Anybody have an experience with any of the many online gunsmithing programs?

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They are ok for home hobby level work but if you are planning on a career invest in the most important thing:
Yourself.

Go to a dedicated brick and mortar school such as Trinidad, Murray State, Yavapai, Lassen etc. They are at the least accredited schools and certificated curriculums. Some even offer degrees in Gunsmithing.
At least if you attend a dedicated school when you put your resume on the counter at the local shop, you wont get laughed out of the shop.

If you want to learn the entire curriculum of the "Mail Order" schools save yourself a ton of money and time and go buy Bob Dunlaps "Gunsmithing".

What is your learning style?  Visual, audio, kinesthetic?  If you're a visual, you may be able to get away with an online video course.  If you're kinesthetic, you want to have a teacher around.  It also depends on your mechanical aptitude too.  Some people are mechanically inclined and learn quick. Others like myself are slower.

For myself I attended a brick 'n mortar in Southern Colorado (as well as almost all factory armourer classes and eight classes at Lassen).

A little late on this but if you are self motivated, and can learn by watching you can do it. The videos are very detailed. In fact, if you can Pass the AGI shotgun test on the first try you will have it licked.

You'd be surprised how much crossover there is between systems. I've repaired firearms that I've never seen before without drawings or anything else. If you understand how something functions you can fix it.

This. I will say that the AGI lathe and milling machine courses are really good if you want a basic video series on running those machines with a gunsmithing focus.

Not necessarily the case.
People have this vision of a Master gunsmith standing over a huge machine making and altering intricate parts.

The truth is, MOST of a gunsmiths time is spent sitting at a bench with screwdrivers, punches, stones and files working on a small part to correct a problem.
Some top gunsmiths do no machine work at all.  What they may need they farm out.

Case in point were most of the old Master Python tuners who could give the Colt's a super smooth, non-stacking trigger pull.
Most of them had no machine tools at all.

True, a well rounded gunsmith should have machine skills, but not all need it.

True

Vast majority of the time all a gunsmith will do is tune an action so that it ejects reliably and replace faulty part if necessary. Machine work will only take up maybe 10% of your time.

When I did guitar repair most of the work is either set up or fret level. Very rarely do I get machine works and I almost felt it's a huge amount of investment for such a small amount of work. I only had them because I wanted them..

Where are you getting that number from?

If guitar repair is anything like gunsmithing (and they are similar, sure the material worked is different, and consequence of mistakes are different, but overall work is similar) VAST majority of your customers are going to bring in their guns because it wouldn't feed right, the cylinders aren't timed right, or something of that nature. Most the time you don't need to touch a lathe or a mill to do those work, mostly file work (and in both gunsmithing and guitar repair, we use a lot of specialized files, I just make my own to save money).

A local Gunsmiths I go to have a really small lathe and mill-drill. Those machines are hardly ever used at all. Ask them how often they use the machines and you will find it barely gets used. Of course if your primary business is modifying gun parts to fit a specific action (make a barrel blank, rebarreling, truing actions and stuff) then things are different but vast majority of the gunsmiths won't touch that. It costs way too much to do those kind of work. With the current debacle with ITAR I imagine even less gunsmiths want to do that sort of work (no word on whether or not Trump fixed it). I bet if they had to do it they'd farm the work out anyways.

I just finished the Advanced Gunsmithing Course offered by Sonoran Desert Institute SDI

I by NO MEANS would consider myself a "gunsmith" after completing this course.

I know a little bit more of how much I DON'T know though.

I only took the course so that I could burn up more of my GI Bill before it expires (I already have a BA degree and a couple AS's) and get some nicer tools.

It was a great intro into gunsmithing, setting up a business and tools.

I take apart bombs as a trade (former EOD), so it expanded a basic skillset I have for intricate parts manipulation.

The biggest benefit I got from the course was trying things I wouldn't have considered doing, and finding that a great many things a gunsmith does is with hand tools, some lathe work, some CNC or machining work.

I would agree with the above statement that lathe and machining is only 10% of your time.

But it really depends on what niche market you want to capture.  Do you only want to do rebluing or phosphating weapons?  Or be a duracoat or Cerakote sprayer?   Or a hydrographics dipper/finisher?

Do you want to be a stock shaper or bender?  Work on antique firearms?  Do you want to customize and tune cowboy shooting guns?

Do you want to cut down, crown and re-thread barrels?  Recontour barrels?  Cut relief cuts or flutes into barrels?  Jewel bolts?  Bed stocks?  Fine Tune scopes?

Do you want to fine tune match grade 1911's?  Or Glocks?  Or...?

Or do you just want to generalize and not do anything REALLY well.  There are plenty of videos on YouTube of those fellas.

Specialization is the key to establishing a name, and getting people to trust you with their firearms.

If you want to be a GENERAL gun smith, I would suggest going to one of the resident year long plus courses, then you will have beginning experience and could work in the industry as an apprentice.



The other benefit I got from SDI is allowing me to apprentice or work in the on base machine shop and know some of the BASICs, but those could easily be learned from a book from the library for little cost.

The last benefit was the revelation that to get paid to work on the serial numbered "firearm" part of a gun requires an FFL.  If its not the "firearm" part of a gun, then you don't need an FFL.

Which explains a few machinists with a felony in their distant past that only do barrel work in my area!

~Will

Note- The part highlighted still falls under ITAR fuckery, even though it is NOT a firearm!

l

I am interested to know how ITAR has jurisdiction over USA (never leaving the USA) business?

I have dealt with ITAR but only in the international context when traveling to other countries and performing ITAR permitted and approved training via the State Department.

Will