Gunsmith course

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Cameron300

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North of GTA
I’m looking at taking a gunsmith course part time.
Where is a good place to take the course ? In the GTA
All I can find searching around in career colleges not sure if I want to do a course at one of them......
Any suggestions would be great

Edited post......
didn’t mean all online I understand there is hands on parts
 
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Google “gunsmith courses in Canada”. Several career colleges pop up and they advertise all “online”
Hence my post on here to get some info
I have looked at colleges in the area and can’t find anything
 
Probably better off starting out as a machinist, or at least getting some good experience in a shop with manual machines.
 
There is an organisation you can join which will give you training in firearms repair,but the pay sucks, the hours suck and the working conditions suck its called the military.
 
I have done military time and back then I wanted to be in a combat roll. Now I’m too old and broken and have a good job....looking for something on the side/ hobby for when I retire.
 
Take Business Courses!

I have seen a LOT of aspiring gunsmiths with great skills, crater in, when it came to actually running a business!

Being a hobby, even a very advanced one, is a whole different thing that actually keeping the lights on, and the doors open, while running an actual business!
 
Munkey1973 said:
If I was ever to persue gunsmithing as a side gig (maybe after I retire as an accountan), this is route I am thinking.
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I do it as a hobby and side line but I have had formal training. knowing how to properly use hand tools is essential but having ability to read parts catalogs and find parts will serve you better than knowing how to run machines for doing it as a side line.
 
Any of the online gunsmith courses I've seen are pretty mickey mouse.

However, they do give some good information on such things as how to bed an action into a stock, adjusting some types of triggers, scope mounting etc.

I haven't seen one yet that goes into usable detail.

American Gunsmith Institute has an off campus set of courses that you can do in your own time and it's pretty good.

Big question is, what type of work is it you're planning on doing??? How good are your metal working skills and do you have the proper tools to do the jobs you would like to do.

There is a lot more to working on firearms than refinishing a stock, bedding an action, screwing on a barrel etc. It's actually a hodgepodge of different interests/trades. As often as not, it's a labor of love, rather than profitable.

I believe the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology had an off campus course as well.
 
Cameron300 said:
I have done military time and back then I wanted to be in a combat roll. Now I’m too old and broken and have a good job....looking for something on the side/ hobby for when I retire.
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If this is just for a hobby, then I suggest finding a local gun smith and asking if he is willing to take on an apprentice. Some gun smiths are leery of training apprentices because they are creating their own competition if the guy plans to open his own shop, but if you let them know what you are planning, they may be happy to get some extra work out of you on the cheap.

Most of the big gun manufacturers offer their own armourer courses gear specifically to their firearms. IF you have a particular product line you are interested, maybe collect a few of the manufacturers courses in that area. They tend to be shorter and less expensive than a general community college program, and once you get a feel for specific principles of gunsmithing from these courses, the knowledge should readily transfer to other makes and models.

Modern guns are all about disassembly and replacing easy to replace parts. Classic guns are more about wood working and refinishing surfaces. So depending on what interests you, you can probably learn alot of the skills you want to learn either through carpentry or general metal working.
 
I took a gunsmithing course in Calgary at SAIT when it was offered.

We focused on basically rebarreling a rifle and building some small tools to help.

I'd suggest taking a machining course at a local college and learning how to operate a manual lathe.

If you can hit some sizes and learn how to run the machine, you're probably 90% of the way to rebarreling a rifle.

Stuff like bedding stocks can all be done at home. Do some reading, watch some youtube and start trying it out.
 
highlander said:
If your still in apply for a re-muster to Weapons Tech.
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Better yet, don't.

At least, not until you spend some quality time seeing what the actual work looks like.

You don't actually 'fix' very much. You swap a lot of parts, but otherwise, most of the stuff that sounds and looks like Gunsmithing, is stuff that you send the actual guns back to Depot or contractor for.

The shine will come off in a hurry, after a couple months of strip, clean, inspect, assemble, lube, return it to the rack, do the next one....

It was my first choice as a trade back when I went in to the CF. Pretty glad I didn't get it! Did work in a Small Arms shop on an Air Base, back when the Air Weapons guys did that on Air Bases. At that time we had Army Weapons Techs taking over the work. The experience was...enlightening!

Like I said. I became glad that I did not get the trade from the outset.

Near as I know there is only one school out in Quebec, doing a Gunsmithing Course. Dunno if they do an English Language version or just in French. Other than that, you are pretty much looking at going Stateside (Trinidad College IIRC) or doing an informal apprenticeship of some form, as there is no Formal Apprenticeship for the trade, or doing some crappy mail order, back of a comic book correspondence course.
 
ReverendX said:
Get your red seal as a machinist then take gunsmith courses after that.
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Really? Invest several hundreds of hours getting a qualification in a trade that you then dump and go do something else?

That sounds like a shtty way to waste time and money!

Or, more to the point, an EXCELLENT way to waste time and money!
 
trevj said:
Really? Invest several hundreds of hours getting a qualification in a trade that you then dump and go do something else?

That sounds like a shtty way to waste time and money!

Or, more to the point, an EXCELLENT way to waste time and money!
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Doing gunsmithing just on the side only non restricted for the last five years and not having a machine I have turned down only about half dozen rebarrel jobs. If you are only doing it part time and as a hobby you probably don't need a lathe or any heavy machinery. If you get into it about 10 percent of the jobs that come my way are just cleaning or reassembling something the client thought was easy to do. YouTube can be a double edged sword about 50 percent is just finding the right part and fitting it in their firearm.
 
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