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Posted: 4/5/2011 8:16:27 AM EDT
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So where is a good school?
And what are are the proper steps i should take? Thanks |
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Trinidad State Junior College and Yavapai College are two.
Gunsmithing Schools |
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Colorado School of Trades has a gunsmithing school
Looked at going to it a few years back, but it is costly (around 50k if I remember correctly, they do not like to talk about the cost), and every time I was in Denver I hated the place and the people, it felt like Detroit (but whiter). You can contact them, and they won't leave you alone for about two months, usually calling you wanting to talk about when you'll attend and fork over a large chunk of money up front. From what I understand they are quite a good school (at the time had a friend going there), but with the job market, I ended up going back to studying dentistry. |
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What about those of us who cant relocate?
Does anyone have any first hand experience with the AGI professional gunsmithing course? Does it have any value or is it a waste? I've been doing some work for a local gun shop but I'm always looking to improve my knowledge base-plus I'm looking for another full time gig when I retire from my current LEO job in a few years. |
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If you can't relocate then IMHO you're screwed afa schools are concerned. My school (PA Gunsmith School) had the AGI tapes in the library and they are VERY hit and miss. As a sole source I’d put them in the worthless category but maybe that’s just me. Honestly, if you can’t move your best move would be to take machine courses, welding courses, maybe some wood working courses then get all the gunsmith books you can and start applying what you learned at the school(s) to guns.
OP, as far as schools go Brownells has a list of all of the better ones in the country. They all advertise about the same kind of education but ultimately they all specialize in slightly different areas if you ask me. Talk to graduates and ask what their impressions of the school they went to are and go from there. Your first step should be to call them and ask questions then ask them to give you the contact info for some graduates you can talk to. These schools are all pretty much "soup to nuts" and really don't require any pre-recs if that's what you're asking. You can PM me if you have any questions about PA Gunsmith School. |
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Ok here is my short version of my story about perusing gunsmith training.
I was injured in April of 01 while attached to 7th Special Forces at Ft Bragg. The injuries sustained ended my military career and left me unable to do anything that I did prior to the service so I started looking into gunsmithing as a new career. I worked with a local gunsmith for a couple years until we decided that it was time for formal training. Working for a gunsmith and gaining experiance is something I highly recomend if possible. I live in Nebraska and we have no gunsmithing programs here so I looked to Colorado School of trades. After a few phone conversations with a lady there I drove out to check out their program prior to committing to it. I would have to say I was not very impressed. After finding the school, just driving up to it had me wondering. My tour inside and experience sealed the deal that this was not the school for me. I have always been taught to keep a clean shop and this place was anything but clean. It was hard to walk through the shop without tripping on something that was left out. When introduced to the instructors they were too busy taking a coffee break to talk with me so they told the lady to just give me a tour. I also noticed that student trying to ask questions were being turned away. On my tour I did not see anything that really impressed me much but one thing that I will never forget is a rifle stock that was shown to me. It was a walnut stock that was made from a blank and it had a diamond oak piece inletted into the underside of the forearm. The diamond did not follow the center line of the stock and was tilted off center and one side was inletted too deep and then sanded to be flush making the entire surface wavy. The lady then says to me, “This is a stock that one of our instructors has done”. Another thing that I did not like about this school was the hand out material. I asked what books they used and what type of reference material I would have when completed with the program. I was told that the school has developed their own hand outs and did not require books, and if for some reason you do not complete the program you are required to turn back in the handouts. I was also not allowed to see what the handout material consisted of. My visit was in 05 and things there may have changed and maybe it was just a bad day for a visit who knows. From my experience I would not recommend this school. With the disappointment of Colorado School of Trades I decided to get an associate’s degree in Machine Tool and to purchase the AGI Master Gunsmith Program. I thought this would be a good route but was again disappointed. The Machine Tool program was a great idea and has been very beneficial but the AGI program as stated earlier falls into the worthless category. I guess at first a few videos were helpful in disassembly and reassembly but once you have a good mechanical understanding of how all the parts work together then you don’t need them. Off the top of my head I can’t offer specifics but I remember not agreeing with some of the information in the videos. At least three other gunsmiths have agreed with me on things I didn’t think were right at the time. Ok moving on. I felt the need to look one more time into finding a place to get formal training and a few years ago I discovered summer NRA gunsmithing classes. There are only four schools that offer these classes. Trinidad State Junior College in Colorado, Murray State College in Oklahoma, Montgomery Community College in North Carolina, and Lassen Community College in California. The summer classes run one week long and vary in subjects over about 8 to 9 weeks. Some classes are taught by the schools instructors and others are taught by some of the top gunsmiths in the country. I’m not sure about the other schools but at Trinidad they started offering the classes for credits two years ago. I decided to try Trinidad’s summer classes and took one class a few summers ago. From the moment I arrived at the school I had only good feelings about it. The school was clean and the faculty was very professional and helpful. Just a little food for thought here but in that first class I took, I found two students that had dropped out of the Colorado School of Trades program to take summer classes as well as the two year program at Trinidad. They had noting good to say about their former program. If anyone who reads this is interested in their program don’t let me steer you completely away. Talk to them as well as current students and form your own opinions. This last summer I heard they were really turning their program around so things may have gotten better. Anyways I took two full summers of classes at Trinidad and received their first issued gunsmith technician certificate. This in no way makes me a pro but I feel pretty confident that I can handle most work that comes my way now. I have never taken the class due to working with a gunsmith prior to formal education but they offer an intro to gunsmithing class and I would recommend that for any who are interested in perusing an occupation in the gunsmithing field. Be careful though, summer classes can be addicting. I am signed up for two classes this summer just so I can go back. I know this was kind of long but I hope it is helpful to someone. If anyone has any questions please feel free to email me at [email protected] I would be happy to help answer any questions that I can. And yes that was the short version… |
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Admittedly, I'm a little biased but:
Pine Technical College I'm completing my second year in the program and if anyone has any questions about the specifics of it, I'd be more than happy to answer. |
| Good info I'm glad i read this because i have been considering the AGI courses, now rethinking! I am a machinist and a welder I work for a company that makes parts for DOD contractors like Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon etc.. but i want to do something from home to be with my family alot more. Going to be a big leap to make it work, obviously I want as many of the proper things in place as i can to be sucessful!!! |
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graduated Murray State College Gunsmithing program in Tishomingo OK....
great program....a lot of hours...almost 90 credit hours not counting labs in two years.... with labs you are there more than 40hrs a week.... learned a lot.... will be in debt for a while... 
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| I graduated from the PA Gunsmith School as did at least 2 other posters on this board that I'm aware of. I liked it and learned a lot, but in my opinion, I think the curriculum is a little outdated. Don't get me wrong, stockmaking and whatnot are nice skills to have, but in my opinion, it appears to me that the firearms industry is moving away from wood stocks and specifically custom carved wood stocks. The custom alterations projects we built in semester 4 are nice, you have the option to do whatever you want for the most part. I built a Rem 700 with a Kreiger barrel and a McMillan A4 stock, but the requirements for each gun are different, and have undoubtedly changed since I graduated in JAN 2009. Any other questions, feel free to PM me. |
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