gunsmithing school

[kingcheese]

I'm looking to become a gunsmith and i have no idea how to go about it, I'm in Indiana and id prefer to stay as close as possible but to be legal i don't know if i need to be schooled or an apprentice or what so any help is welcomed

 

[jason41987]

are you looking to do this for yourself, or for profit.. almost all professional gunsmiths ive met needed a regular job to pay the bills as starting out theres not as much money to be made as many people believe.. not until you have many years under your belt and a good reputation.. myself, i do gunsmithing for myself and it doesnt make me money, but it does save me some at times.. mostly just a hobby though

if youre looking to learn for yourself, with guidance from others, and asking questions on here i dont see why you cant teach yourself

 

[4v50 Gary]

Pennsylvania School of Trades. That's closer to you than Yvapai in Arizona or Trinidad or the Colorado School of Trades.

 

[dfariswheel]

If you want to be a real professional go to a professional school.
As above, the Pennsylvania school is closest to you.

Pennsylvania Gunsmith School
812 Ohio River Blvd.
Avalon
Pittsburgh, PA 15202
Phone: 412-766-1812

 

[kingcheese]

I'm looking to do it for profit, its in high enough demand in my area but a good smith is hard to come by, preferably id look to work in a gunshop with smithing as something to be a more useable fall back , I've got limited experience with lathes or mills but got a little bit with pnuematic cut off wheels and grinders, torque wrenches, presses and a handful of other tools, i guess something i failed to ask is how long does one of these schools take to complete and about what it costs, and if being 20 would get in the way for legal aspects

 

[dfariswheel]

Time is usually at least two years, depending on the school and how you progress.
Cost is usually pretty high. This varies from school to school.
Being 20 should be no problem legally.

 

[kingcheese]

If cost is to high it wouldn't be realistic for me to move, so if that doesn't work out right now are there any machines i should look to get trained on?

 

[Zeke/PA]

Trinidad State Jr. College in Trinidad Colorado is the ONLY place that matters.
Good luck in trying to get accepted though as the school's popularity has increased by reaps and bounds over the years.

 

[dfariswheel]

Learning to operate a mill and lathe is good, but you already have that experience.

There's an opinion that you just have to be a real expert with milling and lathe work to be a real gunsmith, but the fact is, probably 95%-plus of a gunsmiths time is spent sitting at a bench with a screwdriver, punch and stone, working on some small component.

I'd suggest buying a couple of the Jerry Kuhnhausen shop manuals.
He wrote these shop manual as training aids for new gunsmiths.
Each manual covers a specific brand and type of firearm and shows virtually all gunsmithing operations in detail.
The techniques shown are the FACTORY methods of repair so this will show you the way modern gun repair is , or should be done.

I'd pick a couple to match any guns you own and just sit down with the gun and the manual and figure out how the gun actually works, and how it's restored to factory spec condition.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/cid=...+(Descending)/Products/All/search=shop_manual

 

[Zeke/PA]

I'll keep saying it!
TSJC (Trinidad State Jr. College) is the ONLY way to go.

 

[kingcheese]

Ok, I'm going to put it this way, going that far away for a school is not an option, i need to plan short term goals so I'm going to take some advanced machining courses

 

[4v50 Gary]

Machine skills really help.

Trinidad does have an excellent if not the best reputation among the gunsmithing schools. One student recently converted a double barrel shotgun into a double rifle. He did this over a six month period of time and took it to a custom gunbuilder show. All the professional gunsmiths were impressed by his work.

One thing about Colorado, stay there for a year to establish residency. Tuition is about double for out of state residents.


I visited the school's library. They have about fourteen six shelf bookcases filled with gun related books (about four shelves are knife and knife making books). They have old, out-of-print and hard to find volumes. They have factory manuals, Army technical manuals, repair books, stock making books, Kuhnhausen's books, bound magazines, reloading books and manuals, shooting instructions (shotgun, rifle, handgun), books on sniping, military firearms, books on flintlocks, powder horns, pistols, revolvers. Virtually any subject related to firearms may be found in that library. It's a research center in and of itself for a student of small arms. You could sit there and read all day (if you didn't have to attend classes and do lab work, ahem, make guns).