Being a Gun Smithing?

[winwun]

It would be of great help if anyone can answer the following questions for me.

What exactly a gun smith does? I mean to ask that can he make a gun, from ground up, or just repair them?

How one becomes a gun smith? the road map, any institutes or college.

I hope you guys understand my question.

Take care.

[kanewtervalve]

The last of a dying breed, the only gunsmith course I know of are the correspondence ones you see in ads. A true gunsmith in my opinioin was trained by an old timer and has all the expensive tools at his disposal. I would imagine the easiest way to become a good gunsmith is to get a job at a gun manufacturer and work your way up being trained by the professionals, buying whatever tooling along the way as you could afford. Not a get rich quick scheme by any extent of the imagination.

[HatchetJoe]

I beleive the Colrado School of trades still has a two year degree program.

[winwun]

But how much does that two year program costs and what about the equipment and stuff. Well, are there any books or web sites that teach you the basic or some of the aspects of gun smithing?

[kanewtervalve]

You can get books on specific firearms or general gunsmithing, try a bookstore or you can order them through the Shotgun News ads.

[ak47lover]

have you loked at the brownells catalog for books on smithing

[Circuits]

There are at least two colleges in Colorado alone that still offer 2yr Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degrees in gunsmithing. Trinidad State Junior College down in Trinidad, and some trade school near Denver.

I believe there are colleges in other states which offer gunsmithing degrees, as well, in addition to the correspondence courses available.

The real kicker is the tools and the experience - a fully-equipped gunsmithing shop is not an inexpensive enterprise.

A gunsmith requires at least a Type 01 (dealer) FFL, and can engage in dealing firearms in addition to working as a gunsmith. If the gunsmith ONLY engages in gunsmithing, ATF relaxes the business premises rules somewhat to make it easier to run a gunsmithing business from a residential home. Gunsmiths who also deal must have properly zoned premises, or conduct business from a location with no zoning restrictions.

A gunsmith who has a Type 07 (manufacturer) FFL can build guns from scratch, but a gunsmith working on a Type 01 can only work with existing weapons/receivers.

To legally work as a gunsmith, you only need to have the FFL, but the knowledge, training and tools would be good to acquire before you go advertising as a jack-of-all trades gun handyman.