I have thought about jumping into the gunsmithing trade full time, but when I sit down and do the math it just doesn't add up for me.
I'm still a fairly young guy, 29, but I have been fortunate enough to work under 2 different Master gunsmiths for the past 7 years part time. I've never really gotten anything handed to me and knew that if I wanted to make it in life I had to take the initiative and do it myself. I've always been a hands on person and liked building things and was also fortunate enough to grow up as a kid with a grandfather that had his own hobby metal shop (I guess a little more tooling than a hobby shop). Although he had a lathe I never learned to use it until I started doing gunsmithing work. I started doing gun work when I met my wife and met her grandfather the first smith I worked with. At this point he was about 80 and had been working on guns and building BR guns since the early 60's, so I learned the basics and some of the tricks to first off building a rifle, and second off all the little tricks and techniques that are needed in making or fixing rifles to do what they are suppose to do and make them shoot good. I didn't get paid to do any of this, but he did allow and encourage me to build my own stuff and charged me "maintenance time" around the shop and a little bit of $ here and there for use or some of the tools. Basically, I would fix stuff around the shop for him, and he would let me build my own stuff and teach me how to do it. After a while he had me doing customer work because I was "free" labor.
I did that for 3-4 years until I got an actual paying job $8/hr doing part time work with another smith. This whole time I was working a regular full time job doing construction after I got my BS in Biology, because I couldn't find a job in my field, and I needed to pay bills. From the second guy which I still work for today part time, I learned more things with better tooling and how to run a milling machine. I also did and still do a lot of repairs on the not so fun stuff, like old .22's and shotguns, along with putting on a lot of muzzle brakes and D&T a bunch of stuff. I've since gotten a raise, because I can do just about anything in his shop, but every time I find something I don't know, I do a couple things. Ask if he has time to show me, or more often than not, research it and do it to my own stuff.
I guess long story short, I took it upon myself to learn all this stuff and was fortunate enough to find a few people that were willing to teach me. I really get a kick out of building target rifles and custom hunting rigs. However doing all the not so glamorous repair work is where most of the $$$$ comes from in most shops.
I don't think I'll be opening a shop anytime soon because I will be going to chiropractic school at the end of the year, but I do plan to have my own shop in the future to do my own work and I will build stuff for friends and family. This is how both of the guys I worked with started. It was a hobby, then turned into part time, then they got so busy that it turned into a full time business. None of the smiths I know that own their own shop started out right off the bat doing full time smithing.
My next project once I can afford it is metal engraving. I think that is just the neatest thing ever an I am more of a classic rifle type guy and love working with wood and steel. I don't like the idea of bolting a gun together. All my rifles I built have wood or laminate stocks other than one ruger 10/22 that I "bolted together" when I was 14 or so.
Anyways, I with student loans up to my eyeballs (which I pay unlike some grads) on top of everything else, I would need to make too much money a year to pay my bills and run the business. For me, it's not that I expect to make $xx,xxx a year in a job, I NEED to make $xx,xxx k to pay my bills and have a few bucks left over for savings, go out to eat once a month and take a trip to see family a few times a year. I didn't get a good paying job right out of college, but I have one now and am grateful for it.
Below is one of my latest projects. Nobody I know as done this. It is pewter caps and inlays like they use to do on old black powder rifles. Someone here mentioned it and I thought it would be cool. The guy I work for now saw it and wanted to know how I did it so I taught him. I've since put about 15 coats of finish on this stock and probably need another 15-20 more.