Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing How in the name of God does a gunsmith make any profit

I wish being a plumber would have been near as fun as building precision rifles... but they don’t spend much on tools ...

Sorry I had to get that off my chest...

I decided to buy my tooling before the lathe and Mill ... I’m almost done, but wow... the tooling is NOT cheap...
I choose to go for higher quality and or precision stuff... so.. it hurts.

I’ve always heard to make a million as a gunsmith, start out with 2 million.. and it takes at least 3 years to cover your start up costs...

All I can say is Woof !! thank God I had a day job.
Looking forward to it though... all the school, training, tooling...

Spot

buy used. Should be a lot of old quality tooling out there with everyone going to CNC

my local average joe gunsmith makes a ton, in my estimation.

sometimes i wish i had become a gunsmith instead of a plumber. no, but seriously i don't think they're doing all that badly around ne georgia at least.

like auto repair, there's all kinds of different levels of service it seems like. a mercedes dealer repair shop charges differently than the local tire shop.

i've thought for a long time that everybody before they get married becomes proficient at basic gun repair, real estate sales, and basic home repairs including construction, wiring, plumbing, painting and landscaping. the wife can do the rest.

Talk big.
Be arrogant.
Charge a little more than the competition.

Get a gun in a magazine.


Pretty soon you will be "special".

Now charge a lot more.

[quote=Spotshooter]I wish being a plumber would have been near as fun as building precision rifles... but they don’t spend much on tools ...

Sorry I had to get that off my chest...

I decided to buy my tooling before the lathe and Mill ... I’m almost done, but wow... the tooling is NOT cheap...
I choose to go for higher quality and or precision stuff... so.. it hurts.

I’ve always heard to make a million as a gunsmith, start out with 2 million.. and it takes at least 3 years to cover your start up costs...

All I can say is Woof !! thank God I had a day job.
Looking forward to it though... all the school, training, tooling...

Spot[/quote

How do you know building "precision rifles" is fun if you are just now getting the tooling? I will tell you like I told my youngest son (who wants to be a professional bass fisherman), ANYTHING you do as a profession will eventually become a job! I built custom rifles while working a full time shift job AND farming/ranching on the side. The only time I had to work on them was in the mornings or evenings after "work". It was fun for a while and then it was just tedious. The only time I enjoy it now is of I am doing if for someone as a gift. Be careful what you wish for!!!

totally agree, when it becomes a job then the fun is gone

I got lucky when I bought my bridge port the tooling I got with it was worth more then then price of the mill. The machines are cheap compared to the tooling.

Willicd,

I have experienced that and to your point, sometimes it’s unavoidable.
For me, it’s a retirement career change business, so I don’t have to do work I don’t want to, in order to pay the rent.

That and - It’s about craftsmanship, Engineering, and the final product is something to be proud of... and it’s shooting !!!
Not to mention that I get to learn vs. teach again... There are a lot of very skilled knowledgeable people out there, and learning new techniques, and tricks is a blast.
Anyway - It becoming work is always a pitfall, but if you love most of the aspects of your work, it makes life a bit easier.

On the cost side -

I’m trying to spend smart... so I am essentially mentoring under a master gunsmith who’s guiding me on what to get, what’s important and what isn’t.
Spending smart doesn’t mean going cheap however...

I’m planning on a new Mathews Ultra Preicion with DRO’s, and a new JET mill or mill drill..

I went with Aloris tool posts, and high quality tooling - cry once... but just like everyone else, when you realize good tooling can easily run you up to 20k... for startup costs, that lathe starts looking a lot cheaper.

I’m just looking forward to making my own precision rifles.. I already ordered 2 customer reamers - I’m ordering my 6 Creedmoor customer reamer for my PRS build today.

Don't even think about the mill/drill... Trust me - get a good knee mill - and JET makes a decent machine for the bux..

Redneck,

I hear you- I really want to run one before I pick it up, so I’ll be trying to find a showroom here shortly.

