online gunsmith schools
are any online gunsmith schools worth it. i dont have any gunsmithing schools near me and i wanted to start as a part time gunsmith. i am what you might call a jack of all trades master of none sort of guy. in fact i have had co correct a couple of gunsmiths i have met. that is the other reason i wanted to go to school is that i take better care of my weapons than anyone. i figure i would do a better job just because i care more.
Online schools are worthless and are designed to separate you from your money.
Look at it this way, if you were going to be flying somewhere, would you want the aircraft mechanic who repaired the plane to have learned his trade online?
While the mail order courses are not going to prepare you to work on other peoples guns, they can at least get you started on working on your own guns.
Of the mail order "schools" the best is AGI. The courses are expensive.
Bluntly, apply for a job with a "diploma" or "Certificate" from AGI and your resume goes straight into the trash can.
Apply with a "degree" from an online course, and you'll be lucky if they don't laugh in your face as they toss you out the door.
http://www.americangunsmith.com/
There is absolutely no substitute for hands-on training with either a instructor at a school, or by apprenticing with a GOOD gunsmith.
If you intend to open your own shop, if you have a brain at all you'll take business courses to learn how to operate a business.
I've seen talented watchmakers and gunsmiths bust out in less then a year because they had no idea how to run a business.
While I'm not a gunsmith, the advice given to me by one, was to enroll in some intro machining, and metal fab classes at your local community college or technical school. From there, you could probably get some of the AGI courses, and perhaps be an apprentice gunsmith.
Take some machining, welding, etc. classes from your local community college. While it won't teach you the artistry of working on guns, it'll teach you what you need to know to get started. The artistry comes with experience, not from being taught.
it seems that my local shop would be willing to hire me as long as i am licenced. it dosent matter to the owner who the licence is from. he says i will learn the rest on the job. however i still have every intention to take welding classes and i have milling welding and lathe work experience. from my vocational metals class in high school. and no i dont mean making a flat head skrew driver. we did mig and tig welding oxy-accetelline braising and cutting precition mill work anc cutting threads on the lathe inside and outside. the equiptment was newer to , digital readouts and what. dont get me wrong i know its not everything i will need to know but it is a start. i spent 4 hrs this morning changing out an ar upper reciever for the owner of the gun shop i go to because him and his gun smith couldnt get the free float and guard and locking ring off. and the gunsmith he had in there before had tried to convince me that ar barrels were pressed in and he knew because of his extensive millitary experience wich is of course bs . i enjoy working on guns almost as much as i enjoy shooting them. and i love the fact that there is always something new to learn. i guess its the problem solving that i find exciting..ether way it seems like good part time experience untill i can get the money to start a buisness going
Any guess where you would obtain a license for gunsmithing?
If you really want to learn the trade, attend a bone fide school in person. The week long sessions at the schools in the NRA summer program are a great idea, and the cost for the courses at Trinidad are simply down right cheap.
If you want to be a real gunsmith, then you'll make the sacrifice and take the right steps to get there. The path is shorter if you take training in person. The path is very long if you are self trained, and there's a better than even chance that you will never learn some of the tricks of the trade.
i live in sheboygan wisconsin. i have a full time job ,an unemployed wife 2 kids and a vehicle i wouldnt trust out of state. online school and on the job training seem to be my only options.
I often wonder: Did Ed Brown, Les Bear, Bill Wilson, etc. etc. etc. go to gunsmithing school?
I don't honestly know and would really like to know if some of the big name gunsmiths. Ane the truly custom smiths, Like Turnbull and the dude from Heirloom precision actully "go to a school"?
We are talking people who's low end guns start at $2,000.
Just curious.
Les Baer was a hot rodder first; don't know about his background.
One of the best gun builder's in this area started working in the machine shop in his family's business, and built bike and race car engines for a while. But, while he's a great machinist and builder of precision tactical and hunting rifles and uses custom brakes of his own design, he's not a generalist and wouldn't be able to checker a stock or fix a revolver without more study.
The machine shop side of the work is the tallest pole for most people. Just about everything else can be self taught with a little coaching, especially to understand just exactly what degree of perfection is acceptable. A good example (they're bad examples) are Browning stocks from the last 15 or 20 years. They have the bling, but the workmanship is poor on close examination, the stocks are not finished with a flat surface before the poly is slathered on. Barrels on many rack grade guns are the same way. Hold one of these guns in a glancing light to see what I mean.
There is so much information available that a person can self teach from videos and books, but that will mean the sacrifice of some guns and parts without guidance, and time. In this case, the shop wants to hire a gunsmith to work on customer guns. That requires a degree of expertise waaaay beyond licensing by the ATFE; they don't care if the gunsmith can do the work. I doubt the gun shop wants to eat the work hours, parts, and customer guns while their gunsmith learns the trade.
A lot of the better gunsmiths got into it from other technical fields.
As example, like me, Bill Wilson was a watchmaker first.
