Trigger Mike Posted October 6, 2011 Share Posted October 6, 2011 a friend's son just got out of high school and he loves guns and I told them maybe he should become a gun smith since he takes all his apart any way. Are there schools in GA near Athens that teach it? How do we find one that does? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Dave Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 My best recombination is to contact working gunsmiths in your area and ask them. I tried google, but with all the advertising and leanr at home crap that came up I didn't really see anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hacker, SASS #55963 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 In the Brownells catalog there is a list gunsmith schools. The only ones on the east coast are Montgomery Community College, Troy NC Piedmont community college, Roxboro NC Pennsylvania Gunsmith School, Pittsburgh PA The there is one in IL, Mn, 2 * CO, OK, CA, AZ Not very helpful. But those are the ones that Brownells recognizes. There are 2 correspondence schools but I would not recommend that path. I went to Trinidad State Junior College in Trinidad, CO. I have worked with several from Colorado School of Trades. Big saving grace for trinidad is that it is a town that is in decline. But it is about a half hour drive or less from the NRA range Whittington Center NM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-BAR #18287 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 "Big saving grace for trinidad is that it is a town that is in decline. But it is about a half hour drive or less from the NRA range Whittington Center NM" ...and the Mexican restaurants in Trinidad and Raton are to die for!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okie Sawbones, SASS #77381 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 a friend's son just got out of high school and he loves guns and I told them maybe he should become a gun smith since he takes all his apart any way. Are there schools in GA near Athens that teach it? How do we find one that does? None, as already stated. He'll have to leave the state if he is serious about gunsmithing. Lassen in CA is a very good one according to gunsmiths I have talked to -- no personal experience, but they have an online catalog with an extensive curriculum to peruse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deja Vous Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 That has to be a fun trade! But I bet taking the class you would still need to do a bit of work with a local gunsmithy??? Not sure.. That would be a fun job for sure... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfgang, SASS #53480 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 That has to be a fun trade! But I bet taking the class you would still need to do a bit of work with a local gunsmithy??? Not sure.. That would be a fun job for sure... I don't know about it being a "fun trade". In the early '70s I used to "hang out" at a gun shop near Cincinnati and knew the gunsmith / owner pretty well. It had taken him many years to get good enough at it and well enough established to have a succesful business and even then he said there really wasn't much money in it. Anything you do as a "hobby" is fun. Make the same stuff you do as a "hobby" into a "business" and it becomes "work". This isn't a warning to the youngster in question not to proceed. Anyone can do well at anything that they crave to do if it is the "right thing for them". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 It can be rewarding , BUT it is hard to make it full time , from the info I have from full time smiths . Much of your time will be used to track down or making parts that are not avalable . Then there is the stuff that comes in , taken apart , in a Baggie , threads stripped , screw heads messed up , parts missing , and all of the rest of the things that happen . Of corse through all of this you must deal with PEOPLE (most good , some NOT so ) , try to make a living , pay the bills , and do a good job , while attempting to keep cost down for the coustmer . Forgot to mention purchase of machanery , up keep on it , supplys , paperwork , and all that FUN ? stuff . The BEST smiths , tell me , to make it look like no one has ever been into the gun . BTW , I am NOT a full time Professional smith , just a student of the gun . CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seldom Seen #16162 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Is he going to be a "parts changer" or a "true gunsmith"? A "parts charger" would be someone who is skilled at repairing actions on guns mainly by replacing parts, tuning the action, light file and machine work such as cutting dovetails for sight replacement and refinishing services such as beadblasting and bluing. This would be relatively low-cost career that could be started part-time in the garage with most of the tools available from Brownells. A "true gunsmith" would have all the above skills plus machining and welding skills. A even more experienced gunsmith would have the ability to make no longer available parts, rechamber guns to different calibers and create guns for customers with deep pockets. I am thinking about Bowen Custom Guns and Reeders. This type of work would require mill machine and advanced welding training. I think a two year program in a Community College would be a affordable way to get this training. A mill machine is a hefty investment along with welding equipment and better shop tools. Please don't take this as a insult but how well does a 18 year old kid really understand firearms? I would agree with Grizzley Dave and suggest he apprentice with a good gunsmith. I think Cylinder and Slide has had apprentice programs in the past. When he gets all of that come back and we can discuss how to get a small business loan to get started. p.s. Another idea would be for him to get a lot of tattoos, open a shop creating odd Class III firearms and have his own reality TV series. p.s.s. Dang it! It's already been done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bodine Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 A bit of wisdom my uncle tells folks, and told me when I thought I wanted to be a motorcycle mechanic: "If you love playing guitar (riding motorcycles, shooting guns, etc.), the last thing you want to do is work on them for a living." Of the couple dozen horse-shoers (farriers) I know, only three of them spend any time riding. The rest are so sick of horses they don't even own any. Howver, if he is serious, apprenticeship is really the only way to go. Bodine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 He could learn to be a machinist first and then learn gunsmithing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hacker, SASS #55963 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 When I was at Trinidad State Junior College Gunsmith program the courses were; First Semester 1. Firearms safety and orientation 2. Bench Metal 3. Machine Shop Basic lathe Second Semester 4. Firearms history and development 5. Machine Shop basic Mill 6. Machine Shop Barrel Fitting 7. Blueing and parkerizing 8. Conversions (sporterize a Mauser action) third semester 9. Machine shop advanced barrel fitting 10. Stock making I 11. Machine shop advanced practices 12. Firearms repair 1 Fourth semester 13. Stock Making II 14. Firearms repair 2 15. Competency review and test Most classes had a lecture section and a lab section. I understand that now it is arranged slightly differently. Notice the number of Machine shop classes. They might be similar to what a machinist might learn at basic level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Windshadow Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I recall a chat back in the 1980s with a fellow who retired from Purdy in London (at age 72 no less) he told me that when at age 16 in the mid 1920s he went and applied to apprentice with them he was given a misshapen block of steel and chunk of 1/4 steel plate with a 3/8" hole in it and told to shape the chink into a rectangle with dead on square corners 1"x2" x 1/2" and to make a slot in the plate 1"x 1/2" also dead square that the block would then pass through with no more than a cigarette papers thickness in any of the edges. they were sent to room with benches lined yo under a line of windows and given access to assorted files and cold chisels . he did say that if the applicant went undersize on the chunk in getting it all square he could then make the slot to fit the chunk if he had been smart enough to do them in that order he said out of the 11 in his group of applicants only he and 2 others got jobs in his case for more than 55 years! He said it was more than a year before he did anything other than the dirty jobs 2 years before any fine metal and wood work, and more than 5 years before he did his first full assembly on a gun and he said he was never good enough to become an engraver as that required real artistic talent rather than just the ability to copy a drawing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.D.Ironsmith Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 A bit of wisdom my uncle tells folks, and told me when I thought I wanted to be a motorcycle mechanic: "If you love playing guitar (riding motorcycles, shooting guns, etc.), the last thing you want to do is work on them for a living." Of the couple dozen horse-shoers (farriers) I know, only three of them spend any time riding. The rest are so sick of horses they don't even own any. Howver, if he is serious, apprenticeship is really the only way to go. Bodine +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Shoer 27979 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 It can be rewarding , BUT it is hard to make it full time , from the info I have from full time smiths . Much of your time will be used to track down or making parts that are not avalable . Then there is the stuff that comes in , taken apart , in a Baggie , threads stripped , screw heads messed up , parts missing , and all of the rest of the things that happen . Of corse through all of this you must deal with PEOPLE (most good , some NOT so ) , try to make a living , pay the bills , and do a good job , while attempting to keep cost down for the coustmer . Forgot to mention purchase of machanery , up keep on it , supplys , paperwork , and all that FUN ? stuff . The BEST smiths , tell me , to make it look like no one has ever been into the gun . BTW , I am NOT a full time Professional smith , just a student of the gun . CB Your taking about business in general not just being a gunsmith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trigger Mike Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 Is he going to be a "parts changer" or a "true gunsmith"? A "parts charger" would be someone who is skilled at repairing actions on guns