Randy Charles Brooks

Randy Charles Brooks passed away peacefully in his sleep at his home in Mona, Utah, on August 27, 2026, at the age of 77.

Randy was born February 22, 1949, in American Fork, Utah, to Charles Robert “Bob” Brooks and Beverly Jean Graff. His mother said he walked early, but he really didn’t walk, he ran everywhere. His mind was always in “GO” speed, and that continued throughout his life.

Randy was fun, mischievous, fiercely loyal and in trouble more often than not. Fortunately, with that baby face and cute little smile, he somehow managed his way out of most of it. He and his brother LaMar spent hours working on their go-kart and running it around Harrington Elementary until there wasn’t any gas left. He hung out at the Hi-Spot in American Fork, got in his share of fights, and was so quick he could get in and out before the other guy knew what happened. For their high school graduation, Randy and his buddies built a bonfire so enormous the fire department had to come put it out before they caught the neighborhood on fire.

He was fiercely protective of his sister Ginger. They were great buddies, but her dates didn’t have a chance. Randy watched over who she danced with and once greeted a date at the door wearing boxers, a rifle over his shoulder, a handgun strapped to his leg and holding a bow and arrow. He told the young man to have Ginger home before midnight. She was.

Randy’s relationship with his youngest brother, Les, was especially cherished. On February 24, 2007, Randy, Les and Olympic wrestler Rulon Gardner survived the crash of Randy’s Cirrus SR22 airplane into Lake Powell. The three men swam more than a mile through near-freezing water to reach shore, then spent the night working together to stay alive. Randy always said it took all three of them to survive. The story made national news and was later told in American Hunter magazine. To hear Randy tell it was absolutely gripping. In true Randy fashion, after surviving a plane crash on Saturday, he was back at Barnes first thing Monday morning and told the entire story to his staff at the 9:00 a.m. management meeting.

Randy met Coni at the Hi-Spot while they were attending American Fork High School. Randy graduated in 1967 and Coni in 1968. He always claimed she initially “used” him to get votes when she was running for cheerleader. Coni already had the popular crowd, but Randy had the wild crowd, and she needed both. According to Randy, after she made cheerleader he would call and she would have her mother tell him she was in Salt Lake. “I knew she was lying! Everybody went to Salt Lake like once a year back then!”

In 1968, Randy enlisted in the U.S. Army and successfully completed the rigorous training to become a Green Beret. He later transferred his service to the Colorado Army National Guard, 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Grand Junction, Colorado, where he completed his military obligation and received an honorable discharge in 1972.

Whenever Randy was home, he and Coni dated, and their relationship became serious. He bought her wedding ring with winnings from a poker game with his buddies and proposed at Christmas in 1968 in front of his family. They were engaged for 14 months, with Randy’s family continually asking when he was going to marry that girl. They knew Coni was a great catch and Randy couldn’t afford to lose her. They were married in American Fork on February 21, 1970.

For more than 56 years, Randy and Coni were a team who magnified one another’s strengths. Randy was an innovator, researcher, promoter and wild card. Coni was discerning and organized and, as Randy put it, ran a tight ship. Whenever Randy was complimented on something they had accomplished, personally or professionally, he was quick to give credit to Coni and put her in front of him. “I would’ve given away the farm had it not been for Coni.” In his later years, he often became emotional when he talked about how much he loved and adored his wife.

Randy and Coni began married life in a little 24-by-24-foot home on one-third of an acre in American Fork that they purchased for $3,500. When Jessica was four months old, they moved to Grand Junction, Colorado, in the fall of 1971, where Randy managed the dairy farm owned by his uncle Bill and aunt Barbara Graff. He also did custom handloading and gun trading on the side. During those years, Randy was a factory-sponsored Montesa motocross rider and wore the number-one plate in Colorado for two years.

Chandra was born in the fall of 1972, and the family moved to Ramah, New Mexico, shortly after, where Randy made custom saddles with his uncle, learned to make Zuni Indian jewelry from a Zuni friend, and began team roping.

The family returned to American Fork in 1974, moving back into the little home they had kept and rented while living out of state. That same year, a gunsmith friend in Grand Junction told Randy about a small bullet business for sale. The company had originally been called Barnes Bullets but was then operating as Colorado Custom Bullets. Randy and Coni took a two-week crash course in bullet making, bought the business and its old equipment, and set up shop in the basement of their home. About a year later, Fred Barnes suggested Randy change the name back to Barnes Bullets because of the reputation behind the Barnes name. Fred pulled his little camp trailer from Colorado to Utah, parked it in the Brooks’ driveway and lived there for about a year while teaching Randy everything he could about bullet making, research and development, and gunsmithing.

