A frustrating range day.p

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10 years 4 months ago #40624 by Lizardette
Sisco: Very nice shooting, especially for the conditions you mentioned. I share some of your wind related frustration since it seems every range day is like that when you're a mile above sea-level. I kid you not, there was one day the winds were so strong they blew my 168's four inches left at 100 yards. I thought it must have been something I had done, until I talked with the people on either side of me and found out their groups all shifted left as well, and kept going to the same place for the next 30 minutes. Things get even more interesting above 9,000 feet. ;)

BTW, 50,000 psi should be perfectly safe (assuming SAAMI is to be trusted, of course).
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10 years 4 months ago #40629 by Siscowet
Replied by Siscowet on topic A frustrating range day.p
Lizzie, good to hear from you. How is gunsmith school? Yeah At 9000 feet everything changes. I will be hitting the range again soon.

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10 years 4 months ago #40638 by MrMarty51
Replied by MrMarty51 on topic A frustrating range day.p
And :I-agree:
How is the school, that is the new question. :cheers:
Was going to go with the brother, He is here from northern California, wind is howling and a gusting, probably not today.

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10 years 4 months ago #40649 by Lizardette
I've withdrawn from school.

I had two different teachers for the same section. They both taught and they both graded. They gave contradictory instructions, graded differently, and I never knew who was going to be grading what. To make matters worse, I didn't always have access to both. So, if I had a question and the teacher who had been helping me wasn't available, I got shit for not doing it "right". One teacher would advise me to take a break from a project when it was getting frustrating and work on something else. His reason was that in an actual shop, you'll rarely ever have only one thing to work on at a time and past a certain point, continued work on something(when you're having trouble with it) can be counter-productive. The other thought that bouncing between projects was irresponsible and that I'd never get anything done unless I stuck to one thing at a time. One told us that there were lots of ways to get these projects done. The other said there's only *one* way to do any of them correctly.

Confession time: I'm on disability because of a chronic major depressive disorder and an intractable general anxiety disorder. It's a struggle to get things done on good days. It takes longer than normal and more effort for me to do most things, especially when learning something new. Having anxiety attacks is a real possibility, and happened a few times at school.

The director of the school tried to help. He allowed me to come in on Fridays and work without it counting against my grade. Normally you lose a full letter grade on anything that you work on during a Friday - and coming in on Friday is not something you do of your own volition. It's something they tell you to do because they think you're not progressing fast enough. They won't let you take your work home either - at least not while you're working on it.

Altogether, it was kind of horrible. I did get to meet some interesting people. I learned things I didn't even think there were to know. It was not for me though. There were plenty of people who did fine. They adjusted to the conditions. It was like there was something they knew that I didn't; like there was some level of understanding being assumed of students, and I just didn't have it.

No matter. The same day that I withdrew from Colorado School of Trades, I enrolled in Penn Foster's gunsmithing program. Yes, it's an online course, but it gave me a lot of information and reference material I'll be able to use for the rest of my days. All I need to do is practice this stuff. Soon, I'm going to start working my way through AGI's offerings.

I'm moving back to Alabama. I know people there, and they know me. I've got a good reputation among the gun people there, and will have plenty of chances to grab odd jobs while I work on the things I need to be able to do.

There's no way I'm giving up on this. I'm just going to have to take a slightly different route than I planned on. Then again, that's the story of my life. There are very few things I've ever been able to do "the easy way." lol

I'll end this with a quote, and a song.

I read once, in regards to doing some type of gunsmithing job: "There are only two types of people who can make this work. The first are the skilled, experienced, and talented individuals who know exactly what they're doing. The second are the people too stupid to know they couldn't do it."

Also, this may as well be my theme song: Gary Allan's 'Get Off On The Pain'

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10 years 4 months ago #40652 by Siscowet
Replied by Siscowet on topic A frustrating range day.p
The good news, is there are many paths to reach what we want to achieve. No doubt in my mind that you know guns, and no doubt in my mind that you will become a hell of a gunsmith. Keep your eye on the prize, and keep your determination, and you will get there. Just don't lose faith in yourself.
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10 years 4 months ago - 10 years 4 months ago #40660 by jtallen83
Replied by jtallen83 on topic A frustrating range day.p
Liz, Now that I think of it I can't say I've met a Smith who went to school. You'll do fine teaching yourself, odds are you'll make more money because you'll be following your bliss and not someones preconceived idea about what you should do and how to do it. I'm working the Natchez Trace near Tupelo Mississippi, couldn't find a smith here that would swap flash hiders for me! There's a market here! :usa:
Last edit: 10 years 4 months ago by jtallen83.

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10 years 4 months ago #40676 by Lizardette
JT: No one would swap a flash hider? I... I don't know what to say to that. No one had a barrel vise, and a set of box-wrenches?

As far as schooling goes though, I've met a lot of gunsmithing school graduates, even before I came out here. Some of them charge out the nose too. I talked to one guy who wanted over $100 to drill and tap four holes! Jeebuss... I just wanted to be able to put a receiver sight on a Mauser action and a target base at the end of the barrel.

I've also met some that are real nervous about doing jobs that should be relatively simple, like threading and chambering a contoured barrel blank. Cutting threads is sort of basic when it comes to work on a lathe. Chambering is difficult to screw up as long as you know how deep the chamber needs to be. The guy was trying everything to talk me out of having him do the job. The sad part was all I did was ask for a price quote, and he couldn't give me that. Shouldn't every business have a price list for common jobs they perform?

There was another who, bless his heart, was actually a graduate of Colorado School of Trades but didn't seem to have a brain in his head. I saw him at a gunshow and I asked him about re-chambering a barrel from 308 Winchester to 30-338 Winchester Magnum. He told me it depended on how much "meat" there was around the chamber. Red Flag. I told him it was a Shilen #7 contour which was threaded but never installed. That meant nothing to him. Red Flag. I told him I'd measured it and it was approximately 1.220" forward of the threaded shank for about 4 inches, and tapered from there to .987" at the muzzle. He didn't know if that would be enough. RED FLAG. I gave up and asked him if he'd take the barrel and examine it. He said yes. I went to my car, got the barrel out of the trunk (I knew I was going to be asking him about this and wanted to be ready to ship it off that day) showed it to him and he says to me... and this was painful to hear, "I'd have to have my machinist look at it." Final Straw. He's not getting any business from me.

So, it looks like there's room just about everywhere for someone who knows anything about the subject. ...excluding Denver. There are lots of gunsmiths here.

There does seem to be one actual professional in the area I'm moving back to. He set up shop while I was away. I doubt he's making enough money to pay any employees, but I may see if I can work with him and learn a few things anyway. I'd be happy for the conversation if nothing else. There are a surprising number of technical issues in gunsmithing that make it difficult to have an in-depth conversation with anyone else about.

Either way, I will make this happen. If I can set back the shoulder of an FAL barrel so it times right, using nothing more than hand files and a barrel vise... Well, let's just say my determination isn't in question. ;)

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10 years 4 months ago #40678 by jtallen83
Replied by jtallen83 on topic A frustrating range day.p

Lizardette wrote: JT: No one would swap a flash hider? I... I don't know what to say to that. No one had a barrel vise, and a set of box-wrenches?



They both told me that Sigs were very tight from the factory and they didn't want to mess up the rifle. One suggested I try some heat :dry: evidently he didn't here me when I told him I didn't have access to a vise........
I think you already know more than many Smiths, if you can't find a slot somewhere don't be afraid to just jump in on your own, you'll do fine! :usa:

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