For work on small pieces - I have a small Grizzly benchtop mill, and a Sheridan mini-lathe for years now... once I got my dial gauges, levels and indicators my work significantly improved, but with higher quality machines out there - well there are a good number to choose from.

I don’t plan on doing bench rest so I don’t the entire stock length for table travel. I still have mixed feelings on how big a table I get, I’m trying to get smart yet conservative on size.. which always conflict with each other. I just don’t have as much time on larger mills as I’d like, so it makes deciding a bit harder.

I think I will be going to the shot show this year... first time for me.

I know Grizzly is typically there, but I doubt I’ll Find the models I’m looking at.

There is a serious lack of gunsmiths in this area, downright pitiful. The ones that are around do shoddy work and charge like D'Arcy Echols

Lack of a decent income is why firearms industry is short on gunsmiths. A gunsmiths shop hourly rate needs to be $100.00 plus for them to stay in business.

Automotive consultant guidelines for hourly shop rates is a great guide for setting hourly retail rate. That guide is highest tech hourly wage plus bennies divided by .3 and then divide that answer by .8. This gives the hourly rate to charge customers.

A good gunsmith should make a minimum wage of 60,000 per year with two weeks of vacation. Based on that earnings level, (covering shop overhead, tooling costs, insurance, accounting, bad debts, holidays, advertising, time waste with BS'rs, training, rework) his posted retail rate will need to be 125.00 per hour. Most gun owners would howl at that kind of rate. However, for a smith to stay in business, he has to be at that level. Too many gun smiths under price themselves in an effort to keep gun owners happy. The result is that they soon exit the business.

One other fact, many low dollar valued firearms are not worth repairing. It is cheaper to buy new than to repair.

I am going to have a revolver worked on this week by a very competent smith. He'll probably have slightly over two hours in the job. My bill will be 425.00 and I'm ok with that bill.

Stay legal...

If you're looking to make good money, don't get into gunsmithing. The gun business is the only trade that relies on charity to exist. By that I mean most folks do it because they love guns and if they were doing something else that required as much skill and training they'd make three times the money.

I've done business with some of the very best gunsmiths anywhere. None drives a Rolls.

Heck yes !

And yes, there is no way I’m going to get rich.... it’s supplemental, but again covering costs is nutz.

They work way to cheap.

Let me tell you the facts as a retired gunsmith. Its a labor of love and not for getting big profits but there are some good Perks. My shop was in central CA on the coast. Santa Cruz. I was kept pretty busy as my reputation was not to bad. The initial monthly out lay was for insurance, security alarm, dealing with the ATF and state tax board on retail sale can also be included as a time consuming burden. The positive procedures dealing with firearm sale were nowhere as troubling as they are now in CA. which has hurt a lot of the smaller shops and driven them out of business as it is so time consuming. Besides repair one of my main things to do was building custom stocks which I loved doing. One downside to this was after the job was done if something happened and you were not paid the law would only let you sell the firearm for what you had in it for material and you could not recoupe your labor. The most problem time was just before and especially the night before Duck season opened. Might as well not going to bed in this time frame as "Gosh, I forgot to clean my shotgun after I put it away last season and it seems like its not right" and Dan I need to get my duck stamp and some ammo sorry to bother you at this time. Doctors and Lawyers were the most common abusers of their firearms. Now some of the perks that helped smooth things out. Was invited to shoot on most of the Duck clubs by customers and could Deer hunt on almost any ranch in the central coast. Like one customer said, "you can mess with your Doctor or Lawyer but its hands off your Gunsmith". Did I enjoy the job and the long hours, yes, would I do it again in CA., no way

The last statistic I heard years ago(1990's ) was that gunsmith school grads only have about 15% of graduates work in the field. I was retiring ealy and was thinking about enrolling in a gunsmith school.

I know of several gunsmiths who have left the business, or who have moved from full-time to part-time, because they were unable to earn enough to pay the bills. I know one guy who stocks shelves at Wal-Mart from 11PM - 7AM so that he can afford health insurance for his family. It is a sad situation.