In those early years, Barnes was truly a family operation. Randy, Coni, his parents and siblings worked long hours in the basement, often after putting in a full day at their regular jobs. Randy’s dad, Bob, and his brother Bobbie would come help after their shifts at Geneva Steel. Jessica and Chandra were put to work too. At just three and four years old, the girls stuffed lead cores into copper jackets by hand, stacking them on baking sheets before they were taken to the presses to be formed. About a year later, Barnes hired its first employee. Looking back on those years, Randy liked to say, “Them were the good ol’ days, thank goodness they’re gone.”

Randy raised his daughters to be capable. Jessica and Chandra learned to rope, shoot, hunt, ride horses, box, drive trucks pulling horse and boat trailers, and handle themselves in situations most little girls were never exposed to. By around four years old, they were driving tractors and trucks through the hay fields while the men loaded hay. Winter driving lessons included doing donuts in snowy parking lots so they could learn what a vehicle felt like when it lost traction. His driving advice was, “Drive like everyone on the road is trying to kill you.”

Randy made sure there was plenty of fun, too. He gave his little girls bucking bull rides on his back, yelling “Ready?!” before they kicked him in the guts and he bucked until they fell off. He would tell his daughters, and later his grandchildren, to run, then throw a rope and catch them by their feet. He taught generations of his family to ride horses, hunt, shoot, water ski, wakeboard and fish. He was an exceptional slalom skier, could barefoot, wakeboard and even do a backflip on an Air Chair. He loved Lake Powell and sharing those adventures with his children and grandchildren.

For all the toughness he taught them, Randy was an incredibly affectionate father and grandfather. He hugged and kissed his girls, told them how beautiful they were and made sure they knew how proud he was of them. He was a gentleman who didn’t believe women should have to open their own doors. His grandson Taylor described him well: “Grandpa loved a lot with a little tough love mixed in.” The last time his daughters saw him, Randy kissed and hugged them tightly and didn’t want to let go.

Randy’s most significant contribution to the shooting industry began with a problem he couldn’t leave alone. While hunting brown bear in Alaska in the fall of 1985, not completely satisfied with lead-core bullet performance, he pondered how he might improve upon what was currently available to hunters. As he and his guide and friend, Bill Stevenson, sat glassing a hillside for bear, Randy asked a simple question: “Why not take the lead out?”

When he returned home, he went to work on the idea. Using a die, a hammer and a specially designed punch, Randy began making prototype all-copper bullets. He created grooves inside the nose cavity that allowed the nose to peel back into four petals on impact, forming the distinctive X that would eventually give the bullet its name. In the spring of 1986, Randy returned to Alaska to hunt brown bear with Bill, where the first animal was taken with the new X Bullet.

The Barnes X Bullet was introduced commercially in 1989 and changed what hunters could expect from a big-game hunting bullet. Randy continued refining the concept for the next two decades, leading to the development of the TSX, Tipped TSX, LRX and other all-copper designs. The technology Randy pioneered became widely imitated, and Barnes bullets earned a reputation among hunters and shooters throughout the world.

As an Army veteran, Randy was especially proud that Barnes bullets were used by American military personnel and security officers around the world. One phone call meant a great deal to him. A retiring Sniper Weapon Systems & Training officer from Fort Bragg, whom Randy knew well, called specifically to thank him for his bullet designs and the impact they had made in saving American lives in the field. The officer told Randy that Barnes bullets were saving the lives of some of the best service members the U.S. military had operating in the field.

Although Barnes became well known for bullets that contained no lead, Randy’s reason for developing the X Bullet had always been better terminal performance, allowing hunters to dispatch animals as quickly and humanely as possible. He never promoted his designs as a reason to restrict ammunition loaded with bullets that contain lead.

Over the years, Randy and Coni received numerous honors for their work and contributions to the shooting and hunting industry. In 2010, Outdoor Life recognized them together as the ammunition industry’s “First Couple.” In 2016, Randy received the NRA Golden Bullseye Pioneer Award for inventing the all-copper Barnes X Bullet and for his lifetime of innovation in hunting ammunition.

