Working with firearms channels on Youtube has constantly been a struggle to us at TFB with our Youtube subsidiary TFB TV, to the point where we have joked about it and been awestruck by such attempts by other channels to put their content on Pornhub. But when I first took a look at Bloke on the Range’s channel and was flabbergasted to see the words “Account Terminated”, I instantly sent the channel owner a private message over WhatsApp. Unfortunately, this was not a joke and it was also his first time seeing the channel down as well. This is perhaps one of the worst moments a Youtube content creator can go through.

This was the initial reactionary video put out on his other channel called Bloke off the Range, essentially a kind of subsidiary and personal channel where content creators can upload material completely separate from their main channel. We have one called TFB-side TV.

BotR sent in an official request for appeal, which was denied in record time (37 minutes) when compared to Youtube’s standard proceedings. He reached out to numerous other folks within the industry and even found a Twitter page in which you can get in touch with Youtube support folks. Numerous other Youtube accounts made appeals to Youtube to reinstate the channel, Milsurp Mike probably being the largest of the several. More folks chimed in on other mediums as well.

However, his channel eventually came back online within 72 hours of being taken down. But the big question is “Why?”. Initially, it appeared that several of his videos were “flagged” as spamming but could also be interpreted as “manufacturing ammunition” because he made a video about reloading Chesspot ammunition. Could it have been a fluke? Or was this an actual coordinated termination of the channel that was made by Youtube? Either way, it is extremely disheartening to hear about this entire gaffe precisely because of BotR’s content which is historical, apolitical, and just plain friendly in so many respects.