[thebigcheese109]

Well the school year is over half way through and I am a junior. My teachers and parents keep asking and are talking about future education. I myself have no idea what I want to do. I don't really like school that much as far as things like math and english but I do have A's in all of my classes. Therefore I don't think I would like a regular 4 year college degree. I thought about being a gunsmith/owning my own store. So my question is what would be a good thing to do after high school if I wanted to do something shooting/hunting/outdoors related.

Thanks for the help.


P.S. I currently work at a farm over the summer and do some landscaping work with a guy I know.

 

[myt-bird]

I'd suck it up and get a 4 year degree. When you look back on it, you won't remember the pain of the classes but will remember the comradarie of your classmates...no better time or place in your life. Plus you will thereafter always have the degree...whether you use it or not...and not have to wonder if you should go back.

 

[thegrandenigma]

Yeah, I'm with MyT-Bird, that's a good idea. Nowadays, it's hard to get any decent playing job without some degree. I chose the easy way out and am taking a 2 year technology course instead of the 4 year engineering degree (not for lack of trying, I failed out of university, which here is different then college). I'll still be making good money, but won't suffer through the extra time. I understand your pain since I don't like school at all either.

If you want to run your own business, get some business management training. You will be surprised how complicated it is (as with everything in life). If you don't think you'll enjoy business management classes, don't think you'll enjoy managing a business.

As the saying goes: "Find something you like to do and then find someone that will pay you to do it. That way, you will never have to work a day in your life." ~Unknown

 

[broom_jm]

I would also submit that it would be very difficult for a young person to open and run a successful gun business, unless you were dealing mostly in para-military items/guns. I know this will sound prejudiced, but I just don't trust a gun shop owner unless he's got at least as much snow on the roof, as I do! Most gun nuts, especially those with discretionary income, will probably feel the same. There is so much to learn and know, in the gun world, that a 25 year-old guy who dropped out of college to open a gun store is just not going to inspire much confidence.

Finish your degree and find a job working at an established gun store. When you have you MBA and 10 years of experience working in a gun store, then think about possibly opening your own shop. That's my dos centavos.

 

[wpage]

Speak with your guidance counselor in school and your parents to see what to do. There is room for vocations. Plumbers electricians and carpenters can do well. With the current wave of legislation guns may only be a viable sideline in the future.

 

[mike sicowitz]

Hi,
Get that sheep skin-you will learn what you want to do after you have more in your head. School is the best thing that can happen to anyone any age. I went back in my 40s and my friends thought I was nuts. It turns out that those that try to talk you out of it are not true friends. You will make new friends of both sexes and open doors closed to those that thought they already know every thing. The more you learn the more you find how little you know. You may find something never considered before and still hunt and fish, perhaps more so with the extra cash you will make. If you like the outdoors that much there are great concentrations in geography where you can track toward becoming a game warden to public administration and manage a federal game preserve. I know a guy who is in charge of a million acre park in Alaska who has no boss giving him crap. It is all there if you want it. Contact me any time, if you want, and I'll help you track toward being your own boss outdoors-and getting paid. Crack down the first couple years and the hard stuff will be much easier. Just do it-you will have no regrets.
Sincerely,
Michael Sicowitz

 

[thebigcheese109]

Thanks for the help. If I do go to a regular 4 year college and not a tech school what do you think would be a good thing to major in if I didn't want to sit in an office all day long in some big city.

 

[Helix]

there are lots of majors that would keep you out of the office. Construction management, structural or civil engineering, horticulture, forestry, agriculture, environmental engineering, mechanical engineering. I know one engineer who's job is to design boats for bayliner. he sits and draws 2 days a week and then he has to test boats out on the lake. must be tough. I also have a brother in law that flys air ambulance. had to go to flight school... he flys jets and if there is no emergency and no paperwork to do he plays xbox 360 and ps3 at the office and gets paid to do it. tough life... but you gots to do the schooling first.

With all A's your junior/senior year you can get a lot of scholorship money to pay your way. if you are interested in the militray you could also get uncle sam to pick up a lot of your tuition. Nobody really likes school. but it is what you have to do to have a real life. don't give up and take a suckers share on your future.

 

[William Iorg]

Make no mistake, go to collage, get a degree. This will allow you to make enough money to enjoy your shooting and hunting hobbies and the new hobbies you will find along the way.
Gunsmithing is for the dedicated professional who was: “born to work with his hands.” Making something with your hands must be more important to you than money. You will be working your hardest while the guys with the degrees are hunting. Your customers will begrudge you a decent mark-up on the products you sell, criticize your lack of inventory, and mail order what you have in stock because your prices are too high.
Most craftsmen in small business are treated this way regardless of what they are actually working on. Very few skilled men or women who work with their hands are adequately compensated for their work. Dealing with customers will distract you from the real work and can become quite irksome.

