Where can we find a good gunsmith machinist?

[standardparts]

Just for perspective link below takes you to a manufacturer local to me.
They sell shotguns. They manufacture shotguns. They really do offer shotguns from $3K (used?) up to their top of the line models which will set you back $35K (or more).

How much do they pay their help?----Don't have the slightest clue. The product they sell is way over my paygrade and back in the day those I knew who had a good idea are no longer around..

But anyway---even if a city is rough around the edges (shithole), has poor public schools (the worst), plenty of crime, the clients likely only visit to get fitted and then proceed to other areas to enjoy an environment that befits one who can afford a $35K shotgun(s).

Have seen an handled (not shot-drooled on) a few of their shotguns. Real impressive shooting machines.

https://elite-shotguns.com/product-...ge/2/?rng_min_price=26300&rng_max_price=50000

 

[Garwood]

How many are employed full time in day-to-day operations in your shop?

None. I have zero employees under $35/hr

 

[standardparts]

None. I have zero employees under $35/hr

One man show---or rely on part timers/retired. Not uncommon.

 

[crickets]

I can't get people to make burn piles for $20 per hour in rural Western Oregon. Generally speaking PNW rates for all kinds of labor seem to be quite high, especially near the metro areas.

 

[jackal]

Around here ( Arkansas/Oklahoma border), there are few gunsmiths.
Those that really are, have their own business and work when and if they want to.
Most are close to retirement age or already semi-retired.
We have some arrogant buttholes that work in the back of a pawn shop that think they are gunsmiths.
They can take a Dremel tool and ruin the feed ramp on a pistol.
Or take a Harbor Freight kitchen size lathe and run a die over the end of your barrel and give you some stripped out loose threads.
I'm sure in the bigger cities you have more to choose from.
The target shooters that I know send off their rifles or parts and have them done by someone that knows.
Also, your company is the "someone that knows" and you're needing a gunsmith.
It just seems to be a dying trade.
Good luck and I hope you find a talented and motivated person.
We have a few that 'claim' gun work, but all they do is hydro dip some wild color on your gun.

 

[Garwood]

I was just talking to a good friend who lives an hour north of Yakima.

Jalisco Cartel Continues Trying To Establish in Yakima

As pressure grows on the Biden administration to rein in drug cartels Yakima authorities are seeing signs of major drug activity every day.

newstalkkit.com

No joke, It's a real shithole.

 

[michiganbuck]

I was just talking to a good friend who lives an hour north of Yakima.

Jalisco Cartel Continues Trying To Establish in Yakima

As pressure grows on the Biden administration to rein in drug cartels Yakima authorities are seeing signs of major drug activity every day.

newstalkkit.com

No joke, It's a real shithole.

Wow that is all we need

Generation Jalisco Cartel - Bing video

www.bing.com

 

[10 fingers]

My father graduated from the Trinidad Collège with a degree in gunsmithing. Mentored under P.O. Ackley. I sort of grew up in the trade. It has served me very well in machining and materials science. May want to sponsor a student there. The cherished, custom guns I have had built, were done by 1 or 2 man shops that didn't advertise their work. The companies died with them.

 

[ttrager]

Sort of old school in our modern age, but have you considered putting flyers for the position in gun ranges throughout the area that would allow it? Just a wild spitball, but gunsmiths like to shoot like anyone else who enjoy guns. To find Antelope stake out the watering holes? Maybe adverts to the gun clubs in the area?

Good luck to you. I'd be interested to see an update at some point, good or bad.

 

[BluishInventor]

Here's the problem, you don't say that. What you say is $15.74 and up, listing minimum requirements like "medium knowledge of gun assembly/disassembly" and "MUST have manual metal and wood working skills". No one who has these skills will work for $15.74. You don't list the high end; usually "and up for a lower level job like this isn't going to encompass double pay.

Figure out what you're willing to pay someone who actually meets your requirements. It's probably not someone fresh out of high school, but maybe someone finishing up at Fort Lewis. Post you actual range, not what your willing to pay a high school grad with no skills and tacking on "and up"

Due to a new law in Washington "Effective January 1, 2023, employers must disclose in each posting for each job opening the wage scale or salary range and a general description of all benefits and other compensation to offered to the hired applicant."

So, a range is required.

But, I would just put the top end at $50/hr because honestly, anyone worth their salt can fetch $50+ in the greater Seattle area as a senior machinist. Blue Origin, SpaceX, Boeing, Microsoft, Meta, all pay good money to decent machinists. Different cost of living, for sure. But if you find the 'right' person, I'd pay to keep them around. I've only met ONE gunsmith/machinist that knew what he was doing and really nerded out on the trade. He worked at a gunshop in Tacoma.

I'm sure there is a gun nut in Yakima with the skills you want, just need to find them and it probably won't be an easy search.

 

[Zahnrad Kopf]

My father graduated from the Trinidad Collège with a degree in gunsmithing. Mentored under P.O. Ackley. I sort of grew up in the trade. It has served me very well in machining and materials science. May want to sponsor a student there. The cherished, custom guns I have had built, were done by 1 or 2 man shops that didn't advertise their work. The companies died with them.

Kind of ironic that I never knew this about you, given the various other things we share in common.

My first job in this trade was as a Gunsmith's apprentice, as a young lad. I'd flirt with it in the service later, and then again as a working 'tink in a shop after I got out. When we had the store and 'tink shop we designed and manufactured prototypes of new designs as well as repaired specimen that parts were no longer available for. Left that end of the trade in early 90's, handing in my books and moving over to the Industrial and Gearing end of things. I've never once looked back and regretted the decision. Only become more convinced that I made the correct choice, back then. Going to take a special kind of person to fill the seat. I think you are correct in that OP would be served well to find a youngster with talent and capable of critical thought, training them up for the position.

