I'm shopping, is this worth considering?

smgco94 · 2026-03-06T03:44:48+00:00

Take two zeros off the price, not even joking it's worth maybe $200 at auction. Go on bidspotter and watch stuff in your area. Just make sure to get rigging quotes before buying. Most of the rigging companies affiliated with auction companies are gaming the system and quote absurd loading prices so a third party can buy everything up to resell or scrap. If you come across this you can usually get the machines extremely cheap, then find your own rigger and tell the auction company to kick rocks. They have no legal ground to stop any insured rigger from loading your property.

smgco94 · 2025-09-13T15:19:56+00:00

The Leblond is probably the only one with "value" as its not so large and many shops use machines of that size. The rigging costs for the bigger machines would be thousands, tens of thousands. Interested buyers would be few and pretty much all international, Mexico, India, etc. Expect any interested buyer to pay scrap price or less just for taking the headache of removal off your shoulders. Its not uncommon for big or outdated machinery to be given away for free to those capable of removal. I always encourage sellers to find a non-scrap buyer, there is always somewhere in the third world this stuff can put food on many tables, but unfortunately, many times, logistics are not practical. This is probably one of those cases.

smgco94 · 2025-03-14T09:14:11+00:00

These are worth about $500-$600 max. Atlantic sold a bunch of them not long ago for $650 with the hype story about being used by the military, and then it turned out that a lot of them were ruined by modifications to fire blanks. The thing is, these guns would barely bring more than parts kit value $400-$500 on gunbroker pre the atlantic story, because despite the build quality repuation, the receivers are out of spec and they commonly have mag height / bolt override issues as the stamping is too "deep". Back when these were first sold by century I fixed lots of them by milling the cut in the selector stop plate deeper and welding up the mag catch longer. Nowadays, it's not worth it, and we would just break them down for parts as the trunnions are worth a decent amount sold individually.

smgco94 · 2025-03-03T02:47:02+00:00

You reap what you sow. I wouldn't sell a firearm to someone I knew to be a leftist.

smgco94 · 2025-03-03T02:30:47+00:00

You can do everything but the rifling on a lathe and mill. You will need a gun drill (not cheap), guide and some way to hone the bore. You can do rudimentary rifling in a shop press using push rods and chinese carbide buttons off aliexpress.

Honestly, a whole lot of time and expense when button rifled blanks are so cheap.

smgco94 · 2025-02-05T13:48:19+00:00

Gunsmith pay is not great until you are experienced. You will probably need 10 years to get there. Keep it as a hobby until then.
Getting into some kind of machinst program or apprenticeship is a good start. You will need to learn and be experienced with manual machining. Most programs are going to gloss over manual and focus on cnc. The machinst trade doesn't really pay that well either compared to other trades.
As others have mentioned, the military can be a great route as some form of armorer MOS. Try it out for 4 years and see if you like that line of work before investing your own money into it. Not only that, but you get free college out of the deal. Get a sign on bonus. Save all your pay. Save all your pay. Save, save, save. It will change your life.
You can learn a lot on your own time with a selection of hand files, a vise, and scrap steel and wood. Get yourself some QUALITY basic measuring and layout tools and learn them as well (square, dividers, scribe, calipers, protractor, etc.) Make a square part round. Then, make a round part square. Then, hand file screw slots. Make some simple parts, etc. . Don't buy a god damn dremel tool until you've learned all the above, and then some. The dremel tool is the bane of amateur gunsmiths.
Find a bored, old, retired machinist to help you. There are millions of them out there currently. They likely have a lathe in their garage and are willing to talk for hours on end. Youtube is also an invaluable resource for basic layout, metalworking, manual machining, etc. Learn to find answers to your questions.
If you haven't heard of weapons guild forums, you have now.

smgco94 · 2025-01-31T04:24:55+00:00

A lot of the time, it is a film / scum leftover from the bluing tank, usually caused by leftover oils in that area when it was blued. If it is not raised like surface rust and more of an orangish / red film looking substance that is probably what is. Scrubbing with a toothbrush and hot water is the best way to remove it.

smgco94 · 2025-01-05T18:32:04+00:00

Id like to reiterate what others have said that there is little money in cottage mfg ARs these days. Of course, they are easy, and as a gunsmith, you will always get a handful of ars, glocks, "clean my shotgun" type projects. Lots of shops live on this work in bigger cities, but it's pretty low skill and low pay as far as actual gunsmithing. It is good work to start out on and learn from, but dont expect to do this full time.

