The Winding Path to Firearms Podcasting with Dr. Bill Chachkes – Ep. 35

It’s time for yet another exciting episode of TacticalPay Radio! It’s strange what winding paths people take in the firearms community, and our guest this week has had a particularly fascinating one. Brett was joined by Dr. Bill Chachkes, who is the co-host of the Firearms Chat Podcast and was kind enough to share his journey and thoughts on firearms.

Prior to hosting the Firearms Chat Podcast, Dr. Bill Chachkes has enjoyed several impressive careers. He’s been a newspaper beat writer, American history teacher, football coach, and served in the Army as a special operations pilot. He’s spent his life in public service either in the military or in education, and is now in a leadership position for the Oath Keepers in Arizona. He and Greg Hutton, a retired NYPD officer, joined forces and co-host the Firearms Chat Podcast.

Listen To The Show

Episode Highlights

  • How Bill met Greg Hutton and started the Firearms Chat Podcast.
  • What the Oath Keepers are all about.
  • Bill’s thoughts on American and British progressive rock.
  • What Bill thinks about Hollywood’s portrayal of his former special operations regiment, the famous Nightstalkers.
  • And so much more!

Featured on the Show

Industry Spotlight

Firearms Chat Podcast

Originally started on August 25th, 2016, the Firearms Chat Podcast has been delivering quality entertainment to their listeners for over two years. Co-hosted by Dr. Bill Chachkes and Greg Hutton. Greg is a Gunsmith from Ohio, expert interviewer, former competition pistol shooter, who now shoots NSSF Rimfire. Greg grew up in his Uncles gunshop, and also served for 27 years in the NYPD.

Meanwhile Dr. Bill is a medically retired educator (with over 26 years of teaching), Former Army Aviator… who rose to the rank of Master Chief Warrant Officer ( and spent 12 years there). After many years of living in the not-so-gun-rights-friendly state of New York, Dr. Bill now resides in Northern Arizona.

They strive to get new guests every week, but also have a rotating group that includes: John Stankewitz of Neilsen Training & Consulting, Kate Kruger formerly of Talking Guns With Kate, and Gilbert Brumana of NSR Training. With 96 episodes completed as of this writing, the sky is the limit for this podcast!

TacticalPay Featured Community Organization of The Week

Each week, we select a “TacticalPay Featured Community Organization of the Week” from our listener submissions! Created to showcase a community organization that is doing important on the ground work related to the firearms community, nominees are selected by our listeners from hundreds of local clubs, shooting groups, hunting and wildlife organizations, education and advocacy organizations, and other firearms related community organizations.

We want to hear about organizations that deserve to be recognized, so if you know of a community organization that you believe is doing excellent work on behalf of the broader firearms community that you’d like to see recognized, drop us a line!

We’ve got a great one for you this week!


Black Dagger Military Hunt Club Inc

The Black Dagger Military Hunt Club Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides shooting, hunting, fishing, and other outdoor opportunities for veterans and active duty military (wounded and well).

They’re located in the greater Tampa Bay Florida area but operate around the entire state. A large number of their volunteers are retired or active duty military with a great deal of tactical and hunting experience. They also co-labor with other veteran groups and nonprofits to support those who give their all for our Nation!

Their mission is straight forward and so important, they focus on Enabling the military community (wounded and well) with hunting, shooting sports, fishing, and other outdoor opportunities.

They serve veterans from all eras without limitation to when or where they served. They serve veterans recovering from and learning to adjust to life with spinal cord injuries (SCI), traumatic brain injuries (TBI), loss of sight, and post-traumatic stress (PTS). They even have specialized equipment to accommodate some of the most injured military heroes thus helping our honored veterans find their “new normal”.

When it comes to giving back to the community, we really can’t think of a more noble cause. That’s why they’re our community organization of the week.

If you’d like to learn more about them you can click here to connect with them on Facebook.