Although I spent much of my adult life doing Gun repair and cleaning, I was not, and am not a schooled Gunsmith. I still pretty much referred to myself as a cleaning and repair person. I am home schooled so to speak, but well versed and educated on Gunsmithing and do not consider myself what some might call a kitchen table Gunsmith, or a bubba gunsmith. I know my limitations, and they generally are related to tooling rather than knowledge. I know that what I just printed opens me up to snickers, and some giggles, but do not underestimate my knowledge. I did not use the word expert.
My friend who owned the gun shop I did much of the work for over the years hired a schooled Gunsmith , when I asked him to phase me out of that roll. He asked me to interview him prior to hiring and after I did ,I did not recommend his hiring. The owner ignored my advise, and paid a price for doing so.
But the title says "Start" in it, so here is that short story. I was 12 years old when my oldest brother pulled up to the house with the trunk partly opened and tied with twine in that position. The rear end of his recently acquired 1953 Studebaker squatted under the weight of what he had in the trunk and back seat. He had just returned from a nearby town where a hardware store was going out of business, and he managed to purchase all the old broken, and unserviceable firearms accumulated by the store over its years in business.
I helped him unload and take all the stuff upstairs to his large bedroom. After all hauling was complete the sorting started.
When all the ruff sorting was completed the assembly and disassembly started to take place. This went on for many days as I helped him combine parts from different guns to produce workable versions of different models.
Anyone who loves guns, and loves tinkering would have been envious of the task. Several working guns resulted from the hours he and I spent. Winchester rimfire exposed hammer models in all the calibers made were assembled, Remington rimfire hammerless Model 12's were assembled , and a number of other guns were produced from those part guns.
A couple Remington Model 12's were cut down to make handy car guns for my two oldest brothers. They were relieved of those by the local PD and hung on the wall there for a few years.
So there is the story of how I got started, and got the bug for not just shooting, but for customizing, cleaning, and repair. No Pulitzer prize stuff, but simply a short piece of my personal history with firearms.
PS: The schooled Gunsmith I interviewed was asked what are the three main systems used to operate a semi-auto shotgun. He couldn't name one. His answers to my other questions did not get much better.
My friend who owned the gun shop I did much of the work for over the years hired a schooled Gunsmith , when I asked him to phase me out of that roll. He asked me to interview him prior to hiring and after I did ,I did not recommend his hiring. The owner ignored my advise, and paid a price for doing so.
But the title says "Start" in it, so here is that short story. I was 12 years old when my oldest brother pulled up to the house with the trunk partly opened and tied with twine in that position. The rear end of his recently acquired 1953 Studebaker squatted under the weight of what he had in the trunk and back seat. He had just returned from a nearby town where a hardware store was going out of business, and he managed to purchase all the old broken, and unserviceable firearms accumulated by the store over its years in business.
I helped him unload and take all the stuff upstairs to his large bedroom. After all hauling was complete the sorting started.
When all the ruff sorting was completed the assembly and disassembly started to take place. This went on for many days as I helped him combine parts from different guns to produce workable versions of different models.
Anyone who loves guns, and loves tinkering would have been envious of the task. Several working guns resulted from the hours he and I spent. Winchester rimfire exposed hammer models in all the calibers made were assembled, Remington rimfire hammerless Model 12's were assembled , and a number of other guns were produced from those part guns.
A couple Remington Model 12's were cut down to make handy car guns for my two oldest brothers. They were relieved of those by the local PD and hung on the wall there for a few years.
So there is the story of how I got started, and got the bug for not just shooting, but for customizing, cleaning, and repair. No Pulitzer prize stuff, but simply a short piece of my personal history with firearms.
PS: The schooled Gunsmith I interviewed was asked what are the three main systems used to operate a semi-auto shotgun. He couldn't name one. His answers to my other questions did not get much better.
