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Getting Started

 

Getting started

Call it what you will, preparation, groundwork or paying your dues, becoming a gunsmith doesn’t happen overnight. Whether school, on the job or self taught, the amount of knowledge required to become a journeyman gunsmith is immense. No one can acquire this amount of skill and knowledge without a true love of the craft. If you know you want to be the “Gun Man” this book will try to get you started and keep you out of trouble. Remember if you love what you do you never have to work for the rest of your life.

If you are one of the lucky few that can take advantage of a school of gunsmithing then you need to be truly thankful. These schools are few in the U.S. and around the world. Even when located close by a lot of people can’t take advantage of organized traditional school because of economic conditions and family situations. If you are working hard to keep food on the table for a family then taking a couple of years off to learn a new skill is out of the question. But if you can do it this is the fastest way to learn.

The ones that landed a job where the employer trains you are probably the luckiest of all. Of course you already know these are hard to come by but there may be opportunities that have been overlooked. Sporting goods stores may hire a part time position to clean guns and install scopes and slings. Amazing how much you can learn just by taking a gun apart and studying the mechanism. Why not pick up a few dollars at the same time. I would rather get a check for 20 dollars than write one for a 1000!

For the self-taught gunsmithing is more of a challenge. If the will is there and applied with enough persistence and patience it will happen but it does take a lot of study. Taking advantage of any opportunity to learn is the key. This means working on guns when you get the chance and studying when you don’t. It also means learning the skills that support the gunsmithing. Machinist classes, welding and even shooting will help. Most community colleges have some classes that will help build your skill level and they are usually very flexible with schedules and real bargain.

Just learning to reload will be a big step in the right direction and almost mandatory for the gunsmith. After all the gun isn’t much good without the ammo and each one depends on the other being correct for the intended task. A lot of gun problems are traced back to improper hand loads. Hand loading teaches you the special relationship of headspace and chamber dimensions and customer expect you to be able to solve their reloading problems too. They will not trust or waste much time with a gunsmith that doesn’t know how to reload or shoot.

What, you have to shoot too? Yes, you don’t have to be world champion but you need to at least be competent. Competitive shooting is great for the gunsmith and his reputation. Nobody has to know your scores and they really don’t care but they feel better about their gunsmith if they know he is a shooter. Lots of opportunities in most parts of the country to become part of some type of organized shooting. Highpower rifle, bullseye pistol, IPSC, cowboy action, skeet, trap, sporting clays and lots more. You will no doubt run into potential customer on the range because at every match someone has problems. Being the gunsmith for a well-known shooter doesn’t hurt your reputation either. And it is a business expense if you plan well.

Understanding the laws concerning guns and gunsmithing are also a requirement for the gunsmith. At the present time gunsmiths are required to have a federal firearm license to take in work for repair that will be kept overnight. Each firearm being kept for repair must be recorded. Even if it was not the law this would still be a good practice. Imagine if you suffer a burglary and have to report stolen guns. It would be very unprofessional if you could not give a complete list of exactly what was missing and the serial numbers. Local laws are also a consideration and vary from location to location. Consult the ATF directly for the latest requirements and pay no attention to what others say. Beware of the startup kits offered by lots of sham artist online. These are nothing more than the free forms from the ATF. Get it straight from the top and save yourself a lot of trouble and money.

When you decide to get your license you need to think long and hard about exactly what your business will include. Will this be a service type business offering repair work only or do you plan to include retail sales? Will you have full time traditional hours? Will the business be in your home? What is available for a business location in your area? Will you be the sole owner or is this a partnership? Will there be employees? What kind of overhead will there be? Choose wisely, it is easier if you get it right from the start.

I have to admit I had very little experience with anything retail when I started in business. I knew how to fix guns but making a successful retail business is a whole other can of worms. If you plan on selling a few items along with your gunsmithing business don’t under estimate how much time it will take. I thought I would do repairs and if someone wanted something ordered like a gun or accessory I would order it for a small fee and make a few extra dollars. Well I learned, selling involves time and time is money. The man or woman looking for a gun first wants to find out what you know about guns and why this one is better. Maybe more than one trip to talk about the upcoming purchase. Then it is time to compare prices. They will drive 40 miles if it is $10 cheaper.

Next comes the search to find the distributor that has one in stock. This can really eat up time too. Then you order and it comes in wrong or he doesn’t like it. Who pays to send it back? Yes that’s right, it you! Now it comes in and he takes it. You spent an hour talking to him, 40 minutes finding one, 10 minutes each time he called to see if it came in yet. 20 minutes getting the return ok and 20 minutes repacking for shipment. 25 dollars shipping and insurance an a 10% restocking fee. Now 30 minutes to seal the deal and do the required legal paperwork. Wow I hope it is approved the first time. You have spent from 2 to 3 hours making your sale ( and $25). Lets say it is a $400 sale and you were making $75 dollars. Take out for your overhead and maybe you made $20 for your 3 hours. Now think about the 4 guns you didn’t repair while you were being Mr. Salesman and you start to get a feel for the retail business.

The retail business can be profitable but it requires a lot more than a casual interest. You can no doubt remember a lot of retail sporting good businesses in your area that didn’t survive. It is a tough business.

Maybe you can start like a lot of gunsmiths with a small shop at home either in the transformed garage or an out building located next to the home. It has the advantage of low startup cost and if this is a second job as soon as you get home the shop is open. Just be prepared that anytime you are home you are open. Doesn’t matter what the posted hours are if you are home you will have customers. Prepare your family too. One year I made a part for an over under on Thanksgiving day while my customer ate my turkey. He was going to Spain the next day on a hunt and this gun was the only one cleared thru customs.

