Today we’d like to introduce you to Shawn Dixon.
Hi Shawn, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Tactical Penguin began in 2012 when I started Cerakoting firearms in my garage as a personal hobby. I feel pretty lucky as far as the timing goes because Cerakote was just starting to become popular, and it didn’t take long before I began receiving orders from people who had seen my work—even though I hadn’t marketed or attempted to sell my services in any way.
I started with one tiny curing oven, a cheap Harbor Freight sandblaster, and a pancake compressor. It was enough for a hobbyist, but nowhere near enough for a business. When the late-night customer visits and gun parts stacked everywhere became too much for the missus, I found a new space in Riverdale almost overnight, quit my full-time job, and moved the operation into its new home. Shortly afterward, I drove to White City, Oregon—home of Cerakote—to become a certified applicator, making me one of the first in Utah and, of course, still the best.
We stayed in that original Riverdale location for nearly 13 years, building a reputation around custom firearms, light gunsmithing, Cerakote, and taking care of customers long after the sale. From the beginning, we wanted to be more than another gun store selling the same products as everyone else. We wanted to build firearms and create custom work that people were genuinely excited to own—and provide the kind of knowledgeable, personal service that has become increasingly difficult to find.
The business grew exponentially at first and then more gradually after the first few years, primarily through word of mouth and gun shows. Along the way, we expanded our capabilities to include professional gunsmithing, machining, firearm engraving, advanced Cerakote services, titanium nitride coating, custom rifle and pistol builds, and a much broader retail operation. Utah Laser Engraving was also established as a sister company, allowing us to serve both firearm and non-firearm customers with commercial and custom engraving services.
The biggest change came when the opportunity arose to acquire and begin transforming the former Get Some Guns & Ammo locations in Layton, Murray, Orem, and Tooele. To make an expansion of that scale possible, I brought on partners, and together we took on the acquisition and the challenge of building the next version of Tactical Penguin. That expanded the company from its original Riverdale operation into a six-location business (Weber joining in later) with multiple indoor shooting ranges. It was an enormous leap—and, candidly, a much bigger and more complicated undertaking than simply putting our name on several existing stores.
Since then, we have been rebuilding, reorganizing, and rebranding those locations around the Tactical Penguin philosophy. That has meant improving operations, expanding custom services, developing better training opportunities, creating competitive shooting programs, and working to turn underused ranges into places where new shooters, experienced competitors, hunters, and defensive-minded gun owners can all improve their abilities.
Training and shooter development have become an increasingly important part of where we are headed. Our goal is to lower the barrier of entry for people who are new to firearms while raising the ceiling for experienced shooters who want to compete or perform at a much higher level. That includes defensive firearms instruction, long-range and precision rifle training, USPSA and Modern Carry Federation programs, medical training, competitions, and other practical shooting disciplines.
Today, Tactical Penguin is a firearms retailer, custom shop, gunsmithing and manufacturing operation, training organization, and shooting-range company—but we have never wanted it to feel like a generic corporate chain. The brand has always been deliberately irreverent, unapologetic, and a little unconventional. We take the quality of our work and the way we treat our customers very seriously, even if we refuse to take ourselves too seriously.
Getting here has involved an enormous learning curve. We had to learn how to operate shooting ranges, which none of us had done before the acquisition; manage a much larger employee base; implement new systems capable of supporting a substantially larger operation; and establish an entirely new collection of shooting and training programs. There have been plenty of mistakes, unexpected problems, difficult decisions, and lessons learned the hard way over the past year. We are still building, still improving, and still figuring out what the next version of Tactical Penguin looks like.
What started as one guy pursuing a hobby in his garage has grown into something much larger than I originally imagined—and much larger than any one person. Today, it is the product of our partners, employees, instructors, shooters, and customers all helping us build what Tactical Penguin is becoming. Our mission is no longer simply to sell firearms. It is to build better firearms, create better shooters, support the shooting community, and give people a place where they genuinely want to participate—not just shop.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have always seen myself as a kind of hybrid between an artist, a creative, and a businessperson. One of Tactical Penguin’s greatest strengths is our service side—Cerakote, laser engraving, gunsmithing, machining, and custom firearm work—and that is where I get to express much of my creative side. More importantly, I get to help an incredibly creative group of employees develop the skills necessary to turn ideas into physical objects that people are genuinely excited to own. There is something deeply satisfying about taking an idea that exists only in someone’s head and turning it into a finished piece they can hold in their hands.
Then there is the technical business side, which requires an entirely different mindset. Managing a multi-location operation with retail stores, shooting ranges, custom services, manufacturing, training programs, and a growing number of employees demands a high degree of organization and coordination. All of those moving parts have to work together, and learning how to build the systems that make that possible has become a creative challenge in its own right.
The third—and probably most important—part of my work is leadership. I genuinely enjoy helping people become the best versions of themselves and watching them develop high-level, marketable skills that can change the direction of their lives. At the core of Tactical Penguin are its people. My job is to serve them to the best of my ability and provide them with the tools, training, opportunities, and support they need to be successful. That is a responsibility I take very seriously.
What I am most proud of is not any single firearm we have built, design we have created, or location we have opened. It is watching someone come into the company with raw ability or an interest in the work and then develop into a skilled gunsmith, Cerakote applicator, engraver, instructor, manager, or leader. The finished products may be what customers see, but the people who learn to create them are the real accomplishment.
What sets us apart is that we combine creativity, technical capability, and an unapologetically unconventional personality with a serious commitment to craftsmanship and customer service. We do not want to be another generic gun store, and we are not interested in doing things simply because that is how the industry has always done them. We want to create exceptional work, develop exceptional people, and build a company where customers and employees alike genuinely want to be involved.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
My entrepreneurial spirit—and probably my tendency to take the lead—showed up pretty early. I believe my first business venture was in fifth grade, when my parents bought me big boxes of Blow Pops. I took them to school and sold them to the other kids for a quarter apiece. The spark was lit, I discovered the magic of profit margins, and I was hooked.
Throughout my teenage years, most of my attention was focused on sports, girls, and academics—in that order—so there wasn’t much time left for launching business empires. I did, however, work alongside my dad in his window-cleaning business. From him, I learned the craft, but more importantly, I learned the value of hard work, personal responsibility, and doing a job well enough that people would ask you to come back.
During my senior year of high school, I started a window-cleaning company of my own and never looked back. Over the years, I grew it from a kid’s small operation into one of the largest window-cleaning companies in the state. By the time I sold the business around 2007, entrepreneurship was no longer simply something I was interested in—it had become part of who I was.
Looking back, the common thread was always there: I liked building things, leading people, figuring out how systems worked, and turning an idea into something real. The industries and businesses have changed over the years, but that part of my personality never has.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://TacticalPenguin.com
- Instagram: @tacpenguinofficial , @tpcreativeworks , @penguinpres , @engraveutah
- Facebook: tactical penguin sales, TP Creative Works, Shawn Dixon, Utah Laser Engraving
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tacticalpenguinofficial
