Some time back I was curious about building an FN-FAL rifle from a kit and ordered AGI's tape on this weapon. I was really surprised at the quality and amount of information. In fact I ordered 16 ore of their tapes covering some semi-auto pistols, revolvers, semi-auto rifles etc. It was money well spent. As far as the AGI gunsmithing course, I don't think a novice can get enough information out of something like this unless he is working in the business, using metalworking machines and experiencing the work itself. They definitely would be a great help to someone like that. There is no teacher like hands on experience.