Ok, I've been told your not going to get rich but I've also been told your not got to be building a whole lot of custom 1911's either. What is the most common shop requests and which are the most proffitable from a time/equipment investment? I was thinking metal refinishing is lower labor, high demand service. A local smith only did parkerizing and seemed to always have work comming in.
where's the money in gunsmithing?
- Thread starter dchi
- Start date
Metal finishing if done properly is not a low labor task. By the time you take a firearm completely apart. Clean all parts and remove all bluing. Bead blast to remove surface rust. Then polish all parts back up to the factory finish. Blue the parts and reassemble the firearm. You will have a lot of time invested. The main money makers in my shop are cleanings and repairs, recoil pads, muzzle brakes and selling scopes.
Refinishing is probably the hardest thing to do well. That's the part of the business some gunsmiths eliminate, farm out, or cheap-out on.
Wheres the money? The accessories- like any other business. I suppose you could open a "gunstore" and only sell accessories and it just might work.
Wheres the money? The accessories- like any other business. I suppose you could open a "gunstore" and only sell accessories and it just might work.
I'm not a gunsmith and I don't pretend to know where the money is.
The cowboy shooters generate a fair amount of work.
An old '97 gets more shells run through it in a season of action shooting than it would in 10 years of duck and pheasant hunting.
6 guns need tuning,and there is always the squib load.
Some 92 carbine might need a octagon rifle barrel and a new crescent buttstock.
I guess,where there is an active group of shooters,there might be work.
If you have a buckskinner group,it might be Hawkens ,if its handguns knocking over rams,....
The cowboy shooters generate a fair amount of work.
An old '97 gets more shells run through it in a season of action shooting than it would in 10 years of duck and pheasant hunting.
6 guns need tuning,and there is always the squib load.
Some 92 carbine might need a octagon rifle barrel and a new crescent buttstock.
I guess,where there is an active group of shooters,there might be work.
If you have a buckskinner group,it might be Hawkens ,if its handguns knocking over rams,....
Dfariswheel
New member
Fewer and fewer local gunsmiths are doing refinishing of any kind these days.
EPA regulations on the chemicals and the fact that refinishing is almost 100% time consuming hand labor raise the cost higher than can be justified for anything but full time refinishing work.
Since full-timers are more trade shops doing refinishing for other shops and the public, they tend to specialize.
Locals who offer refinishing usually send it out to one of these trade shops.
The days of the local gunsmith who fires up the re-bluing tank once a month are about gone.
The "bread and butter" in gunsmithing is right where it's always been:
"Sighting in" a rifle for hunters. (Yes, I know you can't really sight in a rifle for someone else, but tell that to the average hunter).
Mounting scopes and bases.
Small repairs to firearms, like stripped screws, broken firing pins, broken extractors, and unsafe triggers someone "adjusted".
Detail cleaning guns.
Trouble shooting guns that aren't working properly.
EPA regulations on the chemicals and the fact that refinishing is almost 100% time consuming hand labor raise the cost higher than can be justified for anything but full time refinishing work.
Since full-timers are more trade shops doing refinishing for other shops and the public, they tend to specialize.
Locals who offer refinishing usually send it out to one of these trade shops.
The days of the local gunsmith who fires up the re-bluing tank once a month are about gone.
The "bread and butter" in gunsmithing is right where it's always been:
"Sighting in" a rifle for hunters. (Yes, I know you can't really sight in a rifle for someone else, but tell that to the average hunter).
Mounting scopes and bases.
Small repairs to firearms, like stripped screws, broken firing pins, broken extractors, and unsafe triggers someone "adjusted".
Detail cleaning guns.
Trouble shooting guns that aren't working properly.
Harry Bonar
New member
gunsmithing
Sir;
I'm retired now but I'll just give a on liner advice.
Get a good job, do your smithing part time, support yourself and family with your public works job!
Harry B.
Sir;
I'm retired now but I'll just give a on liner advice.
Get a good job, do your smithing part time, support yourself and family with your public works job!
