Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing AGI Gunsmith Courses

Thoughts?

Waste of time if you're seeking employment and of questionable value otherwise.

Not a smith myself, but it's a rare individual that can do at home literature study and then master such tasks. There are those rare few that can do it, but most of us don't fall in that group.

I'm not trying to be snarky as I honestly want to know the answer, but what are you basing that on? I'm not looking for employment, just personal enjoyment in my "Golden Years" - which in my experience often aren't very golden.

That's very, very true. This is all DVD format; but after thinking about it, it may be overkill for what I'm interested in.

I found some agi books at a garage sale....some good info but the gun models are so vast I just don't see learning them all at home...
Basicly fixing guns need to be learned by experience and you will never stop learning....
It's a must to have the desire and ability to dive in and figure it out...
For me I had 3 old time gunsmith that would always help in a jam..
Each one had a diff specialty...

Mike, thinking about this and the last discussion maybe a specialized niche if you are doing this for others. For just yourself have at it. That way the mastered skill would be easier to aquire. Personally I like to rust blue and brown the best.

I base my earlier opinion on having had a half dozen or so AGI "graduates" work for me when I was working as a gunsmith. With their combined knowledge and skills one could have probably almost successfully mounted a scope.

About like learning to be a brain surgeon from a correspondence course. Larry Potterfield's material on Youtube is pretty good and it's free. There are many other good gunsmithing topics on Youtube and elsewhere on the 'net.

I purchased both of the machining courses on VHS. I thought they both gave a good beginning knowledge on using the lathe and the milling machine. I also purchased the one on bluing and thought it was good. also one on barreling an action and thought that was good.

I sincerely doubt that a person would not be able to mount a scope after watching their videos.

For anyone who would like to buy the milling tapes, the Mauser tapes, and the Winchester 70 trigger tape on VHS, let me know. Might be able to save you a few bucks.

When I was a teenager, bright eyed and ignorant, I took the correspondence course that advertised in all of the outdoor and gun magazines. I found out quickly that head knowledge, if any was obtained, quickly fizzled out without having an opportunity to have hands-on experience. I would suspect that videos would be almost as bad. I still have the old correspondence stuff from the 70's but haven't looked at it in years. I suspect that some things would click more with me now. But if I remember correctly, a lot of it was about sporterizing the old military actions which I could not have afforded or had the machines to work with them. I finished the course only because I am pretty stubborn...lol.

Here's my "AGI story" FWIW.....Many moons ago I lucked onto my first Model 12 shotgun, I got it all blued, new stocks, etc. Went out to shoot it and the gun would blow itself open. Not having any experience with the Model 12 I posted on the web. I got 26 replies, 13 said "sure, they are supposed to do that" the other 13 said "no, that's not how it's supposed to work"
I saw that AGI had a dvd on the Model 12 and I called them. I talked to a very knowledgeable lady that said, "yes. I believe that issue is addressed on the dvd", she went on to say that "it's not addressed in great depth, but he discusses the problem and how to fix it", so I went ahead and bought the dvd. Sure enough, it was addressed and I was able to positively repair the gun and learn some other valuable tips too. They really mainly just show you how to properly tear down, clean and reassemble the gun, but there are a lot of tips and tricks thrown in there too, including a section on how to assess the amount of wear on the gun. The only drawback, if you can call it that, was the instructor has a pretty bad lisp. It's like getting taught by Sylvester the Cat. Are the AGI dvd's worth the money for someone interested in gun work at home??? I have been at this for 30 years and from what I saw, every penny. They are not expensive, you can sometimes find them used, and you could work in a gun shop for many years and never gather the info on one of these dvd's.

Personally I found the gunsmith kinks to be a welth of information....lots of trick of the trade the apply to many different guns..

I have these...

The Gunsmithing Course, the Milling Course and Lathe, Building the Ultimate 1911, Making Glocks Rock and all the Armorers Courses..most of their main materials.

They weren't even available when I started building rifles and pistols, like several decades, so when they came into my possession they were only of mild interest to me, but I like watching shows on the history of firearms too so I checked them out.

My review would be that the material is reliable and good.

It might not be close to in depth hands-on training from a reputable school, or an apprenticeship working with a Master Gunsmith, but there is nothing in these courses that I recall that is incorrect.

I've been building and working on guns for decades, but if a person doesn't know anything about this stuff one has to start somewhere.

At the very least... one can make the effort to watch a dvd before hacking up their 1911 or whatever gun they might have...why not?

It's better than some advice I see that gets thrown around.