Seeking Firearms Job / Career

[Member 53328]

I heard Radian has a wonderful turn over rate. They are located in Redmond. They are always hiring.

 

[revjen45]

As one who has a degree in Professional Gunsmithing, worked at a warranty repair shop for several brands, and retired from Boeing as a M.E. Planner I would advise you to have a Plan B. AMT nails it.

 

[solv3nt]

Most small business fail within the first few years. Starting a new career and learning a new trade will take some time. I highly recommend not quitting the day job until you are closer to becoming self sufficient if you are the primary breadwinner.

Start small on some projects, and learn the trade first. If your end goal is to be your own boss, I'd forgo the employee at an FFL route. I'm by no means knocking salaries, but I'd be surprised if bartending didn't pay more than an employee job with an FFL.

Starting an LLC is easy, but if you are going all in first, you'll need insurance and capital to get you going for a minimum of two years before you could expect to turn a profit.

Also, if you make a job out of your passion, your passion soon turns into a job; food for thought.

 

[Silver Fox]

Pacific Tool and Guage in White City just south of you by a million miles https://pacifictoolandgauge.com/
Don't know their status about hiring but if you want a career go pester them.

Also I would recommend Colorado School of Trades Gunsmithing in Lakewood, CO https://schooloftrades.edu/
The biggest problem with CST is the colt of living in the Denver area sucks. If you don't have G.I. Bill plan on working part time. Local gun shops and pawn shops know of CST and hire students in school frequently. The biggest benefit of CST is it's a straight 14 month program, 7.5 hours per day for 4 days per week equal a 2 year associates in 14 months. No winter breaks or teacher inservice BS.

FFL hours are required for "dealers" but Gunsmiths have the option of "appointment only".

Hope this helps.

SF-

 

[Diamondback]

Came back to say this. You should also learn to run a file, and that's cheep. I good way to start is get a good file, a file card, a saw and a chunk of something to file, you can even use a piece of hardwood. Take the wood and saw cut a chunk slightly over 1" square. Now take your file and turn it into a perfect 1" square. Like with 90* angles and each side 1"x1". Pro tip: get A LOT of wood to practice on

Wernher von Braun once told a story of apprenticing in a machine shop where he was given a blob of metal the size of a baby's head and told to get it down to a perfect cube using only a hand file, and by the time he was through his hunk of metal was down to about the size of a walnut.

 

[Member 38805]

I suppose training in machine work or gunsmithing might be fine if the plan for a career is to be a gunsmith, or repair guns. But if the plan is to sell guns, then there's not much use to have a formal gunsmithing course and then just buy/sell guns.
I started out just buying and selling guns, and adding an occasional gun to my collection. Eventually I had friends ask if I had an FFL and could get a gun for them? Back then an FFL was cheap at $30 every 3 years, and if you were a good guy you got through the process easily. So I got my FFL just to be able to make a little money selling new guns. Today there's very little profit for a small time FFL dealer to buy and sell new guns. With increased costs for the license, plus the low markups that big dealers can get by on, I think most small time dealers can't compete, unless their customers aren't knowledgeable and don't check around to compare prices.

 

[P7M13]

@HANKYPANKY , do you have any books on gunsmithing?
There's being a gunsmith, then there's being the gunsmith who everyone recommends. I'm lucky to know two of them, and they're both artisans.

Came back to say this. You should also learn to run a file, and that's cheep. I good way to start is get a good file, a file card, a saw and a chunk of something to file, you can even use a piece of hardwood. Take the wood and saw cut a chunk slightly over 1" square. Now take your file and turn it into a perfect 1" square. Like with 90* angles and each side 1"x1". Pro tip: get A LOT of wood to practice on

This is outstanding advice, will really come in handy fitting a 1911 barrel. Same with running a hand saw. You can hack some steel off, or you can cut it off where it needs minimal touch-up. Very few people can do the latter.
Learn to work wood too. Walnut, maple and the like. Reading a grain, knowing how to carve by hand, and how to get the finish to jump out are all learned skills.
Finally, find junk guns for cheap, tear them down and rebuild or improve them. Lots of gunsmithing tasks involve working with impossibly small parts that are under spring tension or compression, that want to fly away if you don't handle them properly. I'm pretty sure many members here have springs that shot across the universe somewhere, not to be found until well after they bought a replacement at exorbitant cost.

