Becoming a Gunsmith

[USAF Marksman]

Hey Everyone,

I'll give you a small background on myself to start out. I'm 25 years old this year, married to a very supportive woman, and have the two best children anyone could ask for. My daughter is 2.5 years old and my son is about 7 months old. I'm active duty Air Force and I'm doing very well so far during my time in e service. I love wearing the uniform, it makes me very proud. I've got a couple years left on my first contract until I decide to re enlist or do something else. I can honestly say that shooting/hunting or anything even remotely related to firearms is one of my biggest hobbies. I also really enjoy carpentry/woodworking and tinkering with mechanics and electronics. Alright now that we have that out of the way I'll get to the real topic of he post.

Gunsmithing has always peaked my interest since it would allow me to combine a lot of the things I like to do. I've only dabbled a small amount by "building" on a Stevens action that I have. Even then, putting the new barrel on was probably the only real skilled thing I did. I intend to bed the new stock on the Stevens when I get home, and tune the trigger. Now, while I know that none of these things really quantify to much, I have enjoyed what I've done immensely and want to keep going.

A few days ago I was cruising the web and came across the American Gunsmithing Institute website. Something that I had not heard of or come across before. Naturally, their website has a lot of positive testimonials to support their "product", which is essentially self paced learning of the Gunsmithing trade through videos and written tests. It does not seem like a system that you can just breeze through as their "course list" has a lot of material. It certainly caught my attention because of the opportunity to do it on my own time while still earning my regular income. As I'm sure a lot of you know, working full time, kids, school and life are all difficult to balance. The whole idea got me thinking that a Gunsmithing career would be a possibility for me at some point in my life if I could manage to learn the art, was good at it, and could manage to earn people's business.

What I would really like to know is how those of you that are gunsmiths started out. What do you think of AGI or other similar learning programs? What is a good way to start a small business to build clientele, reputation, and more skill? I could only assume that offering basic Gunsmithing services to start out would be a good place to start. Stock work, trigger work, scope mounting, blueing, and a plethora of other things I am probably ignorant to. I think the ultimate goal would be earning an income off of the services provided. Small scale earning, and large scale learning though would be fine as well.

As always, any kind of input is always appreciated.

Tucker

 

[Dosh]

Check out Trinidad State Community College Gunsmithing degrees.

 

[USAF Marksman]

Thanks Dosh, I'll check it out.

 

[shortgrass]

There are at least 5-7 other full time gunsmithing schools besides the one in Trinadad, CO. Any one of them would be far better than any correspondence course. TSJC just seems to be the most well known. A very, very small percentage of gunsmiths make a decent living you can raise a family on, plying the trade. Only the guys at the very top, the stock makers, the top metal 'smiths and metal finishers, the checkering specialists, the 'double gun' specialist and the engravers seem to do well. And there are probably dosens and dozens of men who do that top quality work who never receive any notoriety. Repair 'smiths and barrel installers are a "dime a dozen", anymore. Mostly self trained, hobbyists or have a machining backround. Takes no 'skill' to install a pre-threaded & chanbered barrel on a Savage/Stevens, just tools. Kinda' like changing the spark plugs on the pick-up or changing out a U-joint. There's a 'ton' of overhead involved, insurance and tools topping the list. Some who are successful today, with todays type of common work, supplement their gunsmithing by becoming suppliers of the current synthetic stocks that are in demand, or they stock barrels blanks for sale, or they make accessories to up-grade the current factory actions, like firing pin assemblies, or they make and sell tools used in gunsmithing. Takes CNC equipment to 'make' most anything in production quantities. I understand that all the gunsmiting schools have 'waiting lists' a year or two long.

 

[USAF Marksman]

Shortgrass, thanks for the detailed response. I certainly did not mean to say that I was skilled at anything by putting that barrel on. I suppose it would be better left as a hobby for myself rather than trying to make anything out of it. While I do put forth my best effort when I try things, nobody ever said MY best effort was good enough to be better than anyone else. I can see where there would be a lot of overhead in the trade without even starting to list many tools. Thanks again for the response.

 

[shortgrass]

I did not post trying to discourage you. Many want to "be their own boss". Investigate that thoroughly, before diving in head first. MUCH is REQUIRED of every business owner today, and not in just a firearms related business. Bigger business seem to able to cope with the requirements easier than a small business can.