If you are going to be a “gun crank” or “Loonie” as they have dubbed them today you must know math, science, chemistry and you had better enjoy reading because if you are going to be the best in your field, you will spend the rest of your life studying your profession.
You need to read about a few of the pioneers in the field, Harry Pope in particular. Moving into the modern world you need to study P.O. Ackley. There were a number of highly inquisitive gunsmiths and gun cranks who never accepted mediocrity, they stretched themselves and those who worked with them every day.
Men such as these were challenged by idle thoughts and would cut metal and make things when they knew it would not work, simply to answer the question. While we argue on the internet these men would have already cut metal, proved the theory, and moved on.

Don’t limit yourself by not obtaining all of the education you are able to gather, then if you still want to be a gunsmith you can be assured you will be a very good one.

Let Rocky Raab tell you of the satisfaction he had working with the space program or let UncleNick tell you how much fun it is to blow things up for a living. Let me assure you there are thrilling jobs out here in the big world that you cannot imagine exist, but you must be prepared.

 

[Kansas]

That is the $100 million question that everyone has to figure out an answer to at your age. If you are sick of school, it may not be a good idea to jump right into college. I saw a lot of kids do just that who just were not ready for college and being off on their own when I was in college. It seems there are more and more "non-tradional" students all the time and they seem to have a clearer focus of what they want to do and therefore are more driven to excel in their classes. If there is a tech college that offers a machine program, that might be a good place to start then try to get a job at one of the gun manufacturers. Later, if you still want to go into business yourself, you could take get an MBA. It seemed that when I was in college, most of the Non-traditional students were mostly going into business or computers so a lot of those classes were offered in the evening or very early in the mornings.

 

[spitfire_er]

I would say go to school. You can always be a gunsmith later! If you like the idea of gunsmithing go into something like engineering or at minimum get an associates with CNC or machine work type stuff. I'm not a big fan of actually going to school myself, but I got my BS so I can get into Chiropractic school. I have often thought about being a gunsmith, but it would be a gradual transition for me, and I have a shop I could work at and maybe someday help take over.

The nice thing about getting a college degree is like me right now.... when I can't find a job in my field.... I have my past experience and jobs that don't require a degree to fall back on.

 

[big dan]

if you are not sure what you want to do open the phone book to the yellow pages and leaf through them and think about the things that you see listed. i'll also add that the military offers many different opportunities, many of which you can get journeymans status in.
i was one of those guys who went to college before i should have and while it wasn't a complete waste i do know that i could have done a lot better for myself if i'd waited until i was more serious about the situation. there is no shame in working for a year or two while you decide what you want to do.

 

[mike sicowitz]

Hi,
Geography has so many sub fields that there is not the time to get into it. At one time, geography was the only subject. Over the centuries many of the sub fields split off and became independent subjects. As for your question, physical geography will have you chasing tornados to climing mountains in South America. You get plenty of field work that is more like fun than work. Antropology can find you on a dig in Mexico where how much rum you can consume with your professor is extra credit and safer than the water. Ten years ago or so our professor hit a cow on a dig and wrecked our truck. I finally had enough fun and got serious. That lead to grad school where my degree in political science ( I thought I could do the most good with that major) dovetailed with public administation where I intend to start a nonprofit for disabled hunters. In short, there are many ways to enjoy school, and when it's time to find your place in life, you will know. For me, I became partly disabled and found that I could work outdoors while helping others hunt and fish. I thought that was pretty cool-and not at all what I intended when I first started. As the saying goes, **** happens and sometimes lights the way toward what feels right. In any case, without a degree, your choices are very limited. In my case, my degree allowed me to do something off the radar early on. Seeing disabled hunters with a smile on their face is worth all the English papers and math quizs. The bottom line is-have some fun but try harder than anyone else in your class, the rest will fall into place. Anytime I can be of help just send me a message.
Sincerely,
Michael Sicowitz

 

[zb338]

Going to school is a real drag, but starving to death
as a gun store/gunsmith is even worse. Our guns are
getting beaten to death. Who knows how much time
we have left. You better find another line of work and
be a serious amature gun lover.

My two cents worth. Zeke

 

[mattsbox99]

A good friend and wise man once said, "If you make your hobby your job, you soon hate both." Not that I want you to give up on the gunsmithing, but I urge you to seek a college degree.

I didn't like high school much, even though I received good grades (3.94 GPA) and even the first bit of College was difficult for me to keep interested in due to the pure lack of challenge. I now have a BS in Wildlife Biology, and I'm working on a MS in Environmental Law. I played for a few years in the Marine Corp, I was a foreign language interpreter attached to a Recon unit, but spending 8 hours a day studying Russian, German, and French languages wasn't really working for me. I grew up on a 80 section sheep/cattle ranch and wheat/barley farm, and while I could do that, I'd never get anywhere.

