Gunsmithing Business

[Donny]

Like they say; golf, fishing, sex, When you go pro, it ain't fun anymore, just another job. :grin: :grin: :slap:

 

[Keb]

The demand for assembled kit guns would seem to be very low. Take up something else if you're looking to make any money. If you are still thinking of making custom guns, make guns that nobody else is making. However, don't expect to make a lot of money.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Like they say; golf, fishing, sex, When you go pro, it ain't fun anymore, just another job. :grin: :grin: :slap:

So true! :thumbsup:

 

[bubba.50]

some of the "assemble & finish" kits from Lyman, Traditions & other require quite a bit of work to make nice guns out of them. get somethin' like a Great Plains Rifle kit that usually sells pretty easy & see if you have the knack & patience for all the woodworkin, barrel bluein'/brownin', and small parts polishin' & finishin' involved.

if it turns out nice split the difference in cost of kit & finished gun & see if ya can sell it. if it all works out buy another & repeat process while honin' yer skills.

after a few of these you'll know if it's anything you want to get further into. if you don't you'll at least have a good solid gun you can say you built yerself to enjoy for many, many huntin' seasons.

 

[Dane]

If you can live on minimum wage, and wait 4 to 5 months to get your money......you can do well.
My hobby has been self supporting for a while now, but I sure couldn't make a living at it.
I've built and sold well over 50 guns now, and am just now becoming a bit proficient.
This is not a trade where the average client is willing to pay you for your labor hours.
So, if you do this, it has to be because you love what you do. I'm still building after 20+ years, and I still love it, and still make minimum wage.
So the question is..... Do I love this enough to do it for free?

 

[Chevythunderman]

If you were any closer to me I would love to take you in to learn some of the trade of building rifles. A kid with this much enthusiasm to build rifles is kind of unheard of anymore. Heck as far as that goes any kid willing to do any work and not play video games all day is worth taking the risk of teaching a skill! If everyone here was told they couldn't do something right off the bat what would happen to our sport? It would die!!!

Go to some of your local rendezvous and ask around to some of the people and remember to be very courteous! If you show that your willing to learn and not be a know it all you will do fine. Just remember to learn everything you possibly can and to always accept when you are wrong and never offer up any excuses and always be willing to learn and never accept the whole "its good enough" mentality. If you go into it with the "I want to be the best there is all the time" mentality you will do fine!!

Good luck to you and I wish you nothing but the best!! In a few years I hope to see your name signed across the flats on a few rifles selling for big bucks!

 

[Col. Batguano]

Absolutely. Barrel makers sell barrels for $250-$350 each, and have about $15-$25 in materials in them. They say the barrels take them about 8-12 hours each to make using modern equipment. The key is to use modern machinery as a force multiplier to substitute for hand labor, OR, to get your skill level so great in the artistic world that people will pay you what ever you want. What would Michaelangelo command these days to do a commissioned sculpture for someone?

If you're going to go in to that "business", another and more lucrative place to go would be in setting up a RELIABLE competitor to The Rifle Shoppe. There are a zillion ways to get what we all pretty much make; traditional ML'ers. But if you made something that not many make, Scottish Snaphaunces, Wheel Locks, etc, then there might be some demand for what is surely a limited supply. The key is to make QUALITY stuff, so you're not in the same category as all the Indian stuff out there. Just look at how much in demand that Razpla is.

Maybe set something up to make a decent reproduction of the Lorenzoni lever action self-loading flintlock. I bet you could sell 3-5 of them a year for $5000-$7000 each....IF you did good work.

 

[jerrywh]

You would do better if you went to work for McDonald's. The only real good money in this business is in real high art collector guns that sell for $20,000.00 to $200,000.00 The higher the better. You can't make money off of people who don't have any. Low priced gun makers have to compete with CVA.,Perdersoli, Traditions, Thompson center, and dozens others who are all trying to undersell you. If you enjoy working for 25cents an hour proceed.

 

[Col. Batguano]

Jerry is 100% right. It will be really hard to make much of a margin buying at retail and then adding value to sell at retail again. The manufacturers are buying walnut by the container load directly from the mill, and manufacturing their own metal parts. They use the wood shavings to heat their plants. They use power machinery and intense automation as much as they can. A gun that retails for $900 they have less than $100 in materials, and another $100 in labor in, paying prevailing EU labor rates for semi-skilled labor. Do you really think your buying power can compete with that?

The place where skill can compensate you is in high end stuff as Jerry said. Look at the traditional English gun makers that sell one-off guns in the $100,000-$200,000 range, and they have waiting lists for their stuff. Unless you are in that class, it is definitely NOT about making money. It is all about the education and satisfaction of having done it yourself. If you build under contract then all you have left when the product is sold is the money. Ever hear the term "starving artist" before? Many fine artists labor for weeks or months to create a painting that sells for $100, and they're happy to have that.

