I have been looking at this forum for quite some time. I am impressed with the technical knowledge coming from several people here. What kind of training did you take? What is your professional experience? How did you get to be a gunsmith? How do I get to where you are now?

Voldamort,

A good place to start would be to enroll yourself into one of the many vocational institutes or courses that specialize in the trade. Of course there are an abundunce of books and videos describing and showing how certain things are done, but it takes "hands on" experience, preferably under the watchful eye of a professional, to hone and perfect your skills.

To be successful, you must possess more than a general knowledge in firearm design, function and ballistics. You must be able to quickly visualize a solution to a problem based only on a described symptom and have the skills necessary to effect and test the repair.

Whatever you do remember, education is the key to success. How, and to what degree you educate yourself towards your goals, and how you apply what you have learned, will go a long way in determining your success.

Good luck,

Malm

Kinda reminds me of the old joke:

Q: How did you become a successful gun smith?
A: By making good decisions

Q: How did you know to make those decisions?
A: Lots of experience!

Q: And, how did you get all that experience?
A: bad decisions......

FWIW, Dutch.

We are fortunate to have some of the countries best gunsmiths present on this forum, so you are correct about lots of good info.

The best gunsmiths are that way for one reason, and one reason only, they love what they do, and have put a lifetime into gaining the experience needed to master their craft. I have no doubt many/most of them took on a vow of poverty and persued their craft with a passion.

Thats to key to success in any field, you have to love doing it, and put all your passion into it.

I think the best advice is to have pick a good career so that you'll have the financial means to set up a shop, and work into the trade slowly.

I honestly don't see how someone can make a go of smithing full time starting out cold. The capital investment is staggering if taken in one hit, and you'll really struggle to pay the bills while you're establishing a name for yourself.

Voldamort

Maybe a little at a time...

http://www.trinidadstate.edu/nra/

Regards, Augustis ><>

Voldamort,

Good to see someone else considering a gun business as a profession after registering at AR! I am, too, at my age and I hope that even if I can't pull it off, you will be able to. All the very best!

Bought a ton of books, bought a ton of videos, bought a Smithy 3-1 Machine (at this point I didn't even know lathe had an "e" in it), joined American Gunsmith Institute, bought more books and videos (excellent videos BTW), took NRA summer gunsmithing courses (best thing I did!) sold Smithy (second best thing I did) Bought three used american lathes (worse thing I did), bought a nearly new Jet 12 X 36 Lathe and a brand new Grizzly Milling Machine (third best thing I did), added Shooting Star DRO to both machines (on second thought, this might be the best thing I ever did) convinced friends and relatives that they should let me work on their guns (never screwed one up, thank God!) Bought $20,000 worth of reamers, tooling, blast cabinet, widgets, and gadgets, set up a shop in my house....ready to Semi Retire, A year before I plan on making the jump and getting an FFL, the state of Massachusetts passes a law that you can't have an FFL in your house, ......build rifles only for myself now.........

I think if you are handy and know your way around tools in general, gunsmithing will be a very rewarding field. Forget about making "real" money at it. Most folks will not pay what your time is worth. But you can make a living if you don't mind long hours. You must be a "people" person. Lots of interaction with folks that their rifles and handguns are more important than just about anything in their lives. You need to be organized. I don't care what anyone says, an unorganized shop is an inefficient shop and that means a waste of time and time is money. Period!
As a hobby, there is nothing better. Doesn't take up a bunch of room, you can do it in any weather, and all in all, it's not too expensive to get into. No way near the cost of a bass boat rig, or a nice Harley Davidson!
Good luck...........enjoy

www.rvbprecision.com

To refresh the issue. How did you get to be a gunsmith? Schooling, apprentiships?

A 1945 Stoger's Shooter's Bible helped me learn to read......I had the ballistics tables memorized by ten years old and started studying patents and every gun I could get my hands on by age 13.

At 14 I'd finished my first "custom" rifle and killed my first three deer the next year.

At 18 I joined the Army and switched specialty to small arms as soon as I could.

Age 21 and 22 was spent at Colorado School of Trades and been off and on a full time gunmaker ever since.

It takes some incredible breaks to gather tools and equipment and being able to work without eating sure helps.

Mark Stratton said it best--- "To be a good gunmaker you should marry a woman that can support you."

The secret of doing well is to understand WHY something malfunctions......it's not enough to figure out how to fix it.

How much capital would one have to layout to do this for a hobby only? I'm interesting in being able to make your own stocks, rebarrel, and at most true actions. Beings that I was/am a science geek I've never even taken a machine shop class, would starting with one of these be a good place to start? Thanks for any and all info.

[ 02-06-2003, 03:01: Message edited by: 1_pointer ]

THanks!!! That's not as bad as I expected, I was expecting another 0.