Harry B.
oldcspsarge
New member
You can no longer do firearms finishing with an FFL....8/15/2008 ATF Firearms & Technology guidelines now require a Manufacturers FFL to legally do finishing.
Crazy but they are the regulators !
http://www.atf.treas.gov/firearms/firearmstech/081508manufacturing-of-firearms.pdf
Crazy but they are the regulators !
http://www.atf.treas.gov/firearms/firearmstech/081508manufacturing-of-firearms.pdf
I think those regs apply to companies or gunsmiths that buy guns and then alter them and sell them as a regular business, or who make guns and have them hardened/finished for sale. They don't apply to a gunsmith doing work on a customer's gun.
The regs would apply to a company like Navy Arms/Gibbs, which altered milsurp rifles, sometimes creating new models, like the "No. 7 Jungle Carbine."
Jim
The regs would apply to a company like Navy Arms/Gibbs, which altered milsurp rifles, sometimes creating new models, like the "No. 7 Jungle Carbine."
Jim
This is pretty accurate, but I've modified it a touch...
The "bread and butter" in gunsmithing is right where it's always been:
Another area where you can make money is if you know how to do trigger jobs on revolvers and fine tune 1911's.
People will pay some good money if you can smooth out the trigger on their carry gun. If you know how to smooth out a Ruger or Taurus you can stay busy once word gets around.
One local gunsmith has a sign in his shop for trigger jobs:
Labor for Grade 1 Trigger Job:
on stock revolver action: $85
on action modified by you: $120
on action modified by your buddy: $160
The "bread and butter" in gunsmithing is right where it's always been:
- Mounting scopes and bases.
- Bore-sighting scopes
- Small repairs to firearms, like stripped screws, broken firing pins, broken extractors, and unsafe triggers someone "adjusted".
- Detail cleaning guns.
- Trouble shooting guns that aren't working properly.
Another area where you can make money is if you know how to do trigger jobs on revolvers and fine tune 1911's.
People will pay some good money if you can smooth out the trigger on their carry gun. If you know how to smooth out a Ruger or Taurus you can stay busy once word gets around.
One local gunsmith has a sign in his shop for trigger jobs:
Labor for Grade 1 Trigger Job:
on stock revolver action: $85
on action modified by you: $120
on action modified by your buddy: $160
This may not apply to all gunsmiths. It states that if a "company" produces firearms or firearm receivers; sends them to a gunsmith/colorization shop, then that shop will need a MFG license.
An example is if Kimber or Colt contracted Robar to do their NP3 finish on all their tactical 1911s.
However, if an individual sends it to a shop for colorization, then it would not, as an individual isn't a MFG/company that "produced" that particular firearm.
Now, I wonder how that would apply to my situation? I have an AR15 that I had SBRd. I installed a 11.5" barrel remarked it with my name and SN#, as I AM the manufacturer of this SBR. So, can I take it into a gunsmith to have it Duracoated, if that gunsmith doesn't have a MFG license?
An example is if Kimber or Colt contracted Robar to do their NP3 finish on all their tactical 1911s.
However, if an individual sends it to a shop for colorization, then it would not, as an individual isn't a MFG/company that "produced" that particular firearm.
Now, I wonder how that would apply to my situation? I have an AR15 that I had SBRd. I installed a 11.5" barrel remarked it with my name and SN#, as I AM the manufacturer of this SBR. So, can I take it into a gunsmith to have it Duracoated, if that gunsmith doesn't have a MFG license?
2ndChance said:
Yes, since you own the gun and are not engaged in modifying guns for sale, you are not a manufacturer.
The "trip wire" is if you sell the SBR you made and produce more for re-sale to others. A refinisher who takes in guns from owners wanting their guns refinished or the finish changed does not need a MFG license. He only needs a MFG license if he finishes/refinishes guns that are for resale by the supplying gunsmith/FFL.
Clear as mud?
I guess I should have been more specific about refinishing. The local smith only did parkerizing. I was think more on those lines or bead blasted blueing or even spray on finishes which I hate. I know traditional blueing is a chore. But thank you all for you insight. How often do you get requests for rebarrelling either rifle or revolver?
