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Posted: 1/24/2013 1:56:55 PM EDT
| what training would you need to become a good armorer? Where can I go to school on the east coast that can give me the education to be a respectable armourer? To be able to get a job, work my weapons as I want, etc. I train and shoot but this is a different world. I like to have skills. I want to start from the basics to being so good I could get a job doing it. where in the MD VA area? |
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An armorer maintains police or military firearms, he's not a gunsmith.
Most police armorers are police officers. Few are civilians, unless it's for a small town department, and they're usually local trained gunsmiths. Military armorers are US military personnel. Armorers usually get their training from the gun companies that make police type guns. As example Glock offers one day armorers training classes. S&W offers armorers classes, as do many other gun makers who sell police type guns. These short training classes teach how to maintain and do minor parts switching repairs to keep a gun in service. If more involved repairs are needed, the gun is usually returned to the factory. Most of these manufacturers armorers classes are limited to police officers or official department armorers. Most of them will not accept "civilians" or often even trained gunsmiths, unless they do work for a department. Even if you're a trained gunsmith, most departments won't hire you, because as above, they simply send police officers to the manufacturers armorers classes and he does the work. If you want to become a real gunsmith, you have to go to a valid gunsmithing school. This takes a minimum of at least two years, and costs a significant amount of money. Internet courses and mail order courses and videos will NOT train you to be a professional working gunsmith. All they can do is "sort of" give you a start at being a hobby gunsmith working on your own guns. I don't want to discourage you, but unless you're a cop you won't become a armorer for a police department. Becoming a real professional gunsmith is not something you enter lightly. It's going to take years of training and cost a LOT of money. You have to have the talent and be able to develop the skills needed. It's foolish to even consider starting you own gunsmithing business right out of school because it costs a huge amount of money to buy the tooling and equipment and without an established customer base you won't make enough money for several years to support yourself. Most people who start a gunsmithing business right out of school fail and go bankrupt within one year. We NEED good gunsmiths, but you need to understand it's tough, and you'll never make much more than minimum wage when you figure in all the hours you have to spend doing paperwork for the government on top of doing actual gunsmithing work. Here's a list of real gunsmithing schools. The best are Colorado School of Trades, and Trinidad Junior College. Some of the others are also good, but don't have the reputation Colorado and Trinidad have. Colorado School of Trades 1575 Hoyt Street Lakewood, CO 80215 Phone: 800-234-4594 Lassen Community College P.O. Box 3000 Susanville, CA 96130 Phone: 530-257-4211 Modern Gun School 80 North Main Street, P.O. Box 846 St. Albans, VT 05478 Phone: 800-493-4114 Montgomery Community College 1011 Page Street P.O. Box 787 Troy, NC 27371 Phone: 800-839-6222 Murray State College One Murray Campus Tishomingo, OK 73460 Phone: 580-371-2371 Pennsylvania Gunsmith School 812 Ohio River Blvd. Avalon Pittsburgh, PA 15202 Phone: 412-766-1812 Piedmont Community College 1715 College Drive P.O. Box 1197 Roxboro, NC 27573 Phone: 336-599-1181 Pine Technical Institute 900 4th Street Pine City, MN 55063 Phone: 800-521-7463 Trinidad State Jr. College 600 Prospect Trinidad, CO 81082 Phone: 800-621-8752 Yavapai College 1100 East Sheldon Street Prescott, AZ 86301 Phone: 520-776-2150 |
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