I'm 16, and I'm interested in a firearms related career. Please help

[TMiller556]

I only have one more question.. where will I learn the machining techniques used to design parts? Would that come from the mechanical engineering course?

 

[Zak Smith]

You need the theory of materials and mechanics, and you need the CAD, and you need the practical knowledge of how stuff is actually machined. I don't know if the latter is taught in ME curriculum - I would hope so, but many people get it doing real work at a machineshop.

 

[M-Cameron]

I only have one more question.. where will I learn the machining techniques used to design parts? Would that come from the mechanical engineering course?

engineering courses teach you a lot about design, material properties and manufacturing processes.....and you will learn some hands on machining.

if you are talking about part design....thats engineering

if you are talking about physically making the part on a lathe, mill, ect......i would look into a few good metal working classes.

You need the theory of materials and mechanics, and you need the CAD, and you need the practical knowledge of how stuff is actually machined. I don't know if the latter is taught in ME curriculum - I would hope so, but many people get it doing real work at a machineshop.

some practical knowledge is taught...im currently pursuing my BS in ME and weve had some actual machine shop experience....however the bulk of out work is in 'design'..

..however, classes are taken to learn which machining process is most suitable for the product at hand.

do i know how to run an end mill, lathe, and most other equip. in a workshop.....yes.....but itll take me a bit of time to be proficient with it.

to put it into perspective......i would probably have a hard time making a full firearm from scratch using what they taught me.......but ide imagine i could probably finish an 80% AR lower pretty easily.

 

[gearhead]

I didn't learn much about the hands-on fabrication of parts when I was in college earning my engineering degree but I drove 5 hours home every weekend to build and race NASCAR stock cars which is where I got my fabrication experience. You might get some of that during your military service but you can also take night classes at a vocational school. That could be something you might look into now, learning some basic machining and welding skills. Regardless what you go into, they will be useful if you plan to build things for yourself.

 

[Mike OTDP]

The first question would be whether or not you have the motivation and brainpower to handle an engineering program. They aren't for everybody. It's four or five years of hard work.

If you can, avoid enlisting. Go ROTC or Naval Academy. That way, the Government is paying the bills. Of course, you have to serve five years on active duty, but it sounds like you want to do that anyway.

Then start looking around. Consider both active-duty military and the Civil Service support organizations. Aberdeen Proving Grounds, and the Navy's facility in Crane, IN. Both can offer you a career in small arms development and testing. Large arms, too.

 

[Bobson]

Correct me if I'm wrong guys, but there is nothing the military can do for you careerwise that same time spent in college won't do for you. Sure, you get ... some educational benefits (under tight, difficult conditions), but, as mentioned, rarely does a military occupational specialty translate into a great civilian job. You have to wow the interviewer today in all ways to beat out the competition.

Ask and you shall receive. I was active duty Air Force for 4.5 years to the day (2 Mar '04 - 1 Sep '08), but the military was supporting me entirely up until December 2010, and I now work fulltime to supplement that income. I will continue to receive full Ch. 33 benefits until December 2012 (at which point I will have exhausted my entitlements).

The Chapter 33 GI Bill (more commonly known as the post-9/11 GI Bill) pays all of my non-resident tuition at a state school here in Arizona (I moved here in December 2010, which is why I'm a non-resident). It also supplies me with around $700 a year for books, which isn't quite enough, but it's very close. I also get paid full BAH at the rate of an active duty E5 with dependents (based on zip code - areas with high cost of living receive more), which is just under $1400 a month where I live (my younger brother separated from the USMC in late 2009, and his BAH from the GI Bill is just over $2000/monthly). The GI Bill is anything but tight or difficult to use; anyone who does use it and has problems is doing something very wrong. I'm not an idiot, but I'm not a rocket scientist either. Maybe it was different in the past, but it's outstanding now.

With my $10/hr job, and the Ch. 33 GI Bill benefits, I make enough money to support myself, my wife (who doesn't work because she stays home with our 7 month old daughter), and our daughter (who's, admittedly, fairly inexpensive at this point in her life). We don't live an extremely luxurious life right now, but we do live in a very nice, new apartment complex in an upscale part of Phoenix, and we're able to pay our bills, recreate a fair amount, and still put money aside every month. It's also not uncommon for a 22 year old military member to separate with $20,000 in savings (even more if he served in a highly-needed MOS).

Yes, I am a married 26-year-old guy who's still in college, which is less than ideal. I'm also able to say I served in the military, and have experiences that less than 5% of the entire world's population will never have or understand. I wouldn't trade my time in the military for a second lifetime's worth of experiences. In that sense, no, you can't get the same thing from college as you can from the military. You're right in that it's fairly rare for an MOS/AFSC/Rating to transfer directly into the civilian sector. You're also right that these days, an applicant needs to "Wow!" the interviewer any way possible to beat the competition.

In my experience, having an honorable term of service in the military is a great start to impressing an interviewer.

EDIT: I work in private security right now. After being hired, I found out that when I was interviewed for this job, another guy was interviewed the same day. He was extremely professional, well groomed, polite, physically fit, and did very well in the interview overall (I also had/did/was all those things). He was in his third year of college, with an A.A. in Criminal Justice already. I was almost done with my first year of school (also Criminal Justice). My boss told me I was hired over him because of my military service. Guess that says something about how people today view ex-military members.

I stand by my strong recommendation to join the military at age 18, and that goes for any level-headed teenage guy, whether he knows what career he wants, or not.

 

[lemaymiami]

I didn't think to state the obvious, which has nothing to do with your intended path, but might be the finest education possible. As one poster has said, our military academies are nothing short of outstanding - and I believe an engineering degree is possible through any of them. West Point, Annapolis, the Air or Coast Guard Academies, any one of them is a great start to any profession. At 16 you're right at the age when working toward that particular goal is a real possibility. Yes, you'll pay dearly for that "free" college but any Academy graduate has a leg up in any field they enter if they leave the military or a great career path if they remain and serve.