 

[rpierce]

What part of the business do you intend to specialize in? If custom rifles heres my advice. After being in business now for a few years I can offer some insight. Skip the online courses. Go to a school. If your not able to relocate to an actual school I would take as many machining classes as possible. Once you graduate the best thing would be to apprentice under a well known high quality smith for a while. When I graduated, 50 grand in tuition and board, I went to work for Jim See and I learned more in the months I worked with him then my entire 14 months at school. After I apprenticed under him I worked at Brux barrels for a while. Norm Brux is a wealth of knowledge as well. I had a full time job that supported me while I was building my business for the first couple years. After the first year of going full time in the custom rifle business I realized that making custom rifles I would have to build 40 a year to break even and keep the bills paid. Between insurance, ITAR, SOT, and all the other government charges its 35-40 grand a year, 150 bucks a day, to keep the lights on. That's before theres a dime in profit to put toward actually building your inventory/capital. There is also the large amount of money in machines, tooling etc that is required to build rifles. Also the large amount of paperwork takes away the time from building rifles. Now throw in the fact that theres a family to support. I'm not trying to turn you away from it. I'm just letting you know up front all the stuff that goes into it. The best way I got my name out there was going to fclass matches and winning the majority of them and setting records in the process. That in turn got some big name shooters to let me do there stuff. They in turn broke records and brought me even more business. Ive been very lucky in that respect. If you do decide to dive into this business I wish you the best of luck. Don't hesitate to get a hold of me if you have any questions.


Ryan Pierce
Piercision Rifles
563-6586-2000

 

[J E Custom]

One other option would be to find a job working for a GOOD gunsmith and starting as an apprentice.

This way you can learn from a master and at the same time decide if this is what you want to do for a living or as a hobby (Part time). There are also some good books that will help while you are deciding what you want to do.

Formal schooling is great, But you may find you don't have a knack for it or the temperament to be
very fussy about your work. (The best Gunsmiths are Anal about everything). you must have the desire to excel also. as Shortgrass said; there are lots of wannabe's that think Gun smithing is easy and anyone can do it.

Working as an apprentice you can take courses while you are working and at some point you may/can decide to go to a school full time if you are ready. you will also learn the business aspects
(Also very important if you want to succeed as a gunsmith)

There are quite a few good gunsmiths that are lousy businessmen and poor at customer relations and it hurts them.

Just My approach and opinion

J E CUSTOM

 

[.30US]

I agree with the other voices of experience; take classes in residence. I wouldn't bother counting on the AGI videos alone or a correspondence course. Look into the NRA's Short Term Gunsmithing Courses (https://gunsmithing.nra.org/find-a-school/). They are usually one to two week long courses (a one week course is the same number of class hours as a 3-hour college credit course over a semester), and they are great to learn very specific parts of gunsmithing. If you have a specific area of gunsmithing you're interested in learning, it's a great way to do it. I took classes through Montgomery Community College in Troy, NC a couple of years ago and will go back when the opportunity arises. Also, if you plan to do a full time, in-residence gunsmithing program, you better get on the waiting list two years before you ETS from the Air Force.

 

[Bravo 4]

Have you checked on becoming one for the military? At our MTU we have Army and Airforce guys building match rifles. I use one to do my personal rifles, he is very good!

 

[lynxpilot]

My opinion only, but I think one of the most fundamental aspects of being a good gunsmith is first being a good machinist. Things like trued threading on barrel ends, chambering, shouldering, and so many other things about gunsmithing are first related to skills as a machinist. I worked as a machinist for a year and learned a lot, but I wouldn't trust myself to this day gunsmithing my own barrels (chambering and such).

Just sayin'

 

[shortgrass]

Machining is important, but too many put too much emphasis there. Re-read post #4. Stock making and metal finishing (the ACGG doesn't recognize CeraCoat as a gunmetal 'finish'), double gun mechanics that can disassemble a $15,ooo double rifle, shape & forge, then heat treat a new leaf spring for the top lever and reassemble it with NO evidence left behind that they were there other than the fact that it works like it should, again. Even the guy that can 'tear-drop' the knob on a Mauser bolt handle and then forge the handle over over, doing so without having it look and function like a gorilla did it. Even finding someone who install and time your prized Model 29, without having to send it back to S&W is getting rare. These skills demand top dollar. Why? There are many out there willing to pay for these services and fewer and fewer are willing to apply themselves to such tasks. Just look around (at the gun boards) and see how many have bought a lathe or want to buy a lathe to "do their own barrel work". Just being able to chamber a barrel, install it on an action and then glass bed it into a stock someone else made won't make you a "gunsmith".

 

[J E Custom]

machining is important, but too many put too much emphasis there. Re-read post #4. Stock making and metal finishing (the acgg doesn't recognize ceracoat as a gunmetal 'finish'), double gun mechanics that can disassemble a $15,ooo double rifle, shape & forge, then heat treat a new leaf spring for the top lever and reassemble it with no evidence left behind that they were there other than the fact that it works like it should, again. Even the guy that can 'tear-drop' the knob on a mauser bolt handle and then forge the handle over over, doing so without having it look and function like a gorilla did it. Even finding someone who install and time your prized model 29, without having to send it back to s&w is getting rare. These skills demand top dollar. Why? There are many out there willing to pay for these services and fewer and fewer are willing to apply themselves to such tasks. Just look around (at the gun boards) and see how many have bought a lathe or want to buy a lathe to "do their own barrel work". Just being able to chamber a barrel, install it on an action and then glass bed it into a stock someone else made won't make you a "gunsmith".

amen !!!!!

J e custom