My legal research right now centers around the Firearms Freedom Act, I'm working directly with the Second Amendment Foundation, Alan Gura, Gary Marbut, and the Montana Shooting Sports Association.

 

[Rubberduck]

Youll regret not going to college. Youll hate it while youre there but if you dont go youll hate it for the rest of your life. College is tough, especially if you dont push yourself do study and do your work. You kind of have to look at it like a job that you dont get paid for directly. Put in the work to succeed and youll be paid for your hard work later.

 

[au2183]

Both my daughters graduated from college last May. One has a degree in communications and the other in mechanical engineering. Neither knew what they wanted when they started, and both actually declared other majors first. They both took classes that were required for almost all majors for the first year or two.
Most college freshmen don't know what they want to major in for at least the first year. Just being in college will expose you to a lot of different majors and career choices.
There is nothing else you can do to increase your income level like a college degree will, regardless what it's in.
There are degrees that would apply to guns and gun repair and manufacturing, like mechanical engineering.
My oldest daughter has a degree in mechanical engineering, and she was being recruited all through her senior year. It did help that she had a GPA of 3.9. She accepted a position in a nuclear engineering program at a yard where they repair and refuel nuclear submarines. The first year is pretty much training, and there will be ongoing training throughout her career. She started at $52K, and got a $10K raise at 6 months, and will get another $10K after one year. After that it will slow down a little, but she will be making 6 figures in under 5 years. She's 3 years older than her sister, and actually took a couple years off after her freshman year of college. She was # 3 in her class, so she's smart, like you, but she found out she could not get a job beyond fast food or similar without a degree. Life was tough for a couple years, then she decided to go back to school. Now she has the world by the a**.
I hope you can learn from her lesson! I don't know if you would be good at engineering, but one of the opportunities she had was with a firearm manufacturer, designing new guns and working out the bugs with existing ones.
Whatever you do, get a degree!

 

[hntr33806]

I can't stress how important school is. I was thrust into college right after high school and did not do so well there but ended up with an A.A. degree and a certificate in paramedacine. At 35 I have ben back in school full time for the last two years and will be graduating inth my Bachelors degree in Psychology (3.98 gpa). I will go from the four year program into the masters program and from there into the PsyD program and residency following. I have at least 5 more years of school left. My goal is to be done before I hit 40. I am married, have three kids and work full time.
I guess what I'm trying to tell you is go get your degree while you do not have many distractions like I do. School was much easier when I was single and did not have to worry about kids, working full time, a wife, martgage and other expenses. Even if you get an assosciate degree it is a foundation for furthering your education later like I did. I would strongly encourage you to get a four year though. Go to a community college where credits are more affordable then you can transfer your two year degree to a state school and finish your four year and further if you want.
Good luck in your quest and feel free to ask me more questions about schooling and choices you may have. I have learned many things the hard way and could help lessen and pain and suffering you may encounter.

 

[slim 60]

my friend ,you are capable of making all a s..that tells a lot about you there..you know how to work ,,an apparently have a good work ethic..
if it were me id have to take a shot at doing something you really enjoy doing..its your life..nobody else is gonna live one day of it..
be honest, love your neighbor,don t let them hormones load you fanny up with more than even your young body can handle..
you don t get but one life on this earth..but you the only one can make the decision as to what you want out of life..
things to think about..someday you may have a pretty young wife..
you want to treat her good..never ever compromise trust between the two of you..if you make that mistake ,theres a thing called forgiveness..
use it ..
you will have children probably.. aside from teaching them good values..
you gonna want to be able to get them things..just don t over doit to the point they get the idea llife is not good ,,unless they can have everything
materially they want..
give faith a chance.. its real an god does love you ..
now remember this,, school is never gonna be over for you..
might as well go an get the degree. if you just wondering right now anyway..
heck you might be president someday..or a good gunsmith..its all the same..
just do the best you can at whatever you decide to do..
lifes not about what you do ,its how you do it..good luck an may god be with you in your journey.. slim
ps.. one more thing.. study older people 40-50-60-70-an on..which ones are happy an seem to get the most outa life..
then try an figure out why they happy.. heck askim. . whats makes your life good enough,, that you are a happy person..
ps again ..i do a lotta ps n around here..grin

 

[Terry32shooter]

I agree with many of the above posts..

Go to college. No one ever said "I wish I had not gone to college and finished that degree." But many have said that they wish they had gone to college and finished.

Go to college while you are young and still single, it is much easier than when your are married and have the expenses of a family man.

I went to college and finished one degree, worked and went back to finish another. I would not have my present job if it weren't for both of my degrees, they made all the difference in my life's work.

Best regards,

Terry