Where's the Money?
Years ago CB radios were the fad and I found that it takes $35,000.00 worth of equiptment to work on a $35.00 radio. As a gunsmith and a FFL Manufacturer, I can say working on firearms is much the same.
--As for the finishing being easy, it's not. And consideration should be given to EPA regulations as well. If you're going to do hot blueing, the chemicals are toxic.
--Refinishing stocks? In a lot of cases it's cheaper just to pick up a new replacement stock. And as more guns go to plastic the demand for wood work is less. Try it as a hobby, keep the day job.
Years ago CB radios were the fad and I found that it takes $35,000.00 worth of equiptment to work on a $35.00 radio. As a gunsmith and a FFL Manufacturer, I can say working on firearms is much the same.
--As for the finishing being easy, it's not. And consideration should be given to EPA regulations as well. If you're going to do hot blueing, the chemicals are toxic.
--Refinishing stocks? In a lot of cases it's cheaper just to pick up a new replacement stock. And as more guns go to plastic the demand for wood work is less. Try it as a hobby, keep the day job.
HoraceHogsnort
New member
My guess is that the REAL money in gunsmithing is made from klutzes like myself who don't know a sear from a trigger guard!! Boy, I'm really bad that way. I do know how to brush the dust off of one when I take it out of the safe but anything more complicated than that and off to the 'smith it goes!!
Tools...
As for the CB radio example, I agree.
If you have seen the "back room" (or maybe not so "back room" depending on the shop) of an established gunsmith, you will see shelves, cabinets, drawers, pegboards, more shelves and drawers, tables, and perhaps any available horizontal surface filled with everything from reamers and lathe tooling, to misc. screws, pins, fluids, and stuff maybe one in a thousand guys even know the name of; in various degrees of un-organization.
for example, just putting a choke tube in a shotgun requires, besides a lathe, approximately three hundred dollars worth of reamer and tap.
yeah, a gunsmith needs skill, but being the guy that has the right tools for numerous jobs is a big, big part of it.
As for the CB radio example, I agree.
If you have seen the "back room" (or maybe not so "back room" depending on the shop) of an established gunsmith, you will see shelves, cabinets, drawers, pegboards, more shelves and drawers, tables, and perhaps any available horizontal surface filled with everything from reamers and lathe tooling, to misc. screws, pins, fluids, and stuff maybe one in a thousand guys even know the name of; in various degrees of un-organization.
for example, just putting a choke tube in a shotgun requires, besides a lathe, approximately three hundred dollars worth of reamer and tap.
yeah, a gunsmith needs skill, but being the guy that has the right tools for numerous jobs is a big, big part of it.
couple of things I have found in my neck of the woods.
Simple troubleshooting and armorer style repairs are the majority of my work.
Installing night sights on handguns keeps rolling well.
Detail strip and cleanings. You will be amazed at the amount of folks who dont want to mess with cleaning.
For right now the simple, quick turnaround stuff is working out well for me. Plus you gain alot of experience on varied firearms.
I am sure the depth of work will grow along with my experience level but the last thing I want to do is bite off more than I can chew.
I am not equipped to do major refinish work and I dont think I want to. Too much time invested along with the equipment and all the EPA regs to go with it. It is easier to sub it out to someone who is equipped well and it is their bread and butter.
Simple troubleshooting and armorer style repairs are the majority of my work.
Installing night sights on handguns keeps rolling well.
Detail strip and cleanings. You will be amazed at the amount of folks who dont want to mess with cleaning.
For right now the simple, quick turnaround stuff is working out well for me. Plus you gain alot of experience on varied firearms.
I am sure the depth of work will grow along with my experience level but the last thing I want to do is bite off more than I can chew.
I am not equipped to do major refinish work and I dont think I want to. Too much time invested along with the equipment and all the EPA regs to go with it. It is easier to sub it out to someone who is equipped well and it is their bread and butter.
) are in disassembling, and more important, reassembling mechanical devices.