Gunsmith Certification?

Looking for some info on a good program to get a cert for gunsmithing.

Ideals ?

Cost,Time,

Thanks

Pennsylvania School of Gunsmithing, Trinidad State University and the Colorado School of Trades. They are all two to three years for the full course and you come out with an associate degree in arts and science Gunsmithing. When I went through, they basically told me that like any other trade, (machinist, plumber or electrician) 4 years of apprenticeship after school would polish off most people and after which, they were considered fully certified. As far as cost you would have to contact them.

......Certified Gunsmith.....

The last I checked "Certified" is a mental health term. It may run hand in hand with gunsmithing.

Gunsmiths come in many varieties, formally educated and apprenticed in the trade, from the school of hard knocks, or work from the seat of their pants.

There are specialist within the gunsmith trade, IE; Machinist, Stockers, Engravers, manufactures, armorers, barrel makers, tool and die makers, etc.

Many are gun cleaners, and parts changers.

Pick your poison.

Nat Lambeth

Like Nat said, "certification" is an interesting term. Any FFL has all the necessary Federal certification to do gunsmithing. Your State, County, City may require more or not. Of course that doesn't mean an FFL IS a gunsmith, but you have the necessary Federal license.

-Art

It all boils down to who you want to be recognized by. There are hundreds of thousands of self made or proclaimed gunsmiths, machinists, plumbers and electricians. Many of them are better than fully trained people. If you have a garage, some money and equipment you can do pretty much anything you want. And before an electrician blows up on me and says "NO YOU CAN'T, YOU NEED PERMITS TO DO THAT KIND OF WORK!" No you don't, you just need someone with money and work to be done who does not care about permits. Your only real restriction is who you can do work for and the level of restricted parts and supplies you can buy. Government and police work for example often requires some proof of education, as does warranty work. And certain parts are only available to certain levels of training. In the past I used to buy bolts, barrels and action bodies literally by the 50 count from Weatherby and Remington. It was no big deal. But certain criteria have to be met and one of them is proof of education, of which they have standards which you must meet or be willing to meet in a given period of time. 98% of the time it is an associate degree in arts and sciences Gunsmithing and 4 years of apprenticeship or roughly 4 years apprenticeship, coupled with a total of 10 years experience. Its really no different than any other trade. The associate degree is there for those that want to take it and there are always people willing to take on apprentices in the USA. It does not pay all that well but its there. There are also lots of week or two week specialty courses available and if you really want to do it quick you can become a gunsmith by mail or internet and be a fully qualified gunsmith in 2 weeks. Brain surgery and dentistry is three weeks. You can call yourself whatever you want. Some people will buy what your selling and others will simply laugh, shake their heads and walk away.

To Add. I'm not certain of the laws in the USA. But I'm sure that anyone, regardless of training can get the federal and state license to create a business that does, gunsmithing, electrical work, plumbing and mechanics. A businessman does not need to be able to do the work himself. But to get permits to do certain jobs and buy certain parts and supplies he may have to provide proof that he has trained people on staff that can do the work. Here again, proof of education and training that meets the required standards.

Rustystud said:

The last I checked "Certified" is a mental health term. It may run hand in hand with gunsmithing.

Gunsmiths come in many varieties, formally educated and apprenticed in the trade, from the school of hard knocks, or work from the seat of their pants.

There are specialist within the gunsmith trade, IE; Machinist, Stockers, Engravers, manufactures, armorers, barrel makers, tool and die makers, etc.

Many are gun cleaners, and parts changers.

Pick your poison.

Nat Lambeth

Click to expand...

Well put Nat,
There really are no schools that teach you all you need to know and then hang a shingle for being a gunsmith. The stuff you learn at an accredited school equates to what can be learned online by just reading and books. MOST of the things that are worthy come from doing it. Making mistakes, learning, trying again. I have a gentleman I send take off barrels to that uses them to learn. Only costs him shipping. I wish someone had offered me that in the past. Point is, have a lathe (you will out grow it and move up) and make chips. Tooling is your biggest expense in the long run so buy what you need when you need it. Read, read, read, tear shit up, read some more, tear more stuff up, and reread what you read. The accreditation will come in time from repeat customers who tell their friends. Its a long hard road, you will have fun and cry too.

whats the deal with this program? becomeagunsmith.com ????


Looks really cheap, compared to alot of the other schools.