 

[SonicBlue03]

They're not hiring, but closer to you (still a drive) is Gray Guns. You may want to consider reaching out to them to see if there's an opportunity to take a part internship, or get direction on where you should focus your training. That or check Noveske, they might have some entry level roles within their org.

 

[HANKYPANKY]

Most small business fail within the first few years. Starting a new career and learning a new trade will take some time. I highly recommend not quitting the day job until you are closer to becoming self sufficient if you are the primary breadwinner.

Start small on some projects, and learn the trade first. If your end goal is to be your own boss, I'd forgo the employee at an FFL route. I'm by no means knocking salaries, but I'd be surprised if bartending didn't pay more than an employee job with an FFL.

Starting an LLC is easy, but if you are going all in first, you'll need insurance and capital to get you going for a minimum of two years before you could expect to turn a profit.

Also, if you make a job out of your passion, your passion soon turns into a job; food for thought.

My wife makes a decent salary working remote, I am currently unemployed after moving away from my bartending job. Thant being said salary isn't as big of a issue as pursuing my love and life long desire to have a career in the firearms community.

 

[Juniper9mm]

My wife makes a decent salary working remote, I am currently unemployed after moving away from my bartending job. Thant being said salary isn't as big of a issue as pursuing my love and life long desire to have a career in the firearms community.

I'm with you on this. I have often wished to do the exact thing you are preparing to do. Like others have suggested getting some business acumen together would be a good place to start. You could also seek professional gunsmithing training either via online course, in person or perhaps working for a local gunsmith who would train in lieu for helping around the shop. You might even be able in this manner be able to move on to take over a retiring gunsmiths business. I would visit the local gunsmiths where you live and do a little networking to see how they got started so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. A good gunsmith like we have up here near PDX in @Velzey is worth his weight in gold and will never run out of business. Good luck!

 

[solv3nt]

My wife makes a decent salary working remote, I am currently unemployed after moving away from my bartending job. Thant being said salary isn't as big of a issue as pursuing my love and life long desire to have a career in the firearms community.

I would stay away from the hobby FFL and focus more on the smithing side.

 

[VinnieBoomBah]

Eventually I would like to have my own business and FFL7 to manufacture and build my own creations to sell.
Just having a hard time finding an entry point to get my foot in the door as most folks around here are already fully staffed.
n!

H.G.

Couple thoughts here. On the 'build your own creations' are you talking about assembling existing product into a quality product or do you have an idea for a new creation that doesn't exist yet? If it's the 'new thing' one route you could take is find a gunsmith or machinist that has the ability to produce your idea and discuss the possibility of a partnership. Yeah, you might make more if you did it all yourself, but it could be a good source of income and a foot in the door.

On the getting in the door part, how's your Elevator Pitch? It should be short, like 15 or 20 seconds, and it tells them who you are, what you do and how what you do can benefit them.

 

[sobo]

Also, if you make a job out of your passion, your passion soon turns into a job; food for thought.

Conversely, an ancient Chinese proverb says, "Pursue career you love, never work day in life."

 

[solv3nt]

...

 

[solv3nt]

Conversely, an ancient Chinese proverb says, "Pursue career you love, never work day in life."

Stomper once said:

I just sharted myself.

 

[oremike]

You might try The Gun Works in Springfield.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Hello,
I am all about firearms and wanted a career change from a 13 year run at bartending.
I spend most of my days researching guns, parts, how they work, and the history behind them.
Currently living in Roseburg gives me a few options for applying to work for a licensed FFL.
Eventually I would like to have my own business and FFL7 to manufacture and build my own creations to sell.
Just having a hard time finding an entry point to get my foot in the door as most folks around here are already fully staffed.
Please if you have any advice or words of wisdom to help me along the way in this journey it would be greatly appreciated .

Thank you 2A family and have a wonderful holiday season!

H.G.

Is that a charles manson avatar?

 

[sobo]

Is that a charles manson avatar?

Naaahh... then his username would be Helter Skelter...

 

[Hop Sing]

If you decide to start your own business but aren't business savvy there is an outfit called Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) that works with people to develop business plans, help with paperwork, licensing, etc. and they have chapters in a lot of places. Free service via volunteers.

 

[Certaindeaf]

If you decide to start your own business but aren't business savvy there is an outfit called Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) that works with people to develop business plans, help with paperwork, licensing, etc. and they have chapters in a lot of places. Free service via volunteers.

That and it's pretty easy to change an avatar to an American flag too..

Lulz