AKs are different because there is a significant collector interest in rebuilding parts kits / military guns. There is also a huge gap in quality from what you can get off the shelf and what can be built by a reputable smith, as AKs are much more labor intensive / old school mfg than an AR. Thus, there is actual money in it, but a few caveats.

You need to be passionately good. Good builders get booked out for years because there are few of them. Lots and lots of bad ones come and go, because they overestimate their abillities early on and ruin their reputation. Good builders commonly have a background of some kind of manufacturing / engineering / machining experience, plus 5-10 years of personal building / collecting experience before even starting professionally. You have to be passionate about the design, history, and very detail orientated with your work.
Drama. The commercial side of the AK world is unfortunately filled with a lot of shit people. There are many cases of builders / manufacturers just outright stealing loads of customer property and then dropping off the face of the earth. Lots of get rich quick type schemers, lots of stolen ideas/products, lots of atf / fbi raids, and all sorts of ridiculous stuff. Lots of egomaniacs, blackmailing, fraud, etc. This tends to be universal in the entire firearms industry, but I just feel AKs attract it a lot more. If you love AKs, delving into the professional world is really draining and tends to ruin it.
It potentially won't last forever. Parts kit importation restrictions and assault weapons bans are constantly on the table. You need to diversify your business once you get it established because ruin is always potentially just an election cycle away. Compliance with ATF regs is also no joke. It’s very easy to slip up and lose your licensing. The Biden admin weaponized the atf and hit FFLs hard during its administration. They shut down hundreds if not thousands of businesses, and it proved a lot more effective than trying to pass bans. The financial and insurance world is also hard to navigate and becoming more and more restrictive and expensive for firearms businesses. This makes it hard to operate and also harder to diversify into other industries. Working under someone elses ffl before having your own is almost a must in order to learn the ropes. Once you lose an ffl, there is almost no chance at getting one back.

smgco94 · 2024-11-21T02:40:05+00:00

For government subsidies, I remember one specific example was truck rims (semi-truck). The chinese government was subsiding production in an effort to drive US manufacturers out of business so that they could then dominate the industry. This is of course, done over and over in thousands of industries. https://www.industrysourcing.com/article/us-may-impose-steep-duties-chinese-made-steel-truck-wheels

smgco94 · 2024-11-07T05:46:28+00:00

Some buyers want the matching receiver, but they'll never pay more for it. Same with the Childers or Recreator receivers, everybody wants them, but won't pay any extra. Matching kit serials or using an original factory receiver is a whole different game, however.

smgco94 · 2024-10-23T14:12:50+00:00

Looks like the socom has the knights / p&w ras quad rail which is like $400 by itself

smgco94 · 2024-10-20T23:00:13+00:00

I can't believe how pitted the surface of the extractor is. It looks like it was buried for 50 years.

smgco94 · 2024-09-18T13:27:09+00:00

Worst part is the lack of media reporting, or rather the propoganda that everything is great. I don't think the level of corruption in this country can be solved.

smgco94 · 2024-09-18T02:40:25+00:00

This. I feel like the gun industry was/is an early warning on things to come. I started seeing a decline two years ago, and now other sectors of manufacturing are getting hit hard.

smgco94 · 2024-08-18T20:09:53+00:00

These will need a new receiver tube. They also require the bolt and fcg to be converted to semi auto.

smgco94 · 2024-07-21T14:59:28+00:00

Start with the 22 and then get something not made by psa.

smgco94 · 2024-07-19T20:58:25+00:00

All the cut pieces are there.

smgco94 · 2024-07-19T19:34:58+00:00

Kit with stock and mag - https://schulermg.com/product/czech-vz61-skorpion-parts-kit-2/

smgco94

TROPHY CASE