Hey Patrick, first time I looked at this forum and saw your post. Your question is a good one! Don’t know how much smithing you’ve done, but doing the courses from AGI is a great way to solidify your interests and get ideas. I’ve been gunsmithing since the mid 1970’s…mostly for myself, family friends and the like…only hung up the shingle and started doing it for a retirement job about 5 years back. So, I’ve always been pretty comfortable working on guns from the 17th century to the present. I went through the AGI Enhanced Master program (my retirement gift from my wife) when COVId began, really to test myself on how comfortable I would actually be at striking out at this professionally for paying clients. Though I had extensive background, this old dog learned new tricks in the program…well worth the effort!
So on to your question…well your in hunting country…which is good. I’m in central Kentucky, same basic demographic. One of the most requested things coming in the door when I first opened the shop here was (as boring as it sounds…) clean and oils of hunting arms. Most folks just don’t know what they’re doing to maintain their guns. You WILL see some shocking things! ANd if you haven’t handled a variety of firearms …it provides great experience!
The next most common is mounting optics…a lot of folks have older shotguns that didn’t come drilled and tapped…go figure. But you’ll get rifles, revolvers and pistols too.On the latter, folks are always wanting night sights or target sights installed. working on bare receivers can be a bit tricky if you haven’t done it before and are not set up with at least a good drill press and experience in accurate layout and drilling…so best advice, work in your comfort zone. Definitely watch the tools for the gunshop videos that Mark does here on the website. Appropriate sight pushers are costly, but will make the job simpler…except for a Kimber…I use a 5 ton arbor press on those;)
I only advertise in the local newspaper that goes out to the three surrounding counties. In the summer I run a little bigger add reminding folks that hunting season is coming and to get their guns tuned up before opening day…that works!
I guess thats a good start for you…the main thing is to decide what you are comfortable with and don’t feel bad telling a potential customer that you can’t do what they are wanting done…if you can’t do it. You’ll be surprised…once they know you, they’ll be back with other jobs.
Have fun with it
John