 

[koginam]

Actually, both. I'm looking to fill in both an armorer position (the last one that you mentioned), and a gunsmith position (first one you mentioned). Yes, very different people. I will take both or either.

We're a high-end custom firearm manufacturer & gunsmithing shop. We're specializing in restoring family heirlooms.
We're looking for someone who can operate our machines to manufacture obsolete parts (by copying existing parts or reading blueprints). Someone who can manually polish metal without rounding the edges. Someone who is meticulous in manually fitting parts, assembly and disassembly firearms, replace parts, etc.

Our restorations cost around $10k, custom builds start at $20k.
We also do general repairs for the local area, so for those projects an armorer would do just fine.

This is our Indeed link for the gunsmith position:
https://employers.indeed.com/jobs/v...Tg0ODRlNjkyZjU0Yg==&from=?from=gnav-empcenter

This is our Indeed link for the armorer position:
https://www.indeed.com/job/armorer-...7.1313537160.1676518609-1159731300.1638373914

I don't know of any forum or website that is specifically designed for machinists, nevertheless for gunsmith machinist. So I need advice as to where to post for this job; traditional job recruiters don't cut it...

Any input is appreciated.

I gave up looking for either 32 years ago and just started training my own. It worked out better than I thought it would, for one thing I didn't have to put up with retraining bad habits. They work the way I taught them which makes things much easier. It isn't as hard as it seems.My first to hires just retired in 2020. I used the help of TAOGART.org they set me up with a apprenticeship program helped me get state certified as a apprenticeship and it cost me and the apprentices 0. I know they closed down a few years ago but I think they are going again I did have a call from them asking if I wanted to help with the new program, it is retired gunsmiths running the program, and the cost was still 0. At any rate you might consider training your own.

 

[Doug]

Yakima, shit hole? Not necessarily, some of the older neighborhoods are nice, rivalling high-end Seattle in housing and quality of life with lower prices. Yakima has the nickname "Palm Springs of Washington" . People move there from the wet side of Washington just for the weather. When our kids were young we'd head over to a motel with a pool for the weekend. Sell your fixer house in Seattle for a million bucks and get a mansion in Yakima with money to spare.

Yakima has always had drug issues because it's on the migrant trail of farm workers up from Mexico. Recent crackdowns on illegal immigrants are leaving fruit to rot on the vine for lack of workers.

As to the OP's job opening.... If his business has a reputation that noobs would intern there for free just to have it on their resume maybe the wages are not so bad. Rock bottom living in Yakima might be possible at $16/hr (last I heard for Western Washington it was around $21/hr).

 

[WA-CNC]

Yakima, shit hole? Not necessarily,

Next you'll be saying Enumclaw has it's charms......

 

[Garwood]

Yeah, I got some prime real estate in Ocean Shores! Lol!

Yakima is a shithole. My friends that live near there are far from fancy, lived there all thier lives. They say Yakima is a shithole.

 

[Doug]

Tell your bottom feeding friends they don't have to drive to
Seattle to buy their next new Mercedes. That shithole town has a prosperous Mercedes dealership. The Hahn family also has the KIA dealership in town, that might be more suited your shithole friends.

Also tell the nothing fancy friends to take a drive west on Nob Hill Boulevard. Lots of shithole shacks up there in the 2M+ range.

 

[Doug]

Next you'll be saying Enumclaw has it's charms......

Yeah, it does have charm if you like the idea of dumping hundreds of thousands into restoring a huge farmhouse to better than new condition to create a hobby-farm to raise horses. Our daughter and SIL lived outside of Enumclaw for 8 years on five acres. On our way back to Seattle we'd take the back roads to see some of these places. I grew up in a semi-rural area and have no interest in "country" life, I prefer the inner city where we live. But if I ever got a notion to be a country boy again the Enumclaw area is one I'd consider.

BTW, our across the street neighbor bought a ten acre farm just outside Enumclaw when he retired. All the farms in his area had 3 phase power that had been installed by the power company. Might be nice to have a shop there if the zoning permits it. His neighbor had been a Seahawks player and neither of them knew what 3 phase was.

 

[DanielG]

Next you'll be saying Enumclaw has it's charms......

It has really good cinnamon rolls

 

[Garwood]

Tell your bottom feeding friends they don't have to drive to
Seattle to buy their next new Mercedes. That shithole town has a prosperous Mercedes dealership. The Hahn family also has the KIA dealership in town, that might be more suited your shithole friends.

Also tell the nothing fancy friends to take a drive west on Nob Hill Boulevard. Lots of shithole shacks up there in the 2M+ range.

So the Mercedes dealer makes up for all the Kias that are chopped there?

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kffm.com

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kimatv.com

 

[Doug]

Yakima is an interesting place, a major food processing hub for the whole USA with a favorable climate for fruit growing. But by the nature of the situation statistics can make it look it look like a shithole, heavy migrant population having low paying, seasonal work and crime associated with the low incomes. It's always been known as part of the drug pipline up from Mexico with gang activity. This brings quite a disparity of incomes, living there doesn't necessarily mean living in a shithole though. How many shithole towns can support a Mercedes-Benz dealership?

Garwood and his friends consider it a shithole, that might say more about them than about Yakima itself.