Best at home gunsmithing course

[Diablito]

Hi all. I want to learn how to gunsmith and I was wondering which out of all at home gunsmithing programs were any good? I have a machining , welding , metal fab background so I can probably skip forward to some of the more advanced stuff.

[valley82]

My 16 year old son just ordered from these guys, they have "courses from the basics to advanced" gunsmithing DVDs. He is no novice having built 10 or so AKMs and several ARs all from flats and 80s. He will be attending an Official Gunsmithing Tech school after high school. For now this seemed to be a good place to start.

http://www.americangunsmith.com/

[Nathan Krynn]

Maybe I am old but IMHO the only way to dare to call yourself a gunsmith is to apprentice under some old guy who can no longer sweep the floor and can't see his own hands. Now a days (wow I sound old) there are laws against this and it is called slave labor, and if you get hurt people sue, if you don't get paid, people sue. Signs of the times.

I did this under two guys and both are long dead, I swept floors when I was 7 years old just to pick up "a thing or two". Heck I still work at a custom shop on Sat most of the time, I don't get paid but they specialize in weapon systems I do not know and I learn a lot.

Learning a thing or two from some DVD's is handy, but please do not call your self a gunsmith like I see from people applying here all the time and they get shooed out faster than I can spit.

[valley82]

Sadly, thanks to the ATF, also gone are the days of hanging with the AKTEAM during a Build Party and getting hands on experience headspacing barrels, bending flats, parking, and final assembly and function testing 15 or so rifles in one day. Helping others through their builds by answering their questions and when stumped going to the AKTEAM for the solution...(this is how my two sons and frankly I learned to build their/my own guns at home)

[Eagle Eyes]

Yea when it comes to home based learning no one on the market can beat AGI because they use real weapons, real master gunsmiths and put everything on video so you get both informational AND visual of what to do.


They are expensive but really worth it if your time to learn is limited or it takes a bunch of times to repeat something before you get the hang of it ..... the rewind feature is priceless

[SMarquez]

I'm old too. I took a Mauser Sporter to a LGS smith for a headspace check. They couldn't do it. That hardly makes him a gunsmith. I've built 3 AR's, they're like Logos for grown-up but I hardly call that gunsmithing.
I think true gunsmithing is too all encompassing to learn off dvds but it's a way to learn basics.

[stitchnicklas]

i keep saying... dont knock the agi program unless you try it



as for

Maybe I am old but IMHO the only way to dare to call yourself a gunsmith is to apprentice under some old guy who can no longer sweep the floor and can't see his own hands.

i guess you are to old<lol> becuase that does not happen anymore,and most people cant quit there entire life to attend a $24,000 and have no job....

to be a gunsmith you need skill,patience,gift, and a serious understanding of firearms.to think because you can put a r and ak together that it counts is wrong. i spend a good amount of time doing agi classes and and still doing them,what i have learned so far i beyond anything i imagined before.
i have many guns and use them during the course,my friends and family have guns that need fixed and are in the course also so i borrow them for hands on work in the progression of the program.

and always know your limitations....

[50BMGBOB]

People learn best by doing. Whether you watch a video or someone else, you don't learn without getting your hands on it. When you are in a class or apprenticeship, you have some feed back as to what you are doing wrong and what you can do better. When you use a book or video on your own, you sometimes make a lot of mistakes before you figure it out. Past experience can help as you can apply skills to different task.

[Central Coast Gunsmithing]

I agree with Stitchnicklas

A.G.I. will offer you as much or more information on firearms Function and repair than you will learn from just about anyone else
as for hands on thats for the individual to figure out
Its not 24,000 and 3 years of no work its at your pace and your house but no hands on

[sghart]

You can consider this option. It is "Smartflix". They have technical videos for rent.

https://smartflix.com/store/category/113/Firearms

I use them all the time. You can rent one or two of the AGI videos just to see if you like it.

They also package a "Gunsmithing University" that has 133 DVDs. You can take out three at a time.

[Diablito]

thanks guys. ill check out AGI and smartflix

[diverwcw]

The true gunsmith is a dying breed. Thanks both to all the legislation and villification of gun ownership. A couple of years ago, I was looking to have some real gunsmith work done on a rifle. I wanted the sport barrel replaced with a heavy target barrel and some top end iron sights installed. I made a post on my facebook page that if anybody knew of a REAL GUNSMITH within about 100 mile radius of my house. I got some pretty amazing answers; "Talk to XXX they know a lot about guns.." "So and so was in the Marine Corps and he knows about guns..." Just because somebody can install handguards on an AR15 rifle, that does not make them a gunsmith.

[wpage]

Experience and qualification...

[stitchnicklas]

Experience and qualification...

the issue with this statement is who sets the bar??? not being sarcastic either


there is less then a dozen gunsmith training programs in the u.s.a. ,some are college setting some are video/online testing.but no one program sets the bar.
you can never attend a single class or video but hang with a old smith for 10 years and still not know some of the stuff in the class's.

lassen references agi in their course work as good for studing and notes,reason is bob dunlap is agi's head guy and he taught at lassen before as a head guy.

so the programs each have their give and take in course work.