 

[gbw]

Like others have recommended, I would advise college first, either the service academy if possible or state college on ROTC.

After graduation put in 20 years of military service. You will have choices of career path not available as a civilian, and then retire young enough to have a complete 2nd career of your choice, and you will have retirement income and health insurance for life for you and your family.

There is no better long-term deal out there. A few civilians will do better, it true, but they are the very lucky few.

In addition, you probably will not find a better paying job as a civilian - military pay and allowances are now higher than comparable civilian salaries (in the top 25%ile), and that assumes a civilian job is even available - don't count on it.

Same advice if you don't want to go to college. Enlist and plan on 20 years, make the most of it. Good luck.

 

[MachIVshooter]

Work is something you'll grow to not enjoy, whatever it is. Whether it be guns, computers, cars, or anything else

That's not necessarily true. I've been a gear head as long as I've been a gun nut, and I own my shop, run every aspect of the business. It can be trying at times, especially those 22-hour days with little profit that leave me no time with my family. But I still love what I do, and enjoy wrenching on my personal toys as well.

Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones, being that I have an innate talent and passion for my career and can make a decent living at it. But I don't think that's limited to automotive (Most in this field don't really like what they do and aren't very good at it, honestly.)

You don't necessarily need a degree in anything to do what you want to do, but lack of diploma will make it difficult to get hired with a major company. It also depends on whether you can self-teach or not; Some people are bright, but just need the structure of a classroom setting and assignments to get anywhere. My sister is one such person. She's a PhD microbiologist with a fellowship now, but she had great difficulty picking anything up without that structured environment. I was quite the opposite. I hated school, dropped out when I was 15. But I have bookcases full of everything from welding and fabrication manuals to physics text books, electronics, anatomy and physiology...........even philosophy. She and I just learn very differently. She stayed focused in the classroom, my mind wandered. No teacher could ever keep my interest very long. But she also won't sit up researching random topics online until 4 am just because her curiosity was piqued for some strange reason. I do that all the time.

To do what you want to do is also going to require some aptitude. You're going to have to be good with numbers, understand mechanical things on a level that most people don't, and also know how to work with your hands. Prototypes are often designed on a CAD program, but the machine simply isn't going to spit out parts that are ready for assembly and will function as designed with no fitting and modification.

Can you conceptualize functional machines in your head? That's going to matter. Of course they'll need to be put down on paper (or on the screen, as it were), but that should only be to make adjustments and work out exact numbers. Being able to visualize the relationships between moving parts without actually seeing them is something you're either born with or you're not.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Enjoying Work

Work is something you'll grow to not enjoy, whatever it is.

For what it's worth, from a perspective of more than sixty years of life and more than thirty years in my career, permit me to offer what little insight I have . . .

1) Whatever job you do, perform your duties with integrity. Don't cheat at your job. Deliver more value than is asked. Don't keep secrets from your employer or your clients. Always deliver on a promise.

It is the secrets, dishonesty, broken promises, and theft of value that drive a man to hate his vocation. With your conscience clear and your vision unclouded by bitterness at your own failings, you will outlast your success-at-all-costs competition. They don't teach honor in school, but it's the single most important attribute in achieving real success.

2) Create your job. Own it, make it yours, learn it to the point of excellence. Educate yourself on the new developments in your field. Improve the way your job is done. Make your job a better place for the guy who will eventually replace you as you move on up.

Anything that is not constantly created eventually decays. Bring vitality to whatever you do, and you will never have to apologize for what you turn over to your successor.


Yes, there's a lot more, but if you can master just those two things, you will enjoy whatever you choose to do.

It's almost a kind of magic.

I hope you find this advice useful, and use it to prosper.

 

[parsimonious_instead]

For what it's worth, from a perspective of more than sixty years of life and more than thirty years in my career, permit me to offer what little insight I have . . .

1) Whatever job you do, perform your duties with integrity. Don't cheat at your job. Deliver more value than is asked. Don't keep secrets from your employer or your clients. Always deliver on a promise.

It is the secrets, dishonesty, broken promises, and theft of value that drive a man to hate his vocation. With your conscience clear and your vision unclouded by bitterness at your own failings, you will outlast your success-at-all-costs competition. They don't teach honor in school, but it's the single most important attribute in achieving real success...

I fix computers for a living. When I started out doing this full time 9 years ago, computers were still a joy, a pleasure and still a bit of a "magic box" for me. Although it's my own business, it's become quite the grind, and computers are now mere tools...

I feel professionally burned out, and I'm one of the really honest ones. I don't install parts that aren't needed, and don't pad out my billing. If anything, I probably under-bill - why else would clients routinely add a few extra dollars when I tell them the total, and continue to call me back and refer me to their friends, neighbors and co-workers?

Aside from the actual benefits package, serving in the military does seem to open up a lot of doors.

Let's say you applied for a job as a sales rep for a firearms company that sold in volume to private contractors or governments. Whether they're showing off the product on the SHOT show floor, or sending a sales team to a potential volume buyer, the person wearing the company logo has far more credibility if they've served in some capacity.

Another poster advised studying law, and perhaps working in-house in the legal dept. of a gun company. Not a bad idea, but I'd like to add that in general a law degree is surprisingly versatile. Some of my most successful clients studied law, but don't practice it. Law school imparts excellent thinking skills - both the analytical and adversarial stuff which are invaluable in business. Plus knowing how to effectively read and modify a contract helps tremendously in deal making.

 

[azmjs]

You need to get an engineering degree.