Don't give up your day job eating is one of the first requirements Start buying old junkers and learn the art of polishing, hot blue, rust blue and reassembling, find out how to run your own outfit and deal with customers. After 5 to 10 years of this try refinishing wood and learn to mount all types of sights, If you have any spare time take advanced metal turning,welding,milling,and any other course that is avalable. Spend 50 to a 100 grand on tools,ruin the house where you live, listen to your wife #####,deal with pst and gst, keep your paperwork up to date.deal with the cfo and most of all learn how to fix yours and others f--kups. After about 30 to 40 years maybe call yourself a gunsmith. Rick
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Gunsmithing schools???
- Thread starter Slowbalt
- Start date
Don't give up your day job eating is one of the first requirements Start buying old junkers and learn the art of polishing, hot blue, rust blue and reassembling, find out how to run your own outfit and deal with customers. After 5 to 10 years of this try refinishing wood and learn to mount all types of sights, If you have any spare time take advanced metal turning,welding,milling,and any other course that is avalable. Spend 50 to a 100 grand on tools,ruin the house where you live, listen to your wife #####,deal with pst and gst, keep your paperwork up to date.deal with the cfo and most of all learn how to fix yours and others f--kups. After about 30 to 40 years maybe call yourself a gunsmith. Rick
sigh. so much depression and negative waves. Becoming a gunsmith is no worse than becoming a commercial pilot, and I've been in and out of that morass more than once in my life. Did it make me rich? No. Did it give me pleasure, more great memories than I can recall? Yes. It even got me a wife. So, if you want to do it, do it. I will tell you that here within a hour of Winnipeg (none at all in the city) there are maybe, maybe TWO working gunsmiths dealing with the public and each has a minimum 7 month backlog of work. That sounds like opportunity to me.
Hi
Gunsmithing has some unique aspects to it. It's something that a number of people get into after a carrier doing something else. There are a number of gray haired gunsmiths who have only been doing it for 10 or 15 years. For them it's a form of semi-retirement.
If you can put a couple of guys like that together, and back it up with sound business management, you can have a very nice business. The key, as always is the right fit of people, management, and location. It's no different than any retail business in that respect.
The success rate on *any* retail small business is pretty poor. Small restaurants and bars are probably the best example. Around here they seem to change hands every three to five years. There are a couple that defy the trend.
Gunsmiths in this area fare about the same. A buddy and I spend most of the summer doing one lunch a week out on the road. We would drive over and check out every small gun shop / gunsmith in the book. We also added ones that were not in the book, but that somebody knew about. Our success rate was about 1 in 20.
The flip side of all this is that a lot of people are obviously doing it the wrong way. Just because and idiot can fail is no reason why a bright person can't succeed. There is a need, and a way to address that need. It takes good people, time, financial investment, sound management, and a good location. Put all of those together and you probably will do quite well.
Bob
Gunsmithing has some unique aspects to it. It's something that a number of people get into after a carrier doing something else. There are a number of gray haired gunsmiths who have only been doing it for 10 or 15 years. For them it's a form of semi-retirement.
If you can put a couple of guys like that together, and back it up with sound business management, you can have a very nice business. The key, as always is the right fit of people, management, and location. It's no different than any retail business in that respect.
The success rate on *any* retail small business is pretty poor. Small restaurants and bars are probably the best example. Around here they seem to change hands every three to five years. There are a couple that defy the trend.
Gunsmiths in this area fare about the same. A buddy and I spend most of the summer doing one lunch a week out on the road. We would drive over and check out every small gun shop / gunsmith in the book. We also added ones that were not in the book, but that somebody knew about. Our success rate was about 1 in 20.
The flip side of all this is that a lot of people are obviously doing it the wrong way. Just because and idiot can fail is no reason why a bright person can't succeed. There is a need, and a way to address that need. It takes good people, time, financial investment, sound management, and a good location. Put all of those together and you probably will do quite well.
Bob
I enjoy being a gunsmirth, I enjoyed getting my private pilots with float,nite, instrument and tail indorsement ., Flying took 5 years gunsmithing takes foreversigh. so much depression and negative waves. Becoming a gunsmith is no worse than becoming a commercial pilot, and I've been in and out of that morass more than once in my life. Did it make me rich? No. Did it give me pleasure, more great memories than I can recall? Yes. It even got me a wife. So, if you want to do it, do it. I will tell you that here within a hour of Winnipeg (none at all in the city) there are maybe, maybe TWO working gunsmiths dealing with the public and each has a minimum 7 month backlog of work. That sounds like opportunity to me.
Last edited:
