We recently covered gunsmithing as a profession, including the pros and cons of pursuing the trade. Building firearms can be a rewarding line of work – even quite lucrative. But in recent years, this niche profession has begun to evolve into something far greater: Now, private individuals are taking on gunsmithing as an at-home hobby. Why?
Everything’s getting more expensive, that’s no secret. But the firearm market has been struck particularly hard by inflation. Manufacturing firearms is already a costly, complex process. Overhead is high, machinery is expensive and specialized. Makers must pay thousands of dollars to adhere to the government’s admittedly bureaucratic tendencies toward heavy regulation, too.
Couple these facts with restricted, struggling supply chains and delays in getting finished firearmson dealers’ shelves, and you have a perfect recipe for a consumer market that reflects the rest of the globe’s commerce in 2022: Customers want things, and those things are either wildly overpriced, or they simply don’t exist.
You’d think that becoming a gunsmith in your garage would be an expensive, time-consuming pursuit reserved for, say, a retired engineer. Except you’d be wrong, because the firearm market is rapidly removing the barriers of entry to gunsmithing as a hobby: You don’t need a CNC machine that costs as much as a new car. Legally, the process is surprisingly simple too – the Gun Control Act allows unlicensed individuals to make firearms for personal use without having to file endless paperwork with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
Anyone who wants to build a gun simply needs to purchase the right parts and tools and learn the know-how. Of course, federal law clearly says that one must be legally allowed to own a firearm to do this, lest he or she wind up on the wrong side of the law. And plenty of states have decided to ignore federal law and ban the practice by outlawing the parts required.
Mechanically, how does this all work? Basically, the would-be gunsmith needs to purchase what’s called an “80 percent lower,” officially designated a firearm receiver blank by the ATF. This is an unfinished firearm in the eyes of the law, even though it merely provides the empty housing for all other parts. All those components needed to assemble a working rifle or handgun aren’t regulated. That means all the other bits needed to build a custom gun – barrels, grips, triggers, hammers, stocks, magazines, sights, handguards, accessories and the like – can be purchased as functional, working components.
But it’s not as simple as merely buying all these bits piecemeal and putting them together with a wrench and screwdriver. The act of fabrication isn’t necessarily easy, and some basic knowledge of tooling is necessary. The unfinished firearm component needs to be cut and drilled with drill bits and end mill bits – in effect, milling at home – in order to turn the firearm blank into, well, a firearm-by-legal-definition.
These fabrication steps can be accomplished by an expert with no assistance, but that’s rarely how new builders operate. Instead, a specialized tool called an 80% jig is required. The jig acts like a milling and drilling guide, assisting in the fabrication process without the need for industrial equipment. The builder still needs to invest in other power tools to effectively use these jigs – things like a drill press or tabletop mini-mill are necessities. The investment is still not inexpensive; this type of work is reserved for the firearm enthusiast. But one thing is for sure: The inflated, overpriced and stripped retail market for guns is converting more casual firearm buyers and owners into the type of enthusiast who would pursue such a hobby.
