Gunsmithing Courses

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BoulderDash

Inactive
Hey guys,

I'm looking to attend some courses to learn more about gunsmithing. I've got experience doing many basic gunsmithing tasks and I'm looking for more advanced knowledge.

I live in Ohio and am willing to travel within reason, and I understand some of these courses cost a couple thousand dollars. I also work full time so I'll have to get time off work to attend.

I'm interested in courses similar to what Larry Vickers and Bob Marvel offer on hand fitting 1911s together, but obviously limited by having a full time job. Plus these two courses are $3k+ and although I can afford it, that's a lot of money to me. I've looked at the Sonoran Desert Institute 1911 class where you build a 1911 from an 80% frame BUT I can definitely see the end product coming out bad by learning through a computer screen.

Also, if anyone has more general courses (not limited to 1911) that they've taken and thought valuable, please do recommend.

Again, I'm in Ohio and closer is better.

Thanks!

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Hi. I've never seen any that are worthwhile that are not 2 years on Community College.
No idea if these guys are worth the effort($) or not, but they're at least local. Do not bother with On-line courses. Or mail order classes.
http://gunsmithtraining.org/
 
The agi(American gunsmithing institute) has a great set of videos. While I did not purchase mine through the agi so I do not know the price, they are not cheap.

There are two schools(physical campuses) in the Denver area, and SDI (SDI.edu) has an online program. There's also a great school in California.

The agi videos have a great series on "building the ultimate 1911" although for part of it it's a 2011. They are quite dated. The glock course he has and might even be using a gen 1, maybe gen 2 for the demonstration.

Those are the ones I know of because those are close to me. I know there's a couple in the Philly/pennsylvania area

Check this list out
http://study.com/articles/List_of_the_Top_Gunsmithing_Schools_in_the_US.html
 
Open your mind, and your options.

Being a breadwinner in my family, I haven't been able to quit my job for two years to go to trade school even though there is one 20 miles from my home. They do not offer night courses so I am pretty much out of luck in the "brick and mortar" schooling front.

I did take a correspondence course from a company called Foley Belsaw. It was less than a grand for courses, you had to submit your tests for each chapter so someone else was at least grading your progress, and they did a competent job at explanation and going through the basics of gunsmithing as well as exposure to running a small shop. They provide some simple tools like a punch set, screwdriver kit, hammer and the like, as well as some signage necessary in a shop, but the most important thing is I did learn things that I had half baked knowledge of before and did improve on my base knowledge of the craft. A better foundation than I had before is what I gleaned from my experience with them and that is all I expected to get - not enough to be called a professional craftsman, but enough to add to my knowledge base.

Even a "brick and mortar" tech school cannot teach everything one needs to know, and that mostly experience built on a solid foundation produces a quality set of skills from which to work. Coming from the automotive technical field, and the computer programming and hardware specialist field, I've spent my life in careers heavily built on experience and exposure moreso than schooling experience to build the skill sets necessary to be a quality professional. I've seen both examples of idiots with all the schooling in the world, and sheer geniuses with little schooling and tons of experience.

Likewise in this field, schooling, both "brick and mortar" and online, can build knowledge sets and foundations for those seriously interested in making something out of their skills. Learning never ends, and however you get the exposure, either by bloody knuckles or learning from someone elses experience is all the same.

IMHO online courses are not the be all end all of learning, and neither are "Brick and Mortar" classes. The potential for totally inept teachers in brick and mortar schools is just like inept online "classes" and YouTube videos. Find what works best for you and increase exposure and experience; be smart with your money too - if it seems too good to be true, it most likely is. AGI and Sonoran Technical Institute are both online options that I have seen time and again sponsored from reputable sources like Hickok45, NSSF, and the NRA. Encyclopedia Google can help if you search "best suggested gunsmith school". Here's a result: https://gunsmithing.nra.org/find-a-school/

I am of the opinion that when we start to dismiss other avenues of knowledge, we are merely limiting ourselves and our power.

Good luck with your endeavor.
 
Discussed "Gunsmithing Schools" recently with a friend of mine also in the business (and for much longer than I).

We agreed that these schools today- including Trinidad- are woefully inadequate and still living in the dark ages if the intent is to prepare someone for a career in gunsmithing today.

Everything has moved at lightning speeds towards CNC- even for small shops.

Us older dogs still running manual lathes/mills aren't keeping up with technology. Of course, there are and will always be jobs better suited for manuals. But when I looked at gunsmithing "schools" I was terribly disappointed as none seem adequate and offer 20th century technology and methods.

It's all about programming, code and modeling in this industry today, and there is no "school" to our knowledge that teaches gunsmithing in this modern environment. Total waste of money to pay someone to show you how to d&t a Mauser receiver today...
 
I took eight NRA Summer classes at Lassen College but for full time went to Trinidad State. I know of AGI because one of our instructors at Lassen was the principal instructor before starting up AGI. When I was in law enforcement, I took virtually every factory armorer's course too.