Other greats managed to learn from masters of the trade who were willing to take on a talented person to teach. Often these people again, had knowledge and skills from other fields that gave them a leg up on the raw beginner who has no skills in any field.
There are very few really good gunsmiths who just started cold and taught themselves.
Many people advise to start by taking machine shop classes. This is a good way to start, BUT..... most good gunsmiths are good machinists, but few good machinists are good at gunsmithing and I've seen more than a few who were absolutely terrible. Learning machine shop skills won't make you a gunsmith, and in fact, isn't all that important when it comes to actually repairing a gun. Most of that is small tools and hand-eye skills.
With few really good gunsmiths willing to take on a student the best way to become a real professional is a school where you're in a classroom and shop being taught by an instructor who's looking over your shoulder.
Take classes on the internet or by mail and any store owner with a brain will laugh you out the door if you apply for a job.
Open your own shop with a internet or mail order education, assuming you have $25,000 to $100,000 to equip it properly and get set up, unless you're a 1 in 10,000 person with super talent, you'll be busted out and broke in less than a year, IF you last that long.
With guns becoming more and more popular we NEED good gunsmiths. We don't need more jack leg gun butchers. If you really want to be a professional you'll figure out a way to go to one of the top schools.
You say traveling and taking off work to go to school is out of the question. Ok, move on to plan B.
The posters that say going to a school is the only way, have no idea what jobs actually come into a gunsmithing shop.
My shop is in the country [other locations may be different] 90% of my work is on middle priced firearms, obsolete weapons and those that never get any care at home. Every now and then you'll have something of quality in the shop but it's rare. When it does it usually falls into the no care at home catagory
Gunsmithing is something you learn everyday you work at it. General gunsmithing is like being a doctor you practice. If you did go to a school the first job in the shop will be a weapon you've never seen or heard of before. Now what do you do? You fix it and learn from it.
Plan B is books, along with the free online videos,. Maybe some of the American Gunsmith videos if you can afford it. There is a way to do this if you want it bad enough.
Example: I'm working on a pre 64 model 70 Winchester in 243 cal. It was riding in the trunk when the customer was rear-ended. Something shattered the stock broke the trigger guard and trigger off. Parts have not been available for over 20 years. You make what it needs, customer is happy. That's how it works.
General gunsmithing is fixing whatever comes in the door. A custom gunsmith only works on certain things.
Originally Posted By BeauBeaux:
You say traveling and taking off work to go to school is out of the question. Ok, move on to plan B.
The posters that say going to a school is the only way, have no idea what jobs actually come into a gunsmithing shop.
My shop is in the country [other locations may be different] 90% of my work is on middle priced firearms, obsolete weapons and those that never get any care at home. Every now and then you'll have something of quality in the shop but it's rare. When it does it usually falls into the no care at home catagory
Gunsmithing is something you learn everyday you work at it. General gunsmithing is like being a doctor you practice. If you did go to a school the first job in the shop will be a weapon you've never seen or heard of before. Now what do you do? You fix it and learn from it.
Plan B is books, along with the free online videos,. Maybe some of the American Gunsmith videos if you can afford it. There is a way to do this if you want it bad enough.
Example: I'm working on a pre 64 model 70 Winchester in 243 cal. It was riding in the trunk when the customer was rear-ended. Something shattered the stock broke the trigger guard and trigger off. Parts have not been available for over 20 years. You make what it needs, customer is happy. That's how it works.
General gunsmithing is fixing whatever comes in the door. A custom gunsmith only works on certain things.
Good post: Seems to be the only one posting that has a shop.
"Seems to be the only one posting that has a shop."
I was trained as a watchmaker and worked as a watchmaker and a specialist in Colt DA revolvers from the late 1960's IN A STORE. I didn't own the store.
While I did specialize, we also did whatever came in.
Many people have the picture of a gunsmith standing at a huge milling machine making something intricate.
The truth is, by far the biggest amount of gunsmith time is spent siting at a bench with a screwdriver, stone, and a magnifier.
The magnifier is the most important tool on the bench for me.
Everyone seems to think you need a mill and lathe. Real world, cost is not justified. If I need something milled or a barrel threaded I farm it out. Same with blueing. You buy/make tools as you need them. Cost has to be kept down to make money. People don't realize it costs the same to fix a cheap gun as it does for the high diollar one.
wow i havent checked the post in a while, thanks to all who responded. i know going to school would be ideal but it is good to know that with enough determination i could make this work. oh and to whombever brought up what real gunsmithing is like ,thanks thats exactly what i like about it. a few years back i picked up a 2003 yamaha raptor 660r that haddent been run in like 5 years and it was rusty all over and couldnt start. about 350 bucks some favors (powercoating and such) from my father and a whole lot of personal time ... about 8 months later i had it running and looking like new. i have no real mechanicle backround ,just a good unhealthy cureosity and love for making things work and solving problems.
