Help Support Long Range Hunting Forum
No, on machining experience, it will be self taught and what reading material I can get my hands on. The long goal is to get good enough at it that I can use it for making money on the side and when I do retire. I would love to find a school close to my location that could teach threading and chambering, but nothing I have found is nearby.
Yes sir, I have been thinking about it for several years, my first step, starting next year is gaining my FFL permit. I only want to build rifles, not really interested in repairing all guns, just building bolt guns for hunting mainly. I don't believe I will get rich off of it, but would like to make money from it, I am sure it is like the cattle business, only the Packers are making the money, the producers are just getting by if possible. I do plan to keep my day job and hopefully reach a point that I can move on to this passion I have. Also, don't have to be concerned about mandates from above to keep my job.
That's one of my dreams as well I haven't gotten there yet though
You WILL have to contend with mandates, they come from whoever occupies the Whitehouse! Much can depend on the current politics. And, there's not a lot of 'glory' in being a gunsmith, and not a lot of money either. Takes a long time to build a reputation, and there seems to be thousands of self taught smiths about. There's lots of overhead in a 'barreling' operation (lathe, reamers, gauges, you'll need a vertical mill or there'll be some you can't do [win 70 crf & springfields]. If all a guy is gonna' do is "build rifles' he's behind the 8 ball, already. An example, I attended and graduated from the 2yr gunsmithing program at MCC at Troy N.C. (and there was a lot more than threading and chambering taught). Out of the 24 students in the class I graduated with, 3 are in the industry,,, and one of the 3 is a sales rep, not running a shop. Not to be discouraging, but it's a tough buss to survive in. I wish you luck, and hope you have a real good day job!
Don't let anyone try and talk you out of it or tell you you cannot do it. I had a dream since I was a little boy to own my on Cattle ranch, my Grandad put that in my head by helping him when I was able to follow, gave me my first cow.. Well, I did it, had to go back to school to get an education to get a job to afford the property to do it, even had a wife that tried to kill it with the first one we purchased, Divorced her and had to sell, but ended up with a better place and a hell of a lot better wife. Now 21 years into the new place, I love it, it is paid for, and now it is time for my other passion and that is hunting, always hunted since I could follow my dad and grandad. I really love to build things, and always wanted to build my own rifle, after spending what I did on having a custom 28 Nosler built for me, I priced all the custom actions, barrels, triggers, bottom metal, stocks, etc. I figured for nearly half of what I paid, I can purchase and do myself, it is not rocket science, just have to familiarize yourself on all processes. If you take a certain build you can do and standardize that build to produce a 1/4 or 1/2 MOA with a particular cartridge or cartridges, then market your rifle with that accuracy and show proof, you should be able to establish yourself as word of mouth gets out. It is not an overnight success, but over time and if you have a deep passion for it, it will come together. If this past year has taught me anything, it is do not wait to start.
I understand what you are saying, especially on the occupation of the WH. I am not looking to be a gunsmith for anything, just build off a blue print of what I have. I see a lot of top tier rifle builders who are offering certain builds with components they use and they established a standard for those components. What makes those rifles sell is accuracy, look at Ryan Pierce his rifles are hard to beat, look at McWhorter same thing, what I noticed most of all they have particular cartridges they are definitely great at, McWhorter you see has a lot of 7STW out there if you watch there shows you always see a 7STW being used. I have noticed he has now moved into the new 6.5 PRC and his own version of 7SPRC. It is all about passion, I hear what you are saying, I know there is a lot of liability involved, most businesses are, but this one more than others. As for what you mentioned about GS school and the amount of people out of that class you were in and what they do today, I get it, I had a class of 30 at my ITT Technical institute for Electronic Engineering, out of those I only know of two people that are still in the field and I am one of them. The others did it, but did not stay with it and fell back to there old ways.
My current job really ticked me off when they were going to mandate that we would have to take the vax. Then they backed off of it first of December, but that doesn't mean they won't start it back up.. I decided not to wait around any longer and dive into it while I can afford to do it.
I couldn't agree with you more. I'm very fortunate to be a farmer and the shut down and all the mandates have never applied to me. I believe it is a personal choice and in my opinion more people would be getting the shot if they just let people make their own choice. But I really respect you for taking the control into your own hands and i wish you the best.
