I’m 20 and I don’t know what to do with my life and all that. I’ve been stuck in a CC working towards transferring somewhere, but I really haven’t doing much as far as that is concerned. It’s like I don’t have any specific direction or goal in mind.
All I know is that there isn’t anything really that I care about the way I care about guns. I’d like to have some kind of profession in the gun industry in one way or another. I am not exactly sure of how to start towards that though.
Anyway,
I think about the military often, though I am not sure what kind of jobs I’d want to yet.
For now, I am wondering, how does one end up as a gunsmith or some specialized job involving small arms like at Quantico or Aberdeen or something like that? To say I am interested in small arms is an understatement, you know?
You can start off attending gunsmithing school. There are several CCs offering gunsmithing; I attended Yavapai College in Prescott AZ. I would say that is easier than getting the armorer MOS in the military (Iraqgunz or someone should be able to give you some advise).
Go talk to an Army recruiter and ask if the 18X (X-ray) program is still open and if you qualify for it, then go for it and get 18B (Bravo), it’s not a gunsmith job but you’ll be a small arms expert.
Very few enlisted people in the military actual work as a gunsmith fabbing things, and you would most likely get stuck doing something unrelated you don’t really like or doesn’t apply to what you want to learn. A lot of that stuff is done by contractors. I never encountered an enlisted person who I would call a ‘gunsmith’. All the work I ever saw done was done by civilian contractors. There are a few specialized shops like at the AMU but your chances of ending up there are slim to none.
As was said theres a few good gun smithing schools in the US.
I was in about your shoes at that age, a bit younger, but got accepted to and visited the gun smithing school in Ferlach, Austria. I ended up not going because the way their schools work is if you choose not to go to college you go to a trade school of sorts which is mixed with regular HS level stuff. Id just graduated HS, and didn’t want to go through all that again (all in German, too, and I didn’t think I’d be able to keep up).
If you want to join the military, and work on stuff just be prepared that you could end up doing something other than what you think you will be but it could be a good gateway to get a civilian contractor job with a DOD contractor like General Dynamics or L3 or some of the other big names. However that might be a bit more challenging than it has been due to the budget cuts. These guys do hire people who were enlisted and worked on the same stuff they sell/service.
My end advice would be to go to school and finish your degree while you are still young, and have some classes done already. Iraq is done with and Afghanistan is winding down. Budget cuts are already happening, and you can always do it later if you want and go officer. Maybe look into some ROTC programs to help you keep focus in school and in shape.
Keeping in mind that this is a Special Forces MOS, it might be a bit beyond what you are looking for in terms of commitment and the amount of training required.
Dude, dont join the military. Being a gumby armorer has little to do with wrenching on guns.
UNLESS.
You could go to gunsmithing school, and then apply to the Army Marksmanship Units precision weapons shop. They recruit from the bigger smithing schools and the Brownells job fair. And for some dam reason they DONT take prior service. You would learn some stuff and get a steady income to start buying tools.
Legit gunsmiths have a lot of remote, expensive tools.
Asa a career solider, it pains me to say it, but you’re absolutely right. You carry a weapon relatively infrequently, are extremely limited as to what you can do with it, and when, and there is little room for creativity or innovation. Meanwhile, Personally Owned Weapons are all but prohibited, and your opportunities to shoot on your off-duty time really aren’t any better than the average civilian’s. The Army has been very good to me for nearly 30 years, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else, but it isn’t the firearms-friendly environment that one might expect it to be. In many ways, it is quite the opposite of that.
Yep. I was stationed in Germany for 4 years, and its basically impossible there nor worth the effort. I ended up getting an off-post apartment at Ft. Lewis both because I was tired of the barracks (and they were shitty there) and because of my personally owned firearms.
If you are single, and on post you don’t get to keep your guns with you. They will even take knives over 4" (in my experience). No ammo no nothing. It’s really terrible if you like to go shooting a lot or have a bunch of stuff. You have to keep them with the base armory, and they are likely to finger fuck and mess them.
I was shooting/hunting well before I joined the Army, and they ruin any ‘fun’ in shooting guns. Not that it’s meant to be fun…just that joining the military because you like guns is not a smart move. They are tools in that sense, and become a PITA. You’ll sit around all day in heavy body armor and gear just to shoot less than 100rds (if that), might get stuck loading other people’s magazines, be a RO, and other crappy taskings.
Like others have said, you would be hard pressed to find an Armorer’s position that has anything to do with Gunsmithing unless you get on board with a Marksmanship Unit or a Spec Ops Unit as one (highly unlikely).
But if you’re looking for direction, join the military in a field that can open up things for you in terms of a career (Aircraft Maintenance, Aircrew, other maintenance jobs, IT, Medical, etc.). Use that time to explore what you really want to do.
Once you have completed your mandatory service, use the GI Bill (or whatever they have nowadays) to attend Gunsmithing School. Once you are a Veteran, you might even be eligible to attend with supplemental funding.
Just remember, when you join the military the last thing you will end up doing is what YOU wanted. When you join your duties will be commensurate with what THE MILITARY wants you to do. And smaller a target you aim for (IE: Gunsmiths) the less the chances that those two will be one and the same. Especially since most of the gunsmith positions have been converted to civilian positions.
The problem with choosing a job field as you enlist is that doing so usually pigeonholes you for life. You get as an IT guy and just try to segue into IT instead of moving on with your education.
Join as an action guy and then figure out what you really want to do after your first (last?) enlistment. You have PLENTY of time to find a career field. Get some life experience first.
Given that it is a sequestration issue, I couldn’t even begin to guess, but it is a valuable program that I used myself for graduate school, and suspect it will return in the long term.