Take some machine shop classes at a local JC. They'll teach you how to operate a lathe and mill. Take some summer NRA classes. I think going this route part time is better than a correspondence or video course.

Since you're in Ohio, you might want to take a class offered at the Log Cabin Shop in Lodi. My first flintlock class was there and taught by John Plybomb. You can take more flintlock classes just to learn how to fit wood to metal (essential for stockmaking) at the NMLRA Gunbuilding classes at Bowling Green, KY (at WKU).
 
well I guess I am just to old school but CNC is the way of modern machine shop.
And there are several will known shops that use that technology.

Sad to think that a public school like Trinidad is missing that.
 
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To address tobnpr,
I'm currently finishing my 5th semester (one more to go) at Piedmont Technical College for an Associate's Degree in General Technology. This is a combination path of their complete gunsmithing program as well as basics of Machine Tool Technology. Before I started the program, I had a semester of machine tool learning to run a lathe and a mill as well as basics of CNC operation (writing simple programs on a HAAS lathe and mill and making simple parts). Not everybody is pushed through this path, with some doing only the gunsmithing certificate, and almost every person who skipped the full degree program with machining has told me they wished their counselors had informed them better of their options.

I was a CNC Machinist for a year after school, an opportunity I got as a direct result of my machine tool classes and our school's outreach with local industry. Mostly I was just acting as an operator (Load the vices, press the green button, inspect critical tolerances and record on one out of every X parts, deburr, repeat and keep the machine running) but I did some set up also.

I am coming up on an interview with a growing company in Florida producing NFA items as well as custom sporting rifles, 1911s, and general gunsmithing. My experience in both gunsmithing and CNC machining/programming is one of the selling points I was able to use as a point of interest to get the initial interview.

All of this is to say that as much as CNC is growing as a necessary part of manufacturing and gunsmithing, I can't imagine it replacing the gunsmithing knowledge I've gained so far. Fitting parts to each other by hand, fitting a barrel to a receiver with a lathe, carving a rifle stock from a blank (or even a semi-inlet piece), repair, refinishing, all seem to me to be valuable skills. Depending on what your goals are, there is a lot of valuable information to be learned from that without CNC (although I do think more and more CNC and programming knowledge will become increasingly beneficial). I wouldn't discourage someone from learning the classical methods if they want to gain gunsmithing experience. Unless somebody wants to be a full service gunsmith in a custom shop, I see more people working with the basics than getting into the engineering and tooling to start a production run of a new product.

I can say that if you have the option to learn in person from somebody who knows what they're doing and can look over your shoulder, it's been very beneficial for me. My teachers have caught a lot of things I was doing wrong before they became major errors, and have been able to help fix cases where I have made real mistakes. It will happen the first time you're doing something new and you may not even have the experience to know that what you're doing is wrong. That's my concern with internet classes for anything much more complex than armory
 
^^ Great insight.

I agree 100%, depends on the nature of the intended business- but I think for most wanting to start a career in this business, CNC is mandatory. There will always be a market for "handwork" or work better suited for a manual machine. Being a whiz with code, doesn't help hand-fit a 1911 slide or do a trigger job.
 
dakota.potts - (1) is J. Stevens your stock making instructor? (2) Can you get me a copy of that brochure with the salt/pepper hair Opti-visor wearing guy doing the chequering? The school's marketing was embarrassed when they learned it wasn't one of their own students.
 
Gunsmithing is certainly a forever learning process ! You can get a good basic knowledge at a school like I did at CST. But that's a start and you continue to learn as you go along.
Any trade school also is a place where the harder you work the more you learn !
 
What mete said is true. There is always something to learn. You'll collect or make more tools, books as you go through life's travel.
 
Gary,
There is no instructor currently at the school with the last name Stevens. The current stock making instructor is a graduate of CST however.

As for the checkering guest, I'll see if we have any of those brochures :D
 
I agree that machining is an important skill if one wants to be a gunsmith. I took a correspondence course back in the early 90s and the one thing it couldn't teach was machining. So I found a local year-long course in both hand and CNC lathe and milling machine operations. This rounded out the correspondence course nicely.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet, I don't think, is the importance of having an FFL. You really need to have an FFL if you're gonna be a gunsmith. Even if you choose to specialize in stock-making you'll probably still need to get an FFL. Back when I got mine, they were cheap. Not so much anymore now, thanks to a certain liberal administration that occupied the White House back in the 90s. Still, sucking it up and coming up with the funds, and securing an FFL is important if you're really serious about gunsmithing as a career -- or even an avocation.
 
Back when I got mine, they were cheap. Not so much anymore now, thanks to a certain liberal administration that occupied the White House back in the 90s.
Click to expand...

Actually, the license is very inexpensive, my 07 costing $150 for three years...

It's the recent "development" classifying gunsmithing activities under DOS/ITAR that's expensive. Hopefully this will be reversed by the current Administration.
 
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