[DSS]

The Navy is a great place to start learning to be a gunsmith. That's where I learned. I started out as a machinist mate but I hung out with the weapons guys all I could. I qualified on every piece that would shoot and learned them like the back of my hand. My second enlistment I changed to gunners mate and luckily got on one of the last battleships where I got to learn some real guns and I was sent to a few small arms and 16 inch maintence and repair schools.
I then went in the army and was the only one around that knew how to work on M1's and M-14's. That was nice. I got lots of M-14 and M-60 reworking time building up for the war.
Then I did a civilian gunsmithing school just for the heck of it and to learn the business side of it as soon as I got out. Learning the business like was already said is mandatory. You will go under if you can't sell what you do.
I've been doing it part time along with running our ranch and being a full time mechanic shop foreman for 3 years now. Next month I will be full time gunsmith, full time rancher and ditching the mechanic job. I have the business and good customer feedback to do it now. It takes time but if you keep the customers needs ahead of yours you can do it too.

I don't recommend any of the mail order gunsmith courses either and don't have much faith in certifications. They don't authorize you to work on guns. Not down here anyway. They are just a piece of paper. A good full time gunsmithing school is what you really need with hands on experience if you don't already have a lot.