In the spring of 2018, Randy and Jessica returned to Alaska to hunt brown bear with Bill Stevenson, the same guide and friend who had been with Randy when the idea for the X Bullet was born in 1985 and when the first animal was taken with it the following spring. The hunt was planned in preparation for the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the X Bullet in 2019 and the story that would be shared in Barnes catalogs, on its website and at industry events. Jessica hunted with a 375 H&H loaded with an original X Bullet, representing where it all began, while Randy carried a 416 Remington Magnum loaded with a prototype LRX, representing how far his original idea had come. Jessica took her bear with the original X Bullet, and Randy took the biggest bear of his life, squaring approximately 11 feet. He told many people it was his favorite trophy of all time. His photo with that bear remained the screensaver on his phone, and the life-size mount stands outside his office at the arena where he could admire it every day.

As successful as Randy became in business, one of his greatest gifts was his ability to build people. He had a great B.S. detector and told things the way he saw them, but he also had a way of making people feel special. When he talked with you, his eyes would light up. He could see the good in people and somehow magnify those things back to them. You often walked away from a conversation with Randy feeling a little better about yourself. His time was valuable, and when he gave it to you, it meant something.

Randy surrounded himself with capable people and trusted them to do their jobs. He mentored people, let them make decisions and mistakes, and made himself available when they needed advice or leadership. He expected loyalty and inspired tremendous loyalty in return.

He believed you should never ask someone else to do something you weren’t willing to do yourself. He had done every job in the place and worked alongside his employees. He woke up by 4:20 nearly every morning for most of his life. At Barnes, production started at 6:00 a.m. and Randy was there by 5:30 or earlier. If somebody started coming in earlier than he did, Randy simply started coming in earlier too. His philosophy was simple: “Early is on time, on time is late, late is no excuse.” He never called in sick for a day of work at Barnes.

When Randy and Coni moved to Mona, Utah, in 2008, Randy returned to his roots with horses and cattle and they built the Flying X Ranch. The Flying X was his Grandpa Graff’s brand dating back over 100 years. The X became a familiar theme throughout Randy’s life, from the X Bullet to houseboats named Xpressions and finally the Flying X Ranch.

Retirement was never going to mean sitting still for Randy. He opened the arena every morning, kept his horses in tip-top shape, hired coaches, sent them videos and worked hard at perfecting his roping. He didn’t care about having the shiniest or most expensive equipment. He understood quality, made sure he had the tools he needed and then did the work.

After hearing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. say that people might someday live to be 140 years old, Randy decided he ought to make it to at least 120. His goal was to still be team roping competitively at 90.

Randy was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and loved God and his Savior, Jesus Christ. He wasn’t much of a reader until later in life, but after discovering books on tape he listened to the scriptures again and again. He gave away hundreds, if not thousands, of copies of a little book called Daily Joy to people he thought might benefit from it.

One of Randy’s most important lessons, and one he especially wanted his children and grandchildren to understand, was about integrity. He often said, “If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you DON’T have integrity, nothing else matters.” To Randy, integrity meant being honest, having strong moral principles and doing what you said you were going to do, even behind closed doors when no one was watching. He credited integrity as one of the reasons he and Coni had built the marriage and life they had.

Randy is survived by his beloved wife of 56 years, Coni; daughters Jessica Brooks and Chandra Patey; grandchildren Taylor Harrison (Tierney), Tanner Harrison (JaBrenna), Alexandra Nelson (Rob), Ashlyn Chandler (Mason), Dillon Patey and Dex Patey; eight great-grandchildren; and siblings LaMar Brooks (Sally), Ginger Pickering (David), Robert “Bobbie” Brooks and Leslie Brooks.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Charles Robert “Bob” Brooks and Beverly Jean Graff.

There really aren’t words big enough to sum up Randy’s life or the hole his absence leaves in his family. He worked hard, played hard, loved his family fiercely and packed more living into 77 years than most people could fit into several lifetimes. He made sure his family knew he loved them, and they loved and admired him beyond measure.

We are enormously proud to call him our husband, dad, grandpa, great-grandpa, brother, uncle, cousin and friend. We will miss his stories, his advice, his teasing, his toughness, his hugs, that mischievous smile and hearing him look at something he admired and say, “Ain’t that a honey?”

Family and friends are invited to a viewing Thursday, September 3, 2026, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. A second viewing will be held Friday, September 4, from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m., followed by funeral services at 11:00 a.m.

Services will be held at the Mona 3rd Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 65 West 800 South, Mona, Utah 84645. Interment will follow the funeral service in the Mona City Cemetery.

The funeral service will be streamed live at:
https://evt.live/randy-brooks