Unlike Jack, I was playing with girls, studying their design and function until 1969 when on my 17th birthday, I joined the Marines. I went to weapons school at Camp Pendleton and served, among other assignments, as company armorer for an Air and Naval Gunfire Co. I then got to play with women AND weapons... a dangerous combination. Here I learned advanced functions of automatic weapons, pump shotguns, bolt action rifles and revolvers.

At the end of a 4 year tour, armed with a wife and kid, I moved back to Utah but was restless. I moved from job to job trying to fit in where I could. Friends would bring me their guns to work over repairing and tuning triggers and do some bedding etc., but I wasn't satisfied with doing just this, I wanted to build things.

My marriage went bust and I moved across town and in with a woman I would later marry. I had been working at a company building railroad cars and was about to be laid off when I got a brain cramp and borrowed enough money from my CU to purchase my first Lathe.

Don Casull, Dicks brother, lived down the road and he introduced me to P.O.Ackley. Casull and Ackley were involved in a venture and I performed R&D work for Don Casull. In 1981 I met Mike Bellm who had purchased P.O's buisness and Mike and I became good friends and he and I traded work back and forth and hung out together until he moved away in the Late 1980's. During this period I was becoming heavily involved with wildcat cartridges and building weapons based on the Ackley Improved cartidges mainly due to Mikes influence.

Prior to this, I was doing gunwork for a large local sporting goods chain and building a clientel. I would purchase machines and tools as I got jobs. I learned machine work on my own from watching, reading and practicing. I was introduced to one of the machine shop teachers from the local community college where I was allowed to hang out and study metallurgy while fine tuning my machine skills. I studied firearms designs and function. I studied ballistics. I studied everything I could get my hands on and asked questions of those I respected and could trust to give me the correct answers.

I have been in the business full time for over 23 years and maintain a large customer base from around the country. Mike Bellm's early influence was mostly responsible for my early successes and in the direction I ultimately went. I am greatful to him for our friendship.

Anyway, If you are lucky enough to have someone who will inspire you to be your best and produce work that is as precise as possible, and if you don't mind eating on the run, living like a mole hunched over machines, breathing the fumes of cutting oils and ducking hot metal chips, then you stand a good chance at living your dream.

Words I would pass on to anyone considering gunsmithing as a trade. Never compromise safety, never try to bullshit your customers, don't be afraid to say "I don't know", treat people with respect and always try to honor your word.

Good luck,

Malm

I think it might have been John Ricks that said this a year or two ago on another forum in response to a similar question. I've stolen the line and used it quite often. The most important thing to have if you want to be a gunsmith is a understanding wife with a real good job.

Ferlach in Austria.

I turned right at Spokane.

Paul,

If you've checked into it, what do we have available for training up here?

How ugly was your first gun Jack? Mine was grotesque!
Gunsmithing (in a limited way)was a hobby which became more involved when I became interested in competitive BR shooting. By the time I got my first gunsmithing job, I had taught myself many aspects of the trade. Unfortunately I had taught them incorrectly and it was fortunate that I got to work with a guy (Art Bourne) who really taught me a lot. Art was a good machinist and a good stockmaker and a damn fine shot (still is). I enjoyed the work but the money wasn't coming in like I would have liked so I went back to forestry and returned gunsmithing to hobby status. After a couple of years I was contacted by a fellow in Calgary who really wanted me to come to work for him. SinceI was between jobs I decided to go out and see how badly he wanted me. It turned out to be badly enough so I went to Calgary. In the next ten years I fixed every Remington 1100 in southern Alberta and rebarreled half of the rifles. I still turned out the occasional BR rilfe from my basement shop at home. I worked really long hours and actually made gunsmithing pay pretty well. After ten years I was tired of working too hard and fed up with life in the city so moved to this semi-secluded spot, built my own log house then set up my shop again. I worked for a few years for a machine shop in town then decided to start smithing again full time. I'm sortof semi- retired which is another way of saying I'm kind of lazy and semi-broke but life is good. Regards, Bill.

Hey, thanks Paul.

Any specific books you liked, or are you like me and want one of each?

[ 02-08-2003, 05:07: Message edited by: Brent Moffitt ]

Brent,

I like them all Especially good is the NRA gunsmith book, Wolfe Publishings gunsmith tips (I have it checked out at the moment) and there are some others as well that escape me.

For stuff in my library, the Brownell's gunsmith Kinks, Rifle accuracy, Riflesmithing, Guy Lautards machinist bedside readers, machine shop practices vol 1&2, and several others that don't come to mind.

I forgot what books they have at the Wasilla library, it was ~6 years ago we lived out there, but there were some good ones.

Even some of the annuals have good articles like Shooters Bible et al.

My sister works there, I'll get the scoop on what all they have and check them out. Thanks alot Paul.