Gunsmithing School? Lassen College in Susanville, CA

[onceabull]

Not 100% on Susanville as the absolute best left in California,but it is for sure close...If one eliminates Bishop, Bridgeport,Downieville,and Quincy, then it's a lock..(Not considering anything rural, like Allegheny, Challenge,or Happy Camp)...Wonder sometimes why I left in '61....Onceabull

[John 242]

In case anyone is interested, I found this on You Tube;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05Zu4...eature=related
Thoughts?
I like how they show lathes quite a bit.
Looks intersting.

By the way, I appreciate all the comments I've gotten about going to school. You all have given me a lot to think about. Thanks.

[JIMinPHX]

I'm a machinist turned engineer who used to have a FFL, but I've never actually called myself a gunsmith. Please understand that my comments come from that perspective.

There is a shortage of GOOD gunsmiths out there. There are plenty of hacks that try to pawn themselves off as gunsmiths & there are a few noteworthy individuals that carry a Stirling reputation & command a high price for their work. That high price does not mean high wages. Doing a good job requires a lot of time & equipment as well as skill & talent. The guys that command the high prices are underpaid in my opinion, but do make more than the $18/hr that you called good money.

Where you will fall in the pecking order will depend on your natural talent, your attention to detail, your desire to learn, the amount of effort that you are willing to put into it & some dumb luck.

I don't have personal knowledge of the schools that were mentioned, but the reviews from others are encouraging. My only "gunsmith training" comes from watching a few AGI videos that were positively dreadful & reading a few good books. Those guys in the AGI videos showed you how to ruin a brand new gun while telling the customer that you were "super tuning" it. Stay away from AGI. Those guys are hacks at best. Conversely, I found the shop manuals from Jerry Kuhnhausen to be very informative. A skilled person who is knowledgeable of proper machining practices can take one of his books & produce positive results.

If I were in your shoes & I was seriously considering going to a reputable gunsmith school, I would first buy a few of the Jerry K shop manuals & read them from cover to cover. I would also try to get a part time job in a machine shop. Either of those two endeavors would give you a head start when you arrive at the gunsmith school & allow you to soak up more of the finer points of what they have to teach you. Part of being a good gunsmith is woodworking & metalworking skills. Part of it is firearms knowledge.

JMHO,
Jim

[runnin lead]

I am fortunate enough to have an excelent gunsmith 10 miles from me. His specialty is BPCR but I have had him also do some excelent work changing a muzzleloader breach plug to a hooked tang type & the fit to the rifle was like it was made that way the first time.
I had him do work for me on a 7-08 & had him do some of the work when I was building a 308, although the 308 was out of his specialty area tooling wise & I had to find the reamer
he did great work.
I went to pick the barreled action up & he was doing a very tediuus checkering job on a rifle that many of you may have seen on a shooting program & needed a break from it , his excuse to take a break was to teach me how to do the shadow line detail on a cheekpiece on one rifle stock so I could go home and do it on another.
He went to the school in Trinadad CO & I have a whole bunch of respect for their gunsmiths
program, they realy tought him well.
He works on BPCR from all over the country & other countrys as well.

[82nd airborne]

AGI is a joke.

[handyman25]

Went thru the gunsmith program at Lassen College in the 70's. Still a good school. Went another way to make money. If you want to make money specilize. I am to Cowboy action shooting and I see a lot of poor work. Single actoion revolvers, double barrell shotguns, pump shotguns, auto 45's, lots of work if you can do GOOD work. Contact me if you want to talk more.

[handyman25]

My Location says North California but I retreated from liberal California and now in Nevada

[JIMinPHX]

AGI is a joke.

That's probably where a lot of the bad "gunsmiths" come from. Those guys at AGI teach you how to butcher up a fine piece of armament, & then tell you that you're qualified to go out & call yourself a gunsmith. Calling them a joke is being polite about it.

[WMB30]

lassencollege.edu

[82nd airborne]

That's probably where a lot of the bad "gunsmiths" come from. Those guys at AGI teach you how to butcher up a fine piece of armament, & then tell you that you're qualified to go out & call yourself a gunsmith. Calling them a joke is being polite about it.

I concur, I actually had another sentance behind that (something about fraud) but decided to leave it at that. Im with you on this one!

[cajun shooter]

I am a armorer and not a gunsmith although that is what I started out to be. I went to machine school for two years and have several schools from S&W (4), Ruger, Remington, Ithaca, Sig, and so on. A true gunsmith is able to do stock work, cnc, lathe and other shop tools to build guns from scratch. I am able to fix a gun by seeing what is wrong and installing or fitting a new part to put that gun on line. You might want to look into becoming a weapons expert after your school for one of the movie companies. I have no idea how these positions are filled but they may be my uncle says he can get me on deals. A talented gunsmith that does the best is the same as today's doctors. They find one job that has a large field of demand and specialize in that only. If you were 10 years sooner I would advise you to look into the CAS or Cowboy Action Guns. They are still growing and several of the well known are 5-6 months behind. You have to know what you are doing and be good at it. You can't have a set of automotive screwdrivers and start working on your kitchen table. Word of mouth will have you doing well or sweeping floors at the corner Mickey D's.

[John 242]

Sorry, I've only got a few seconds to reply on here...
The wife said her mom will rent us the house fir $600 a month. Again, the only problem is that it's on the west side (somewhere) of Eagle Lake. I don't think she asked about snowfall. At only $600 a month for rent, with my GI bill and retirement, I think this is doable. If the house sells before school, then I'll have to reevaluate things.

The only problem is if the house sells while were living there, but if that happens I'll go to plan B and find a place to rent in town. Hopefully we can find something we can afford.

This isn't a definite decision as we are still considering Murray State. Regardless, I'm going to school somewhere in the fall of 2012.

I am going to pick up a few of the Kunhausen (sp) shop manuals as has been suggested. Maybe Gunsmithing Kinks, too. Any other suggestions?

I'm in a rush right now, but I'll go back and reread this thread when I have the chance and might bug some of you all for more specific advice.

Thanks a lot for all the replies.
John

[beagle]

When you get a chance, make it down to your local Education Center and see what kind of credits they'll give you for your military training also and take advantage of that. Then, hit some of the common "have to have" courses through correspondence, night school or by computer. (Of course, this will be after your deployment) You'll be surprised what they'll give you college credits for.

I did that and with the little college I had, two semesters at night at the Sergeants Major Academy and a night course while I was at Ft Campbell, I got a 2 year degree which ain't much but it beats a HS education only when you're job hunting.

There's a right fair gunsmithing school in Roxboro, NC at the community college there. Check that out as well.

As has been pointed out, there's no money in gunsmithing. Us guys are too cheap./beagle

[Casting Timmy]

Anyone have any experience with the online schools? I was thinking about Penn Foster, I don;t expect to come out a gun smith, just a really good understanding and starting point for learning.

[Wayne Smith]

John, I have read your writing. Don't worry about Composition, you can probably challenge the class if you don't have military transferable credit. Can't tell you about Gunsmith colleges though.

Timmy, generally online education has lower and easier standards than the same classroom class. Hopefully this will increase in time but I wouldn't hold my breath!

[blackthorn]

82nd Airborne gave you GOOD advice when he said to think about becoming a machinest first and gunsmith next! A good machinest with some natural talent and some good books can likely do most anything a gunsmith can do! Remember that in colonial days the local blacksmith was also the local gunsmith. Whatever you decide, best of luck to you!!