The first thing you’ll need to do is find a school that actually offers a Gunsmithing course. There are very few Gunsmith schools in the U.S. that offers it. The most prominent school and one that many people go through is the Colorado School of Trades in Lakewood Colorado. This school has been turning out scores of top Gunsmith for many years now. If I remember correctly, their course runs 14 months. But to be sure, check with them.

Other top Gunsmith schools across the country are:

• Murray State College in Oklahoma: link
• Trinidad College in Colorado: link
• Lassen College in California: link
• Montgomery College in North Carolina: link
• Pennsylvania Gunsmith School in Pittsburgh: link
• Yavapai School in Prescott Arizona: link
• Piedmont College in North Carolina: link
• Pine College in Minnesota: link

There are other Trade Schools and Technical Colleges that offer Gunsmithing courses, but these are the ones I’m familiar with.

If you don’t have the time to go to one of these Gunsmith Schools full time, then there are some courses you can take at most technical colleges that will help you get a head start. Several courses you might want to look into are machining and welding. Other courses might include some type of wood working to get you familiar with wood working tools.

There are a lot of online Gunsmith courses available as well. I haven’t looked over the information in these courses so I can’t tell you whether or not they’re good. I’ll list a few here for you to do your own research on them.

Some companies that offer online gunsmithing courses or at home gunsmithing courses are:

• Modern Gunsmithing; link
• Foley-Belsaw: link
• American Gunsmithing Institute: link
• Penn Foster: link
• Ashworth: link

Another path to becoming a Gunsmith is find one in your local area and see if they offer an apprenticeships. If they do, don’t be surprised if they want a lot of money to take you under their wing and train you. After all, you’ll be asking them to teach you a trade that will last a lifetime. They’ll be putting in a lot of time and effort into your training (or they should be). You’ll likely be asked to do dirty, nasty work and work long hours and weekends. Don’t complain, just to repeat, they’re taking their time and years of experience and teaching you. Be thankful if they decide to take you under their wing and put up with any B.S. that might come your way.

As for becoming a Gunsmith by watching gunsmithing videos or using online gunsmithing courses, I can’t help you there. I don’t know of anyone that I considered a good Gunsmith who obtained their training online or through video’s. I do know some good Gunsmith’s who used video’s to gain some additional knowledge in a certain area, but this was only after they had completed their schooling.

I won’t say it can’t be done, but if you’re really serious about becoming a Gunsmith, I’d say you need to look at one of the schools in the first list and plan on attending until that course is finished. Some of the Technical schools run for 2 years, so plan accordingly. Hopefully this article has shed some light on how to become a gunsmith.