You can make a decent living as a gunsmith, but you do it easier by working for someone else.
As I've said before, if you run your own shop, you're NOT a gunsmith, you're a BUSINESSMAN who does gunsmithing.
The difference is, you'll spend most of your time doing businessman functions like paper work, tax papers, talking to potential customers, talking to irate and unreasonable customers, ordering parts and equipment, keeping books, etc.
Somewhere in there you'll get to do a little gunsmithing.
Almost NO self employed gunsmith works only 40 hours a week. Most work MUCH more including many weekends.
Figure up the total hours gunsmithing and doing the businessman functions and most are barely making minimum wage.
Working for someone else is good because while you put in 40 hours a week gunsmithing HE does the businessman stuff and worrying about paying the bills.
If you attend a top school that offers some type of degree you should be able to line up a job BEFORE graduating.
Potential employers include larger gun shops, bigger custom gunsmithing companies, gun manufactures, police departments, government agencies, defense companies, and companies that do experimental work.
They often look to the schools for potential employees, but they DO NOT look at anyone who has a certificate from a correspondence "school", nor do they look at anyone who served as an apprentice unless it's under a nationally known master who is also known for turning out top apprentices.
In other words, unless you have a degree or certificate from Colorado School of Trades, Trinidad State Jr College, Lassen , or one of the other top schools, they won't give you a look at all.
Most of the top schools offer placement services to help you line up a job.
When you've got about one year left in school, start actively looking for a job.
There's a gunsmithing "network" out there, it's up to you to tap into it and use it to find the leads.
By the time you have a couple of months left, you should have SEVERAL interviews lined up, and by the time you graduate you SHOULD have a FIRM job offer.
Going into business yourself right out of school is a non-starter.
The expense for equipment, tooling, and the various local, State, and Federal business licenses and permits is HIGH.
Without a customer base of ready business, you'll bust out in less than a year for simple lack of customers.
There is a real need for qualified gunsmiths, but what's needed are GOOD gunsmiths, not more hacks.
The way to get good and know you're good is in one of the top schools.
If you simply lack the talent for the work, they'll let you know unless you're totally dense.
Many, if not most of the people you'll see in the schools will either never really work as a gunsmith because they're simply no good at it, or will fail within a year and will go into other work.
Only the really good ones will be successful, and most of them will at least start out working for someone else.
There's room in the trade for good people who can do top work, but not for duffers who aren't stone-cold professionals.
You have to be one of those kind of people who never do a "perfect" job, and know that a "perfect" job isn't humanly possible, but who never tires of trying for perfection.
