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Most Gunsmiths Learn One Gun at a Time. This Book Teaches the Principles Behind All of Them.
Master Gunsmith Bob Dunlap spent 30 years at Lassen College developing Design, Function, and Repair. Lassen just closed. This free book is the only place the methodology lives in print:
- - Why D,F,&R works on every firearm, not just the ones you've memorized
- - How AGI graduates are opening shops before they finish the coursework
- - The honest truth about online vs. campus, from a program that's trained gunsmiths for 30+ years
"Using this basic philosophy I have been able to fix guns I have never seen before." - John Wooten, Freedom Rings Firearms LLC
Watch: What Makes D,F,&R Different from Every Other Approach
Let me save you some time. You have done your research. I know, because everyone who lands on this page has.
You found the forums. You read what the working gunsmiths said about online training. You watched YouTube videos for months, maybe years. You built AR kits. You attended an NRA armorer course and felt competent for a week.
Then a friend brought you a firearm you had never worked on, and you could not diagnose what was wrong with it. That moment is probably still with you.
You handed it back. You said something about not having the right tools, or needing to look into it. But the truth was simpler than that. You did not understand why that firearm worked the way it worked, and without that understanding, you were guessing. You have been a professional your entire career. You do not guess. So you handed it back.
That is the moment this book was written for.
You have more hands-on time with firearms than most campus students accumulate in a 14-month program. The problem was never your hands. It was that nobody gave you the framework that makes all your experience transfer.
Every program you have looked at teaches procedure: how to perform a specific operation on a specific firearm. You learn a sequence, you memorize a platform, and then a different gun walks in and the knowledge does not carry over.
There are over 5,000 distinct firearms in common circulation. The best platform-based program covers 30 to 50 of them. That is 1%. There is one methodology that covers 100%. It is called Design, Function, and Repair, and Master Gunsmith Bob Dunlap developed it over 30 years at Lassen College. Lassen just closed its doors after 50 years.
The tradition did not die. It moved to AGI, and this book explains exactly how it works.
The Methodology the Masters Trained On
This is not a product catalog. It is the foundational methodology behind every AGI course, explained plainly so you can evaluate it before you invest a dollar in training.
- Why D,F,&R is different from every other approach and why it is the only methodology that generalizes to firearms you have never worked on
- How Bob Dunlap developed the system at Lassen College and the lineage of instructors who now carry it at AGI
- What "fix any gun you have never seen" actually means and the specific mental model that makes it possible
- The business case for gunsmithing including FFL licensing, shop setup, and the economics of a trade where demand is growing and supply is shrinking
- An honest account of what this training is and is not so you can make the decision with complete information
They Carried the Same Skepticism. Then They Enrolled.
John Wooten spent 36 years as a first responder. When retirement arrived, he was determined not to waste it. He did his research, he was skeptical, and he enrolled in AGI anyway. Before he finished the coursework, he had a thriving gunsmithing business, his FFL, and more work than he could handle.
"I am already living the dream. I haven't finished school yet and already have a thriving business. I recently semi-retired as a first responder after 36 years."
John Wooten | Freedom Rings Firearms LLC, Cottage Grove, OR
John Clement enrolled when his company announced it was shutting down, got his FFL, launched his LLC, and passed his in-person FFL interview before the company even closed.
"I feel like I am literally in an AGI promotional video."
John Clement | Cowboy Action Customs, South Barre, VT
These are not professional spokesmen. They are people who were reading the same forums you have been reading, carrying the same doubts you are carrying, and are now running gunsmithing businesses with their name on the door.
Why D,F,&R Produces Gunsmiths Who Can Fix Anything
The forum voices are not entirely wrong. Most online gunsmithing programs teach you to follow a procedure on a specific platform, and when a different firearm walks in, the procedural knowledge does not transfer. That is real, and that is what those gunsmiths have seen.
AGI does not teach procedure. AGI teaches Design, Function, and Repair.
Design
Understand why the firearm was built the way it was built. The mechanical logic behind the engineer's choices. What you can observe before you touch anything.
Function
Understand what every component does when the firearm cycles. What should happen and why. Predicted from the design, not memorized from a manual.
Repair
Diagnose the failure from first principles. When you understand design and function, the gun tells you what is wrong. You do not need to have seen this model before.
Platform-Based (Everyone Else)
- Memorize procedures for specific guns
- Covers 30-50 models (roughly 1%)
- Unfamiliar firearm = start from zero
- More platforms = more courses = more money
- Knowledge does not compound
Principles-Based (D,F,&R)
- Understand 12 design principles all firearms share
- Covers every firearm in circulation (100%)
- Unfamiliar firearm = apply the framework
- One methodology, all platforms
- Every gun you work on deepens your understanding
"I have always been a gun enthusiast and now to know the design, function and repair of all firearms systems is priceless. Using this basic philosophy I have been able to fix guns I have never seen before."
Ronald Sturgill | Manitou Springs, CO (Advanced Master Graduate)
With disciplined study, you will reach the point where you pick up a firearm you have never worked on and diagnose it from design principles, not from memory. That is the D,F,&R standard. That is what this book introduces you to.
This Is Not Correspondence School. This Is a Tradition.
Gene Kelly did not invent D,F,&R. He inherited it. Kelly graduated from Lassen College under Bob Dunlap, and when Dunlap retired, Kelly brought the methodology and the instructors who trained under Dunlap to AGI.