mainly by replacing parts, tuning the action, light file and machine work such as cutting dovetails for sight replacement and refinishing services such as beadblasting and bluing. This would be relatively low-cost career that could be started part-time in the garage with most of the tools available from Brownells. A "true gunsmith" would have all the above skills plus machining and welding skills. A even more experienced gunsmith would have the ability to make no longer available parts, rechamber guns to different calibers and create guns for customers with deep pockets. I am thinking about Bowen Custom Guns and Reeders. This type of work would require mill machine and advanced welding training. I think a two year program in a Community College would be a affordable way to get this training. A mill machine is a hefty investment along with welding equipment and better shop tools. Please don't take this as a insult but how well does a 18 year old kid really understand firearms? I would agree with Grizzley Dave and suggest he apprentice with a good gunsmith. I think Cylinder and Slide has had apprentice programs in the past. When he gets all of that come back and we can discuss how to get a small business loan to get started. p.s. Another idea would be for him to get a lot of tattoos, open a shop creating odd Class III firearms and have his own reality TV series. p.s.s. Dang it! It's already been done. parts changer might be what he should consider. He does really well with things he enjoys doing, but is considered eligible for disability. I was hoping to help him down a road he could do and make some money doing. He would not want an actual business probably. He is a crack shot and good at taking them apart and back again. He buys one when he can. How could he become a parts changer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfgang, SASS #53480 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 parts changer might be what he should consider. He does really well with things he enjoys doing, but is considered eligible for disability. I was hoping to help him down a road he could do and make some money doing. He would not want an actual business probably. He is a crack shot and good at taking them apart and back again. He buys one when he can. How could he become a parts changer? Buy clunker "fix it up guns" that he's interested in working on ( cowboy / western stuff ?) and keep fixing them and tuning them until he's good at it. Then start to take in a few that belong to others that need fixed and tuned. No way to loose with that approach. If he gets real good at it . . . it's a business, . . if in time he finds himself in some other occupation, ... then it is a good hobby or part time business. Either way it is a winner for him,..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deja Vous Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 I don't know about it being a "fun trade". In the early '70s I used to "hang out" at a gun shop near Cincinnati and knew the gunsmith / owner pretty well. It had taken him many years to get good enough at it and well enough established to have a succesful business and even then he said there really wasn't much money in it. Anything you do as a "hobby" is fun. Make the same stuff you do as a "hobby" into a "business" and it becomes "work". This isn't a warning to the youngster in question not to proceed. Anyone can do well at anything that they crave to do if it is the "right thing for them". But if you do what you love, right? And if he loves it, would that not work?... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugs Bonney SASS # 10171 Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 Here's a radical thought. He is 18 and thinks he wants to learn gunsmithing. How about going down to the local recruiters and checking out joining the military. I heard a rumor that they have guns and folks to repair them. They will teach him what he needs to know and by the time his enlistment is up he will know if that is want he wants to do for a living. It also gives him the option of making a career of the military or using the GI bill to go to college if he finds gunsmithing isn't for him. Now, good as all that sounds, it ain't free. There are concequences to putting on the uniform. Ocasionally the government sends you to places where people shoot at you or try to blow you up. But, you get an education in life, serve your country, and earn the right to enjoy the freedoms we have left. In other words you get to feel good about yourself ansd pride in having served. Bugs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trigger Mike Posted October 8, 2011 Author Share Posted October 8, 2011 Here's a radical thought. He is 18 and thinks he wants to learn gunsmithing. How about going down to the local recruiters and checking out joining the military. I heard a rumor that they have guns and folks to repair them. They will teach him what he needs to know and by the time his enlistment is up he will know if that is want he wants to do for a living. It also gives him the option of making a career of the military or using the GI bill to go to college if he finds gunsmithing isn't for him. Now, good as all that sounds, it ain't free. There are concequences to putting on the uniform. Ocasionally the government sends you to places where people shoot at you or try to blow you up. But, you get an education in life, serve your country, and earn the right to enjoy