Mr. Rawles,
I am a new reader of your blog. One of my co-workers recently told me about it and I am hooked. I never knew there was such a large gathering of like minded people. The reason for this e-mail is to ask about gunsmithing courses. Being new to your site I may not be looking in the right direction. If this is a subject that has not been covered can you or any of your readers recommend an online or correspondence course? Thank you. – Randy G.
JWR Replies: I have not yet covered this topic, so here is my input on gunsmithing training opportunities in the U.S.: Gunsmithing is indeed a valuable skill and highly recommended as either a primary or secondary source of income. Assuming that you are looking at gunsmithing as an “at home” business and you want that business to be recession proof or even depression proof, I suggest that you develop a non-decorative specialty. (Not engraving, stock carving, or bolt jeweling,.) America already has plenty of engravers. To be fully employed both before and after TSHTF, you should consider specialties like semi-auto rifle repair/customizing, or combat handgun repair/customizing.
Full length courses are available from a number of colleges including Lassen Community College (Susanville, CA), Montgomery Community College (Troy, NC), Murray State College (Tishomingo, OK), Trinidad State Junior College (Trinidad, CO), and Yavapi College (Prescott, AZ).
Some very useful instructional videos/DVDs are available from AGI. Correspondence courses are available from Modern Gun School. But I have heard that they are no substitute for hands-on instruction. The NRA offers some excellent short term hands-on courses. Also take advantage of the relatively low cost armorer’s courses offered by gun makers like Springfield Armory, Colt, SIG and Glock.(For some of these you have to be a FFL dealer and already stocking their brand, or be associated with a police department that has that brand of gun as their issue weapon. One way to do that is to become a reserve police officer, and get involved as a police department armorer.)
You might also ask about apprenticing with a local gunsmith. Or if you are quite serious about gunsmithing as a life-long career, be willing to relocate to apprentice under a master gunsmith in the specialty of your choice. The best ones will want to train only someone that has a few years of basic gunsmithing experience, proven aptitude, and a real burning desire to excel at gunsmithing.
I don’t generally recommend military training as an armorer. The U.S. Army formerly had a separate “armorer” specialty, but that is now part of the 92Y (Unit Supply Specialist) military occupational specialty (MOS). Sadly, there is not much a gunsmithing “craft”: taught to 92Ys anymore–no offense, but in essence they’ve been reduced to just parts orderers and parts changers. For anyone that is already in the Army (active duty, reserve, or National Guard) there is a CD training set available from Tobyhanna Army Depot for the small arms portions of the 92Y advanced individual training (AIT) course. The applicable CDs are: CD 101-75 through 101-84. It might be useful to pick up 92Y as a secondary MOS.
As a starting point, I recommend that you start assembling your own gunsmithing library. For example, get every gun assembly/disassembly manual (such as the J.B. Wood’s multi-volume series) that you can lay your hands on. Used copies are often available at low prices through eBay or Amazon.com. I also recommend that you get a set of Jerry Kuhnhausen’s “Shop Manual” gunsmithing books. They are excellent.
You will of course also need to start assembling a set of gunsmithing tools. One of the best sources for tools is Brownell’s. The rudimentary basics to start gunsmithing would be: a full set of good quality hollow ground screwdrivers (I especially like the Chapman’s brand sets), a set of pin punches, a brass/plastic head hammer, wire cutters, a set of Swiss pattern files, a set of larger files of various profiles, a set of stones, some cold bluing solution, a roll pin assortment, and some coil spring stock.