Maybe after a few years working at home you decide the time is right to enlarge and go full time. Maybe an employee to handle sales and errands. Understand that employees have to be paid out of your profit. If this employee will be making $20,000 a year and you are doing retail at 20% markup then sales will have to increase well in excess of $100,000 before you break even. That is a lot of recoil pads! Of course there are lots of other things to consider too with employees like employee theft, liability and even OSHA.

Same way with a full partner except you can never tell a partner what to do. Partnerships have the highest failure rate of any business. It isn’t impossible just difficult.

By now you might not have a warm fuzzy feeling about starting your business. That’s ok, business is rarely a warm fuzzy, but it can be profitable if well planned and worked with an eye on the bottom line. Yes I know the idea is to do something you love and you don’t want to think about business but somewhere the bills have to be paid. Plan well both for the expected and unexpected and you will be fine. Gunsmithing for the professional is different than as a hobby. I have enjoyed it both ways and it is a great profession.

 

 

 

 

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Becoming a Gunsmith

Why do you want to be a gunsmith?

 

It was an easy question to answer years ago. The gunsmith was the top craftsman in most places. His skills were hard earned and valuable. Not just to him but to his community that depended on their guns for survival. He had to be a better metal worker than the blacksmith, better woodworker than the carpenter and make all his own tools. His processes were closely guarded secrets handed down from master to apprentice only after they had paid their dues with years of long hours and low pay.

For me it started early. My father who could fix anything would take his shotgun to a gunsmith for repair. I thought if this man can fix something Pop can’t then he must be the smartest man on earth. As I grew older and began hunting I marveled at the springs, pins, slides and small parts that seemed to magically do their work to fire and reload on my 22. When my shooting progressed to shotguns and center fire rifles there was always an improvement sought that would make me a better shot. When competitive shooting became center stage it propelled me into advanced gunsmithing by necessity on two fronts. One I had limited resources and two a good gunsmith was hard to find. But enough about me, let’s talk about gunsmithing today.

I once read an article that said to never take your gun to a local gunsmith because they were incompetent. I wonder if the people in Salt Lake City felt that way if they went to John Browning. Lets face it, everybody is local to somebody. The local gunsmith can be whatever he is capable of. Custom guns, specialty work or clean and repair. The secret to success is find a need and fill it.

It may not be glamorous but the basic gunsmith doing cleaning and light repairs will have the most jingle in the pocket at the end of the day. Remember you only have two hands and so many hours so you want to fill this with the most prosperous work. No need for expensive machine tools and huge shop with the accompanying overhead if you want to focus on this part of the business. Clean and check a Remington 1100 for $70 and you are below the national average. Ten of these would not be a hard day for any professional but try making $700 in one day on a custom gun. Of course you don’t usually have ten 1100s but you get the point. As gun owners we are all in the debt of these basic gunsmiths. They are the ones who keep guns working for the majority of shooters.

Maybe a specialty is more to your liking. Build a good 1911 and you will never run out of work. Custom stock makers are the same way. Long range rifle builders have popped up around the country lately and are enjoying brisk business. The specialty guys enjoy the advantage of becoming very good at what they do. This is because the do the same thing a lot. They make or find special tools that might not pay their way if only used for an occasional job. They become very good at what they do and can charge accordingly.

Whatever path the gunsmith chooses he has to balance it with the simple fact that he is not just working in a business, he is a business. To survive, this business like all others must make a profit. He can stay in his shop all day and talk to customers and answer all types of questions but at closing time if no work has been completed then who will pay the bills. Of course there is a balance that has to be attained. Work has to come in, be completed and go out. The work is there. By most estimates over 250 million firearms in the U.S. and less than 1800 gunsmith businesses, which makes for 138,000 guns per shop to be serviced. No you won’t have 138,000 in for cleaning but if they only come in once in 20 years that is 6900 guns a year and at $70. And that is just cleaning once every 20 years!

But who is going to pay for all this work? Customers of course, the public along with friends and relatives and even other businesses. Many gunsmiths fail when they don’t realize who they work for. It is the owner and not the gun that pays the bill. Learn it early and never forget, it is the customer that pays your salary and every one that comes through the door is your boss. Your job is to make him happy. So happy that he wants to come back and tells others in the meantime. That old gun might be a piece of junk but to you but to him (or her) it might be a connection to happier times or loved ones. You should be honored that you have been entrusted with such an important task and the customer should be able to see it in your actions. If you make a customer happy he might tell someone. If you make him unhappy he will certainly tell ten.

When I was tasked to create a course for a gunsmithing program I started to review available books. I found excellent books written 50 and 70 years ago on becoming a professional gunsmith but all the recent books were either on custom gunsmithing or amateur gunsmithing. After writing up many articles to supplement available text and instructions I realized I was slowly producing a book without a cover to help prospective gunsmiths to take the huge step of becoming a professional. I had no desire to make this a detail how to book but rather a compilation of tips and advice on not just being a gunsmith but being in business. Understand your business and know you have to do more than make the gun happy. You have to make the owner smile too!

I hope you realize I have no demeaning connotation when I use the term amateur gunsmith. I use the term only to refer that the amateur is not gunsmithing for income. Some of these craftsmen produce work that excels anything you can buy. They work because of a passionate desire to do perfect work and by not having to make money on the job they are able to pursue their hearts desire. You a lucky if you know one of these personally, if he is your friend you are blessed. I was blessed

So if you want to be the “gun man” then prepare yourself well. Remember the simple statement” find a need and fill it” well the need is there, only question is, can you fill it?