Constantly Improving Your Skills

The average gun enthusiast (this is where it all starts) becomes a gunsmith because he has an inherent talent for fixing things and loves to work on guns. This usually happens long before he realizes he can get paid for this kind of work. Actually, "fixing" guns is not where it all starts. To "fix" a gun, you must first know’or learn’what’s wrong with it. This means you must understand actions and the basic fundamentals of operating mechanisms.

You’re not going to get this knowledge from a school or correspondence course that teaches handloading, stock-finishing, and ballistics. You have to be able to learn through handson experience or factory schools, or possibly through one or two of the better gunsmith schools, to understand the basics of pump guns, autoloaders, doubles, auto-extractors, and so forth. What fundamental similarities do all these have? Where are these fundamentals in the gun that you’ve been asked to "fix"?

Can you follow the gun’s action to the point of trouble? Your ability to bed a stock doesn’t help much if you have to hand-make an obsolete extractor. Can you visualize the contours, hand file it from the proper metal, and harden it if required? You can be the best blackpowder shooter in the world, but when it comes time to pull a breech plug or a broken nipple you could be in real trouble if you don’t know how. Or should you have to hand-cut a dovetail on a rifle barrel, can you do it so it is straight and tight?

I could go on and on, but what this really boils down to is that there are so many, many situations that you will run into that no one can teach you all there is to know. Assuming you are mechanically inclined, you have a jump on things. After all, in the America of yesteryear, people had to be mechanically knowledgeable about everything from cars to farm machinery. Some of these repairs or "fixes" were crude by today’s standards’ but they worked.

Let’s assume you are mechanically inclined but not a competent parts builder. What do you do? Don’t rush out and buy a big lathe and a mill and expect the instruction book to give you the knowledge and ability you need to use these machines correctly and efficiently. Check with your local community college and take a couple of night courses in machine shop. Learn about howa screwdriver is meant to work, how to run a lathe, cut threads, and operate a mill which you probably will never own.

Learn what files are for and study metalworking. As for stock work, get an old Mauser and buy a semi-inletted stock and a selection of tools from Brownells. Butcher one or two of these and then decide if stockwork is for you. Take an old throw-away buttstock and try putting a recoil pad on it. Perhaps I’m going a bit too far in assuming you’re just starting out. If you have been in business for awhile, you can still improve your skills by taking these machine-shop courses.

I don’t care if you already can run a lathe, believe me you’re going to learn something and that something will be well worth the time and the small cost. Taking a machine-shop course takes you out of the "blacksmith shop" and puts you into the gunsmith shop. You must remember, we don’t always have access to the technical bulletins put out by the factories, so we have to look to the "how-to" publications like American Gunsmith and other books and videos for the information we need.

But primarily, we have to build our own book of knowledge that we keep in our heads, and this takes time. You improve your knowledge every time you work on anew or different gun. Look at a Franchi and compare it with an old Remington 11. They both have similar basic functions, but they’re different. Keeping the basics in mind, you should be able to follow the functions through and ultimately "fix them" for the better. When you think you’re a qualified gunsmith, try taking a Merkle apart.

Look at those European guard screws and when they have set up tight, take the action apart and then make a replacement V-spring. Then put it all back together with no scratches, no buggered screws, and everything lined up right with the engraving. This is a lot different from changing a firing pin or a trigger or whatever in an Iver Johnson single barrel. If you’re bent on stock making, take a course in woodworking.

The fundamentals that you will learn about grain, sharpening chisels, and so forth will be most helpful. You’ll learn how to make repairs in wood so that you can hardly notice them. You’ll be richer for the experience. The last course I would recommend (but certainly not the least) is a welding course. This is just as important as any of the above. You can learn to gas weld well enough to repair very small parts as well as become adept at brazing and silver soldering.

If you are good at arc welding, it will hold you in good stead with bolt operations. After all, arc or electric welding (continued on page 21)

gives greater penetration over gas welding for jobs like this. You should know how to do both. Once you complete these courses, your metal and woodworking proficiency will be greater than ever before, and you’ll be able to make more parts than you were ever able to before. You’ll have a whole new understanding of what is "fixable" and what’s "unfixable." A good gunsmith should be prepared to manufacture many springs and parts.

For one thing, you’ll be able to make more money, and perhaps you’ll be able to repair a gun for which no replacement part is available. By doing this, you’ll set yourself apart and ahead of the competition, and the path to your door will become more well worn. One final word of caution on making parts: Know the part, the metal, and the tolerances, for you are creating your own liabilities. I