5 Ways to Support Veteran Gunsmiths You don’t have to be a veteran to be a great gunsmith, but it definitely helps. Veterans have a proven track record of hard work and dedication, and they have an oftentimes unrivaled professional familiarity and expertise with firearms that is not commonly found in civilian professions. If you’ve spent any amount of time with gunsmiths at shows,…
Top 5 Workbench Tools You Need to be a Successful Gunsmith Gunsmithing is a fulfilling hobby or business that provides both a social aspect and personal pride. You can create custom firearms from scratch, customize certain aspects, or repair different guns, depending on your interests and skills. But like everything, having the correct workbench tools will…
From Classroom to Workbench: Real-World Gunsmith Training This month, I want to talk about MGS and their Advanced Gunsmithing II program. When I first heard about MGS, I was a little skeptical. How can gunsmithing be taught online? How can students really get the training they need to start a successful career in the firearm industry without…
Why Patience and Precision Start at the Workbench Firearms are only as precise as they’re engineered and maintained to be. When your customers talk about precision, they’re typically more concerned with results than they are with the small nuances of the maintenance process. But gunsmiths are the artisans of precision, and your love of the pastime has instilled you with a fastidious eye for…
Common Workbench Mistakes New Gunsmiths Make A new gunsmith setting up a workspace has a bewildering number of options, both in what tools to use and how to set them up. However, certain general principles should be kept in mind to avoid common workbench setup mistakes. Lighting Ergonomics are key to long-term work comfort, so…
Why Consistent Practice Improves Firearm Performance So, you have picked gunsmithing as a hobby or even better as a full-time career, what are the next steps you need to refine your skills and increase your knowledge? Like everything you do within this life, consistent practice is one of the keys to success. Naturally, with a lot of…
Common Firearm Diagnosis Gunsmiths See After Winter Storage This month, I would like to talk about how to store your firearms during the winter months. In my years of being a gunsmith, I see more problems with firearms that have been put away in safes and gun cabinets during the holidays than at any other time. Why…
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…
Top Skills Every Aspiring Female Gunsmith Should Learn This month, let’s talk about women in the firearms industry. Last year, I wrote about women starting a career in the firearms industry and how to clear the hurdles they may face. This time in particular, let’s go deeper and talk about the skills necessary to be a successful gunsmith. Female Gunsmith Soul Searching Before you start going down the path to be…
6 Benefits of the Build Kit Experience with MGS Learning gunsmithing is not an abstract exercise. It is a craft built on precision, mechanical understanding, material knowledge, and disciplined execution. Reading about firearm systems is useful, but mastery comes from working with real components, real tolerances, and real consequences. That is where the build kit experience at MGS…