 

[Carolina_Skinner]

Again, thank you all for the honest opinions. But, it seems I misconstrued my question. People seem to think I'm asking if I can actually make a large successful enterprise out of this, when I am more asking If one can do this as a moneymaking hobby. I am only 15, and I'm not trying to make a really large business, I just wanted to know if I could buy a kit, and finish it, and sell it on here on the classifieds, or on some other website's classifieds and make my money back plus some extra. Thank you all again for your honest opinions and tips.

 

[Carolina_Skinner]

And also, as requested, here is my kit that I built:







Feel free to give me your honest opinions!

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Again, thank you all for the honest opinions. But, it seems I misconstrued my question. People seem to think I'm asking if I can actually make a large successful enterprise out of this, when I am more asking If one can do this as a moneymaking hobby. I am only 15, and I'm not trying to make a really large business, I just wanted to know if I could buy a kit, and finish it, and sell it on here on the classifieds, or on some other website's classifieds and make my money back plus some extra. Thank you all again for your honest opinions and tips.

When you put it that way, I don't see anything getting in your way, really. It could be something you do on the side. Work at MacDonalds to save a little cash for your builds, build one, and sell it off. MC'D's will keep you from going under, and will give you an adequate source of income for parts. As you progress, be sure to challenge yourself. I have only two real "builds" under my belt. The first was a dip of my toes in the water, and the second was to really nail a simple gun. My next one will be fancier. Likely in need of improvement, but that is what subsequent builds are for. The first build I did, was likely worth only a couple hundred bucks more than I spent on parts....Maybe. My second, likely quite a bit more, and I paid almost exactly the same amount for each set of parts. The better you get, the more your builds will be worth, and the more money you will make from selling each one. Now, this is not The Fast Track to Trump Money, but it might be a decent way of keeping up your building career and making a little bit of money on the side. Any road you take, don't give up on gunbuilding.

Personally, I would never want my gunbuilding to become a job. I do it to get away from all of that. There are lot of folks who build these guns in their retirement. It becoming a job takes all the fun out of it; deadlines, customers, profit margins, all that sucks the fun right out of it for me. For that same reason, I like working on cars, but it would get real old, real fast of I had to do it for other people all day.

 

[nhmoose]

Remember ML are not exempt from Excise tax on firearms or the ITRA registration state dept. tax whether you export or not. Failure to comply is a felony.

The ITAR starts at I believe 1750.oo per year or more now. The tax men BATFE , IRS and State dept. have no humor. So remember to add the costs to you product.

 

[coloradoclyde]

You did a very nice job for a 15 year old....Much better than my first build..

But!........

 

[Carolina_Skinner]

But!........

But?

 

But!........

But?

With respect, your gun looks like any "off the rack" gun. Why would someone buy yours, when they can buy a factory made rifle that comes with a warranty? Your's is "nice looking", but the customer has no way to know if you screwed it up, until they get it home. Make sense?

 

[Obi-Wan Cannoli]

But!........

But?

You take the base cost of the parts and materials, and then you can either increase the value of those parts and materials, or you can decrease them.

When a customer or client is paying a premium, above the cost of materials, they are paying not so much for the time invested in the project as they are the years of training and experience that the master put into refining his craft.

This applies to anything.

You built a nice rifle from a hobbyist point of view. To turn that into a marketable skill level, consider things such as: taking engraving classes, gun building classes, try to mentor under a professional, etc...just be sure you are also doing something to pay the bills in the mean time...

 

[necchi]

But!........

But?

It's hard, because people, even other forum members take constructive criticism as an attack.
Your photo's aren't detailed enough to really see a lot but,,
There's a flat spot in the wrist area along with a little in front of the lock panel and below the lock in the trigger/trigger guard area,, more wood should have come off under the lock and the trigger guard, it doesn't need to be buried that deep. The wrist could have been rounded a little more to remove that flat part. That's the thing with these kit's, there's always plenty of extra wood.
The Butt plate is always a tough area, on your rifle the heel of the metal butt plate is proud of the wood, a metal file used to take the butt down to the wood was needed, always file away from the wood so as not to get metal shaving embedded in the wood.
The toe of the butt plate and toe plate could have been reworked a bit so that wee bit of wood missing there was gone. There's nothing carved in stone that says the metal parts don't need to be reshaped or cut.

I have to say over all you did a good job, many don't do as well,,
But, you asked, :v

 

[coloradoclyde]

But!........

But?

Don't let anything we say discourage you from building more guns....you have raw talent, but you need to challenge yourself more.

 

[Crewdawg445]

You would do better if you went to work for McDonald's. The only real good money in this business is in real high art collector guns that sell for $20,000.00 to $200,000.00 The higher the better. You can't make money off of people who don't have any. Low priced gun makers have to compete with CVA.,Perdersoli, Traditions, Thompson center, and dozens others who are all trying to undersell you. If you enjoy working for 25cents an hour proceed.

Right on the head... I have several certifications in smiting for two big name manufacturers of LE firearms, luckily it didn't cost me a dime and I'm glad... You'd be better off at Burger King only because I hate Mcdonalds...