Posted on 09/19/2007 10:01:45 AM PDT by biscuit jane
Trinidad - In a country where there is almost one firearm for every man, woman and child, there is actually a shortage of craftsmen who know how to make and repair them.
Enter Trinidad State Junior College's 60- year-old gunsmithing program, where the quiet little labs on campus - bedecked with donated equipment from the gun industry and attended by professors who are former gunsmiths - are churning out people each year who have their pick of jobs around the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at denverpost.com ...
A gun article without the leftist slant.
Bump for later. I was thinking of getting into this as a (legal, thanks for asking) side-business. Any ideas?
I will say that most of the people I know would never let someone work on their guns who has no experience and just does it on the side. We only trust those with experience and formal training and/or an apprenticeship. As far as I’m concerned, you will need to put in a good 5 years or more working with a master gunsmith who would need a good 20 years at the bench. Now if you want a side business of say, just adjusting sights and scopes, then that is another story, but that doesn’t make you a smith.
I live in a city of 400,000 + poulation. We have 4 or 5 gunshops, and a few ranges. There are only a few local smiths. Our biggest gunstore goes thru smiths quite frequently. There are, however, guys who work out of their homes and the good ones seem to stay busy.
Lots of mundane work; mounting and boresighting scopes, repair work on guns that could have been sent back to the factory. I think, unless you could be a custom builder with a top rep, it would be hard to make a living at it, but as secondary income it might pay pretty well.
/hammermonkey...
When I was in high school one of the shop teachers was a gunsmith. Kids brought guns to school every week for him to work on and there was never an incident. (this was long before Comlumbine)
I know a number of gunsmiths who are being forced out of business by gov’t regs-—especially in CA. Gunsmiths must have a Federal Firearms License to be able to receive and ship weapons across state lines. The ATF and various other state agencies are hitting gunsmiths hard for petty and in many cases, trumped up violations.
If you go into this line of business, pick a gun-friendly state.
It took me 2 years to find a good gunsmith. Depending on what you want done to it, the gun will be gone for a minimum of 3-4 months.
It’s a good and honorable trade. If I had it all over to do again, that’s what I would have done with my career, rather than being a desk jockey.
Royal Arms just north of Fort Devens works for me. The State of Massachusetts is at best ambivalent about allowing these guys some operating room. Another change however is demographics (this is just anecdotal): it seems fewer people are participating in the shooting sports in this region. It did not help when Fort Devens closed and 98% of the servicement left. Fewer servicemen = fewer retirees and that generally means fewer sport shooters.
Thanks for posting this article Biscuit Jane.
*Bang ping*
When I was in high school one of the shop teachers was a gunsmith. Kids brought guns to school every week for him to work on and there was never an incident. (this was long before Comlumbine)
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Yeah, that was before the world went crazy, almost every boy from the third grade on up carried a pocket knife to school and I never knew of anyone being cut on the school ground. Some of the girls even carried a knife in their handbag back then. It was considered a tool rather than a weapon.
It’s a good and honorable trade. If I had it all over to do again, that’s what I would have done with my career, rather than being a desk jockey.
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I tried to enroll in a class at the local technical college 25 years ago but they had too few people apply so the course was never actually started.
The BATFE has eliminated a large number of home-run business by using the zoning to eliminate them as a commercial business in a residential class zone. The BATFE wants you to have a storefront before allowing any license.
Nevermind that AMWAY, AVON, real estate, and a number of other home business are also in residential areas.
You will also need, at a minimum, at least $1 million in liability insurance. That in itself is cost prohibitive.
Glock owners don’t need gunsmiths.
Cool!
Two schools in the NC Community College system offer gunsmithing, Piedmont and Montgomery.
They spread various specialty vocations around the various schools. Lee county has telephony, Cumberland county got embalming.
I have a friend who works on nothing but Glocks. He does a steady business at the gunshows.
Only real good course I know of is Colorado School of Trades Gunsmithing program.........A+++ 5 star rating from my local hammer monkeys that have attended the course there........
Brownells has a book Gunsmith Kinks I think it is called........best correspondent course you can by. If ya go with a no instructor sort of self help project.........turn off all electricity in your shop cept the light you need to see your work and use your HAND TOOLS !
;o)
just my opinion of course ~
I have 2 handguns at a smith as we speak that went to that school. Seems to know his stuff but I’m just having adjustable sights installed and a trigger job. We’ll see how good he is in a week or so.
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