Armed Lifestyle - Issue 2 - June 2022

36
GUNSMITHING: AN INSIDE LOOK
KEYS TO BEING SUCCESSFUL AS A NEW GUNSMITH?
Jim: Focus on quality, take as many factory armor classes that
you can get into. Be willing to apprentice or work somewhere
for cheap to perfect your skills. Also honing your mindset and
attention to detail to a point that your work stands above others
and gets that recognition. This is tough for some new gunsmiths
because of today’s “I want it now” society, the reality is you need
to prove yourself with your product not just bullshit the customer.
Vince: Go to school and make the most out of it. Don’t just learn
enough to graduate. Kick ass on every project you do. Your goal
is to be better than your instructors. Your goal is to be the best
gunsmith they have ever seen. When you graduate, go work for
a successful gunsmith that can mentor you and help you advance
in the trade. Don’t just open your own shop right out of school.
Learn all aspects of the business for a few years. Learn to do
the jobs you hate, they may become the jobs that you make
the most money at. Buy good tools. In fact, buy every quality
gunsmithing tool you can. Take care of them. They will make you
money for years to come. Become part of the shooting sports
community. Attend industry functions, get to know the people in
your business. We are a small community. And don’t start your
career by talking shit about those who were here before you. I
have the utmost respect for those who walked this path before
me. You can learn a lot from those old gray haired guys who
haven’t bought a new truck since you were playing tee-ball.
Brett: Growth is a key to success in any business and this holds
especially true for gunsmiths as well. In order to grow, the
gunsmith must first plant the seed by letting potential clients
know they are there. Start local and expand from there. Education
is a key to any skill, craft, or trade. A good gunsmith is not afraid to
try new things, but they also take time learn proper techniques,
practice their skill and anticipate error before performing a task
that is new to them. Reading, researching and learning from
others with more experience are all very important to being a
successful gunsmith. Do not be afraid of failure. A major issue will
happen at some point in an gunsmithing career. Don’t let it bog
you down; look for solutions or admit you are wrong and move
on. Learn from your mistakes and plan accordingly. Do good
work, be personable, be professional and put the customer first.
THOUGHTS ON ARMORERS WITH A DREMEL
TOOL?
Jim: Dremels are fine if you use them wisely, don’t be lazy and
dremel something you can easily mill or file.
Vince: The dremel tool gets a bad rap. A good rotary tool is an
invaluable piece of equipment in the right hands. When you work
on small parts, a small rotary tool is your best friend after your
files and stones. What concerns me is guys who watch a few
YouTube videos and start doing gun work out of their garage as
a side job without a license and without any real training. Some
of them turn out to be great gunsmiths. Most don’t. It’s not only
illegal to do gun work for money without a license, it is unethical.
If you are a garage hobby gunsmith on the weekends, that is fine
but don’t charge people money to hack their guns up. Practice
on your own guns, and when you are ready to charge for your
services, get the proper licensing to protect yourself and your
customers.
BRETT SMITH
Brett: I love them; the keep me busy fixing their mistakes in
between hunting and competition shooting seasons. Really, I feel
like they do more harm than good. Not to say good work has
never come from an armorer with a dremel, but more often than
not, they end up wrecking a part or installing something wrong
rendering a gun inoperable or even worse, unsafe.
WHAT HAS HURT THE INDUSTRY THE MOST?
Jim: The desire for cheap budget guns, when companies are in a
race for the bottom skilled labor is the first casualty.
Vince: Carpetbaggers and politicians. Modern industry carpet
baggers are guys with a little money that decide to one day
own a gun business, having no real experience in the industry.
They seem to think they can somehow make a fortune in guns
by cutting production costs by hiring unskilled labor and using
inferior components. We had a wave of them jump aboard in
early 2013 during the Obama gun rush. Most of them are out
of the industry now but their inferior products are here to stay.
You never start a gun business to get rich or to solicit another
business’ customers. You start a company to make a decent
living providing a quality product or service, and do your own
advertising and networking. Cutting throats has some serious live
the sword, die by the sword outcomes. Do I even need to explain
the politicians thing? We elect a bunch of folks who can’t hack it
in the private sector to spend all year making news laws about
technology, products, and services that they don’t’ understand.
And I’m not just going to point fingers at one party.
Brett: The two enemies of firearms are rust and politicians. I
strongly believe the eight years of the Obama administration
hurt the industry considerably. With laws having been passed
such as the ITAR regulation, which forced many “mom and pop”
gunsmith shops to close due to an outrageous annual fee to the
government just to perform very common gunsmithing services.
It would classify them as “manufacturers” and require obtaining
new licensing just to continue running their small businesses.