Master Gunsmith
50 Years
Since 1993
The Next Link
Dunlap was a warranty repair station for Colt, Browning, Remington, and over a dozen other manufacturers. He was the person the manufacturers sent their hard problems to, and the methodology behind AGI is the methodology that was good enough for Colt and Browning to trust.
AGI's instructors carry 500+ years of combined gunsmithing experience. Ken Brooks worked in Dunlap's shop for over 20 years, and Mark Foster and Fred Zeglin are Lassen graduates. This is the last place the tradition lives in a teachable form.
Lassen College closed in 2026. The campus path the forums told you was the only legitimate option is disappearing, and what remains is the methodology itself and the institution that carries it.
Careers of Service. Then Something of Their Own.
Jay Strine retired from a 30-year career and built a home gunsmithing shop with his FFL. He now sells, transfers, and does repairs, keeping himself busy doing work he loves. Michael Banks, Jr. retired from the Marine Corps and was looking, in his words, for "a meaningful and practical career path." He found it.
"Because of AGI, I was able to start my own shop with the knowledge, confidence, and resources to be a successful master gunsmith. It can change your life."
Jason Graham | Simpsonville, SC (Master Level Graduate)
"I feel confident having the ability to venture out into the business with the ability to apply what I've learned to provide a QUALITY and valuable service to customers."
Jason Wise | AGI Graduate
The pattern is consistent: people who spent careers in service, military, law enforcement, fire, and construction, who are now building something of their own with their name on it. Not a hobby. A business. Not a certificate on a wall. A shop with customers walking through the door.
The Economics Are Not Complicated
The average gunsmith charges $60 to $80 per hour for bench work. A basic trigger job runs $75 to $150, a full action tune is $200 to $400, and refinishing starts at $250.
Meanwhile, the trade is contracting. Gunsmiths are retiring faster than new ones are entering, wait times at local shops are stretching to 4, 6, 8 weeks, and gun ownership is growing. The gap between demand and supply widens every year.
If your county has 50,000 gun owners and two working gunsmiths, the math does not require a business plan to understand. It requires a methodology that makes you competent and an FFL that makes you legal, and AGI provides both.
The book covers the full business case: FFL licensing, shop setup, pricing, and what your first year of operation actually looks like.
What This Training Is. And What It Is Not.
What It Is
- A complete methodology for understanding and repairing firearms
- Video instruction from the same instructors and curriculum since 1993
- Built for people who cannot quit their job to go back to school
- VA Chapter 31 approved, Post-Secondary approved
- Includes FFL Kit and business launch infrastructure
What It Is Not
- A guarantee you will succeed without putting in the work
- A shortcut that produces competence in a weekend
- A certificate that means anything without the skill behind it
- A replacement for disciplined study and practice
- Something you can evaluate from a sales page alone
The forum voices who say "online-trained gunsmiths don't know what they're doing" have seen graduates from programs that teach procedure without principle. They are not wrong about those programs. They have not met the AGI graduates who are fixing firearms in those same communities and being recommended by the people who were most skeptical.
The D,F,&R methodology works. The evidence is in this book, and you can evaluate it before you spend a dollar on training.
Here Is Everything You Get for $9.97
The book and a 50% discount on any AGI Armorer's Course. The methodology that will change how you look at every firearm you touch.
Over 18,000 copies claimed
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What is included
"Becoming An American Gunsmith" Book
The complete D,F,&R methodology, the Dunlap lineage, the business blueprint, and the honest account of what this training produces.
Retails for $19.95 on Amazon
AGI Introductory Lesson Kit
Your first hands-on experience with D,F,&R instruction. See the methodology applied to a real firearm before you invest in any course.
Value: $29.95
50% Off Any AGI Armorer's Course
Pick any single-platform armorer course and experience D,F,&R applied to a firearm you already own. Half price. Coupon ships with your book.
Value: $48.50
Total Value: $98.40
Yours today for just $9.97 shipping.
The "Read It and Decide" Guarantee
Read the book. Work through the introductory lesson. If the D,F,&R methodology does not show you an approach to firearms you have never encountered anywhere else, send it back. Full refund. You keep the armorer's course discount either way.
Drop the Quotes.
Look. Somewhere in the next few years, someone is going to ask you what you do.
You can say "I do a little gunsmithing on the side," hedged, the hobbyist qualifier still attached after all this time. Or you can say: "I'm a gunsmith."
Clean. Unqualified. No quotes. Said with the quiet confidence of a man who fixed a firearm last week that he had never seen before in his life, because he understood the design before he touched the function. The difference between those two sentences is not confidence. It is methodology, and the methodology is in this book.
Yes, Send Me the BookP.S. John Wooten enrolled while still working as a first responder. He was not sure it would work. He followed the D,F,&R methodology, applied for his FFL, and set up his shop. In six months he had a thriving business and more work than he could handle. Not in six years. Six months. He said: "I am already living the dream." He did not say "I am already living my dream of being sort of a gunsmith on the side." The quotes are gone. That is what the methodology does.
P.P.S. You get the book and a 50% discount on any armorer's course. Total value: $98.40. Your cost: $9.97 shipping. If it does not show you a methodology you have never encountered anywhere else, send it back. You keep the discount coupon either way. Claim your copy now →