How Shooting Experience Builds Better Gunsmiths
Imagine a chef specializing in a particular cuisine but never partaking of his own dishes. How good can he be at his art? Posit a violin maker who has never played a tune. Now consider a gunsmith or a firearm designer who doesn’t shoot.
Gunsmithing Tailor
Gunsmithing is like tailoring: in fact, quality shotguns are fitted to individual shooters like bespoke suits. For best results, it is essential that the person making or upgrading a firearm has experience with that type. Alex Zimmerman of Guncrafter Industries, before he got into making high-end 1911-style pistols, was a ranked competition shooter. It’s no surprise that his creations not only work well but fit perfectly.
Every year, trade show range days showcase gun designs by people who aren’t shooters. A typical “bright new idea” works only under ideal circumstances, and often exhibits terrible ergonomics. STEN, a successful design despite its looks, came from people who shot guns seriously. Korth PRS, a roller-delayed 1911-esque pistol, was made by engineers who didn’t bother with much testing before presenting the gun to the public. It worked very occasionally, and the claimed improved accuracy couldn’t be demonstrated because they neglected to zero the sights.
Gunsmith Shooting Knowledge
A gunsmith should know at least enough about a platform to make decisions like “how much texture does a grip need for retention without abraded skin”, “what’s the minimal safe eye relief for the given recoil intensity”, or “how much recoil absorption can a hydraulic stock buffer offer before a semi-auto rifle short cycles”. In theory, that knowledge should be shown by the customer, but they don’t always know what they want, and less often how they want to accomplish the improvements. Knowing leads to happier customers, and often allows the smith to upsell on additional services and features which the customer needs without realizing that. For instance, a person who wants a heavy surplus rifle sporterized might benefit from a compensator to avoid increased recoil and muzzle flip, along with a soft cheekpiece to accommodate not only raised sight line but also accelerated muzzle rise on firing. A chrome-plating order on a pistol may need additional slide texture and sculpting to retain the ability to rack the increasingly slick pistol. Details like this are simple but require an understanding of the product, and most of the understanding comes from experience rather than mere logical analysis of the requested changes. Solutions often depend on the context: a leisure marksman would prefer far less grip texture than a SWAT fighter who always shoots in Kevlar gloves. A gunsmith making a matched centerfire and rimfire rifle pair might note that one of the rifles would take a smaller scope, and so would need a lower stock comb. The list of possible uses for knowing the field use is endless, and serves only to illustrate the essential nature of practicing what you build.
Conclusion
A further consideration is that many gunsmiths are sole proprietors, acting also as their own marketing departments. Being able to speak the language of the customer, understanding the jargon and the concerns of various customer groups, makes for effective sales pitches. A person coming in for a sling swivel stud might order a custom rifle, or request an extensive upgrade…far more likely, if the smith can talk his talk.
Written by: Oleg Volk, Firearms Photographer