the freedoms we have left. In other words you get to feel good about yourself ansd pride in having served. Bugs He'd love to join the army, but can't due to his disability. Every now and then I take a military rifle and let him shoot it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seldom Seen #16162 Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Well I didn't sleep in the Holiday Inn last night but I have a couple of thoughts anyway. First someone needs to get a C&R license. It is only $30.00 for three years and will save you, him, his Dad a bundle on gun tools and parts. My C&R paid for itself with my first order to Brownells. Consider gunsmithing courses from someone like Cylinder & Slide Shop. I don't know if someone under under 21 can work on handguns but the 1911 Tactical Build Class sounds really neat as do the S&W Revolver School. http://www.cylinder-slide.com/classes.shtml I don't see how he can work on guns for a living without machine shop skills. Right now hunting sesons is starting and hunters will be needing to get scopes remounted and other gun maintenance. It would be a big help if he knew how to drill and tap acrew holes properly, how to remove broken screws, etc. Another big cost that occurred to to me is libility insurance. Figure on a injured shooter on a gun he worked on...$10 million lawuit or more. Lawyer fees, yipes! You don't say what the nature of his disability is and how it affects his ability to work. If he is confined to work at home careers have him consider small engine repair. When we lived in the city for many years I had my mowers serviced by a retiree that always looked 80 years old and a little frail. His shop was a 8' X 10' shed. Inside the shop on one side he had a bench with little cubbyholes in which he kept parts like spark plugs. On the other side was a work bench with a grinder for sharping blades. The really slick part was the table where he worked on mowers. The table was in the middle of shed and he had designed it so one end of the top would pivot to the floor. He would push the mower onto the top and pivot to top back up and lock it in place. He never had to pick a nower up off the ground. I am so impressed I have considered it as a hobby when I retire a second time. Very low overhead, word of mouth advertising, mosty light mechanical work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hacker, SASS #55963 Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 A gunsmith working on normal guns needs an FFL not a C&R. Normal means non-C&R guns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trigger Mike Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 Well I didn't sleep in the Holiday Inn last night but I have a couple of thoughts anyway. First someone needs to get a C&R license. It is only $30.00 for three years and will save you, him, his Dad a bundle on gun tools and parts. My C&R paid for itself with my first order to Brownells. Consider gunsmithing courses from someone like Cylinder & Slide Shop. I don't know if someone under under 21 can work on handguns but the 1911 Tactical Build Class sounds really neat as do the S&W Revolver School. http://www.cylinder-slide.com/classes.shtml I don't see how he can work on guns for a living without machine shop skills. Right now hunting sesons is starting and hunters will be needing to get scopes remounted and other gun maintenance. It would be a big help if he knew how to drill and tap acrew holes properly, how to remove broken screws, etc. Another big cost that occurred to to me is libility insurance. Figure on a injured shooter on a gun he worked on...$10 million lawuit or more. Lawyer fees, yipes! You don't say what the nature of his disability is and how it affects his ability to work. If he is confined to work at home careers have him consider small engine repair. When we lived in the city for many years I had my mowers serviced by a retiree that always looked 80 years old and a little frail. His shop was a 8' X 10' shed. Inside the shop on one side he had a bench with little cubbyholes in which he kept parts like spark plugs. On the other side was a work bench with a grinder for sharping blades. The really slick part was the table where he worked on mowers. The table was in the middle of shed and he had designed it so one end of the top would pivot to the floor. He would push the mower onto the top and pivot to top back up and lock it in place. He never had to pick a nower up off the ground. I am so impressed I have considered it as a hobby when I retire a second time. Very low overhead, word of mouth advertising, mosty light mechanical work. the engine repair might work for him as well. He has siezures sometimes. he just rebuilt a rusted old dodge charger. runs great now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noz Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Anybody can be a gunsmith! Just buy a Dremel tool and get after it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trigger Mike Posted October 10, 2011 Author Share Posted October 10, 2011 he found him a book on line and will read it and see if he can figure it out. I told his dad to have him see if a local smith will let him work there, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hacker, SASS #55963 Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Noz, That would be a gun hack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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