Gunsmith books

[johnnydangerously]

I am wondering what books are available to teach someone how to be a gunsmith. Really anybooks that teach how to fix guns, do cosmetic repairs, and everthing else. My father in his old age really wants to learn this trade and if he was able to have a book that could teach him from square one that would be great. I would rather ask you guys what you think in your expierence and get the best option, then go out and risk picking one myself. A book with a lot of images, step by step images and expanded images would be a great help to, because learning on your own would be made a lot easier if there is something to look at. Thanks

 

[GaryK]

Jerry Kuhnhausen has written several books on some of the more popular guns such as the Colt SAA, S&W revolvers, and the 1911 .45 auto. Brownells has some general purpose gunsmithing books as well as a few videos. They are at www.brownells.com.

 

[gunsmithgirl]

Jerry Kuhnhausen's books are real good. Gunsmith Kinks from brownells are pretty good too. Brownells also has a lot of "how to" articles on the website now.Maybe some machining books if he wants to get that far into it.

 

[danthegunman]

I agree with Garyk and gunsmithgirl, but J.B. Wood has a series of books on assembly/disassembly for just about all the major firearms.

 

[Clemson]

The classic on the subject has to be "Gunsmithing" by Dunlap. You can get it on Amazon. We use that book as the text for the initial course in Gunsmithing school.

This is not to say that the Wood books and the Kuhnhausen texts are not excellent. They are. They are fairly specific to types of guns whereas the Dunlap book is more general in nature, covering the whole realm of the craft.

Clemson

 

[jpcampbell]

Most public libraries offer access to gunsmith books, and as gunsmithgirl said gunsmith kinks books are great because they offer common since answers and fixtures for doing gunsmith work.
their are several book sites where you can buy used books real cheap on gunsmithing as well.
What type of work does he want to do?

 

[johnnydangerously]

the work he would like to do is mostly with handguns, he loves his 1911, and his revolvers. He has some Walthers from when they were manufacturing them across the pond, and those are some really nice guns, also has some star (spanish+ poor quality) pistols, and even a .32 rimfire, these are guns he wants to be able to work on himself, and his S&W's and more common guns he wants to be able to work on, but not as badly as his rarer ones. He got the bug after having sending his competitive target pistol out and having the trigger worked, and after refinishing some stocks, an SKS, AK, and a Remington model 70 i believe

 

[rcmodel]

Definitely get the Kuhnhausen Shop Manuals for the 1911 & S&W's.
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=13805

It will possibly save him from ruining some very nice guns when he "Works on them".

After what he learns from the Kuhnhausen books, he may decide against "Working on them" when there is nothing wrong with them.


rcmodel

 

[wolf_from_wv]

their are several book sites where you can buy used books real cheap on gunsmithing as well.

Do you mind sharing those sites? I'm always looking to expand my collection:

 

[jacobhh]

RC makes a good point and I don't think he's being
condescending. Along with hand tools and precision
measuring devices, your Dad will need a good drill
and lathe, with associated skills, to do much of the
work. A Kuhnhausen book will make this pretty obvious.
If he has these or is willing to acquire them, great.
If not an alternative might be to build a muzzleloader.
They're complex and challenging, fun to shoot and
using hand tools and a book or two he can develop the
needed skills as he goes along from casual hobbyist to
total nut case. It took me a year to build my first rifle.
Pistols are normally less involved. A drill press is a big
plus in any case.

 

[johnnydangerously]

ruining guns

luckily he has enough old guns that he is thinking of having decommisioned that he can mess those up first, and not wreck any of his favorites. He made a blackpowder pistol, that revolves sort of like a gattling gun, it has four barrels that you load, and it revolves around with the next barrel after dropping the firing pin when you pull back the trigger, its pretty neat, although I've never seen it fired. The tools aspect is pretty much covered, he has a pretty nice drill press that will do the jobs well. He isn't thinking of becoming a gunsmith for any reason other than he loves firearms and everything about them, and wishes to know all he can about it, and finds great satisfaction in working on his firearms. again thanks for the information- a website link to the used books would be perfect, that way i would buy as many as i could under a budget