks were the best use cases. Basically all SOF and most SWAT have unlimited range and ammo, so IMPULSE is not needed to augment live fire limitations. Since that meeting we have further solidified this starting point approach with other SOF/SWAT operators.

The Go Forward: IMay 2026 / Current.

The Product is now for sale in a pre-production form, and is being processed for more scalable manufacturing. We are integrating to a variety of rifle platforms. Our lineup of 'gun' integrations is now; DryFire Smart Mag, AR FLASH Bolt, Ace VR, MantisX Titan X & Blackbeard, GAIM / DryFireMag & FCU, CoolFire, Airsoft., Simunition, and whatever else we can think of. You should see my shoot room, it's exciting.
The Market starting point is primarily LEO/MIL and more specifically SWAT and SOF, for reasons explained above. From there we expect to move into broader troops and officers.
The Message strategy is primarily centered on YouTube and Instagram. I will personally be making videos of the dry but informative type. Going forward I will also be seeking others with real and related experience to do reviews.

Thank you for taking some time to understand what RECOILSYSTEMS is about. As a parting thought I can firmly say that this venture is more than some lucrative business idea to Lex and I. We are excited at the prospect of helping those who take important risks to be more proficient, it's our mission!