The contract sounds like it would clear away some of the fears about joining I had.

You always sign a contract when you enlist. But if you sign an "open" contract, they will place you int he job field that is the most needy with little regard for your wishes. I wouldn't sign and open contract, but some do.

Definitely DO NOT sign an open contract. Get something guaranteed . That's what I did and I got exactly what I signed the contract for.

I will throw out the lowly vote for looking into the Guard. I could be misunderstanding you, but it sounds like you are NOT looking to do a career stint as a .mil. If that is the case, the Guard will give you tons of opportunity, the ability to live where you want (all things being equal of course) and will do you very well when it comes to tuition assistance. Not sure where you live, but out here in God's country (Colorado) Guard members get a sweet deal for state schools, and here (God's country again) we have state gunsmithing schools. Do the .mil thing, get paid to get edge-u-ma-cated, and better the future prospects for yourself and that of your family. Also, the Guard (can't speak to how this works in active duty) will let you cross train and pick a diversified work experience should you want to and there is a need. This can be a huge bonus in a competitive civilian work environment. Furthermore, you'll likely get a security clearance (and one that remains active) and that can be a big asset for a number of civilian job opportunities (even for silly civilian engineers/architects <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ) Just food for thought.

Damon makes a good point. Reserves/guard is not a bad deal.

I would also ask the Gunsmithing School counselors what it really takes to succeed in your profession.
I've made a few "poor" choices in my life and a few good ones. Find a successful Gunsmith and see what they are doing and what it takes to do what they do.

Yet, another solid point. Brain pick your local gun dealers/smiths.

I think you misunderstood my point. I was saying that in the military you're going to be working predominately on the M16 family of weapons.

In the civilian world you're not.

When I was working in a gun shop 90% of our "projects" were related to what the owner called "Fudd Guns" (hunting weapons) and predominately gas operated self loading shotguns.

My point in a nut shell:

Military = Mostly M16
Civilian = Everything Else

Good point.

I hope I didn't come off as offensive to you as I highly respect you (honestly).

But, I guaranty a military armorer works on shotguns more often than a civilian one. I think you are making judgments of a military job without actually experiencing it.

We don't carry too many bolt actions, but we do, and we use a ton of shotguns. A Marine in the 21 field (not sure what the other services call it) has to know the uncommon weapons just as well as the common ones.

Name a type of weapon and I bet we use it. Armorers deal with them all.

That's a true statement ^^^

I assumed with the M16 being issued in some form continuously from 1963 to today (48 years of being the standard issue weapon for the Air Force, Army and Marines) it would be the predominate system for armors to work on.

You know what they say happens when you ASSuME something.

It is. But to perform your job proficiently, you would fail if you could only fix/modify one weapon. A mechanic can't fix every car if all he knew how to fix was a gas tank.