Been interested in starting gunsmithing for a while now but havent bit the bullet. I am a CNC job shop owner/machinist now. So all equipment and tooling shouldnt be a problem. I dont mind paying for and taking classes to get certified but if it is nonsense I will go by the seat of my pants and learn by getting my hands dirty.

any help or guidance will be greatly appreciated.,

Another accredited school is Murray State College in Tishomingo, OK. This is where I'm currently attending. One of the above posters is correct you need to specify more what your specialty is. While going to school will give you a good start there is so much to learn. A gunsmith is definately a jack of all trades he has to be good at many different things to actually make money. He's got to know basic gun theory, blueprint reading, how to work wood or at the very least finish a stock, he's got to be a bit of a metallurgist, a good deal of machining knowledge. In some ways you have to encompass all aspects, it can be a bit overwhelming. However within gunsmithing there are more specilists. Engravers can really make their bones by just engraving, metal finishers can make a good bit of money if they're good...especially at rust bluing techniques, stock work is an art..period. A person who can do most all of these things is a true gunsmith. Too often the term gunsmith is given to parts changers or somebody who's put together a couple ARs. A monkey with its head up it's ass and a hand tied behind his back could put together an AR. It's alot of hard work man and the cost is more than you'd think. I've dumped all my deployment money into tools for school. Something to keep in mind is by picking this trade you'll always be buying tools, it never ends. I generally pull 8-10 hour days on regular days then on Tuesday and Thursday we run till 9pm so I'm sitting at 13 hours that day.

Some of the schools will be better for where you want to go. My college teaches very old school hand made stuff, alot alot alot of filing. It's tailored towards nice classic hunting rifles. Trinidad leans more towards benchrest, a couple of their students recently got jobs at McMillan. From what my intructors have told me the other Colorado school...(Colorado school of trades) has been on a steady decline..they're having trouble keeping hold of teachers and the curriculum is sub par. I don't know about the Pennsylvania school but there is supposed to be a pretty good one in Arizona too.

Or you could go through a mail order program but you really won't learn that much through videos. You need to get your hands dirty and all sore, you need to dissasemble a wide variety of guns. If the certification is all thats important then go for it I guess. But if you're not competent then you'll have a guy come in your shop one day and a simple mistake will cost you the price of that gun.

Don't listen to everything you see on the internet about gunsmithing...There're too many self dubbed gunsmiths out there that think they know what they're talking about. I recently had to repair a gun that one of these "gunsmiths" had replaced factory detent springs with springs from a pen or pencil, and had to reblue a gun than some other guy couldn't polish correctly. Do your research bro and explore your options. Don't settle, and make sure its something you want to do. Good luck to you.

Semper FI,
Derek

Butch1 said:

whats the deal with this program? becomeagunsmith.com ????


Looks really cheap, compared to alot of the other school.,

Click to expand...

***DANGER***
This is just a scam from some guy claiming to be Pheonix State Universityr something like that.
I bought into it for a magazine article I wrote and it was exactly what I suspected, a SCAM!!!
DC

As a current student of Trinidad State, I would highly recommend this school. We really don't have a certain discipline to concentrate in but if you want to try it then the teachers will help you out in any way they can. We had a student build a double rifle this fall that will be on display at the guild show in 2012. But my suggestion would be check out all the schools and do your research. Talk to the students and see what they think of the school and curriculum.

I'll be returning to Trinidad for two to three weeks of the summer session. One week will most likely be the NRA Lab near the end of the summer.

Don't know what I'll take this year. Could be bluing, checkering, engraving, 1911's, or precision rifle work. There are lots of possibilities, and my interest in gunsmithing crosses the spectrum.

The College in Pine City, MN also offers a diploma and a degree course in gunsmithing. It is only one state over from you.

I have been taking summer (2-week) classes at Montgomery Community Colleget in Troy NC for the last 4 summers. Talked to a lot of the full time students (2-year program) and they are mostly a friendly helpfull bunch that are enjoying their time at the school. A lot of them sign up for the NRA Summer Gunsmithing classes because they are outside the normal course. I have taken classes from Ron Powers (S&W/Ruger), Bob Marvel (1911), Jerry Keefer (1911) and Hamilton Bowen (single actions).

Good equipmet and facilities. Highly recommended.

Tom

One other school you've missed is Yavapi College in Prescott, AZ. I graduated from the Colorado School of Trades. Speerchucker explained what you'll end up getting out of the schools pretty well. Personally, from what I've seen and who I've talked to, I think Trinidad and School of Trades are two of the better programs. Trades will expose you to a greater number of firearms. Trinidad has impressive facilities, plus Speedy Gonzalez. (Benchrest Hall of Fame member and terrific guy)