Cleaning Guns -farm out?

[basstracker89]

Judging by some of the pictures and a few purchases on ODT, I believe there are a plenty of folks who don't bother to clean their firearms.

My father had the following rules:
If you carry it in the field and don't shoot it, wipe it down with a light coating of oil.
If you fire it, clean it.
Don't store a firearm in a transport case, they will rust.

Pretty good sense

 

[basstracker89]

I clean and lube everything.... what were we talking about?

That's what she said........

 

[hamburglar3]

Liability times 10.

 

[87KJH]

Have seen shotguns with several hundred rounds fired and the owners were perplexed as to why it stopped functioning.
When asked when it was last cleaned internally, the response is almost universally the same... "when it was purchased new".

There are u tube video for how to do basic cleaning and maintenance for most every modern production firearm.
The cost of a basic cleaning kit is less than a box of range ammo.
Folks are simply lazy.

 

[rodanvssct]

The smell of Hoppes #9 is so refreshing. It's got to be uncorked every now and then.

 

[Fatal_Bert]

I occasionally get asked to. I charge anywhere from $0 to $50 per firearm depending on who it is and how I feel that day.

 

[basstracker89]

Some of the peanut gallery responses didn't disappoint for sure.

Let me expand, as attested to here, some don't clean their guns often or even at all. I'll never understand as it is the same, to me, as only changing the oil in your car when it is black, but I digress as that is a topic for another conversation.

I was speaking to a gunsmith at a rifle outfitter who was complaining about life's expenses with a family, bills, etc. I brought up the idea for extra income of cleaning guns for people if he does not want to venture out of his sweet spot current position since he prefers not to have the liability of a separate shop nor the insurance. It came to me because he repaired an old revolver at one time and gave it back to me in immaculately clean condition. Beyond anything I would have ever done or expected outside of the factory.

Often I see people at the range who rarely shoot, as it seems like they bring their bedside pistol out maybe 1x every 18 months or so, shoot a couple of boxes, and then put away. I can't even imagine these people knowing how to thoroughly clean a gun, let alone have a decent cleaning kit. This would be the prime market, not experienced OCD gun enthusiasts such as the ones here on the ODT!

So that is where my idea of cleaning guns came from and if that could be a business model for this individual. If you look at some gunsmith labor costs there is a charge for just cleaning guns- pistols and rifles, so it is not something new.

 

[basstracker89]

My Dad knew someone who would pour oil in them and shoot em. That's how he cleaned his guns.......I can't even imagine. Our ancestors didn't have expensive stuff. I was never prompted, I just always cleaned mine as a kid.

 

[basstracker89]

Have seen shotguns with several hundred rounds fired and the owners were perplexed as to why it stopped functioning.
When asked when it was last cleaned internally, the response is almost universally the same... "when it was purchased new".

There are u tube video for how to do basic cleaning and maintenance for most every modern production firearm.
The cost of a basic cleaning kit is less than a box of range ammo.
Folks are simply lazy.

They are.......

 

[BHPSteel]

Some of the peanut gallery responses didn't disappoint for sure.

Let me expand, as attested to here, some don't clean their guns often or even at all. I'll never understand as it is the same, to me, as only changing the oil in your car when it is black, but I digress as that is a topic for another conversation.

I was speaking to a gunsmith at a rifle outfitter who was complaining about life's expenses with a family, bills, etc. I brought up the idea for extra income of cleaning guns for people if he does not want to venture out of his sweet spot current position since he prefers not to have the liability of a separate shop nor the insurance. It came to me because he repaired an old revolver at one time and gave it back to me in immaculately clean condition. Beyond anything I would have ever done or expected outside of the factory.

Often I see people at the range who rarely shoot, as it seems like they bring their bedside pistol out maybe 1x every 18 months or so, shoot a couple of boxes, and then put away. I can't even imagine these people knowing how to thoroughly clean a gun, let alone have a decent cleaning kit. This would be the prime market, not experienced OCD gun enthusiasts such as the ones here on the ODT!

So that is where my idea of cleaning guns came from and if that could be a business model for this individual. If you look at some gunsmith labor costs there is a charge for just cleaning guns- pistols and rifles, so it is not something new.

Oh? You wanted a serious answer!

There is probably a commercial market for gun cleaning. The problem really is that you're transferring possession of a firearm to another individual for a short period for the process and there's some liability there.

If the owner were to stay on the premises while the cleaning is done, a lot of that risk goes away, the gun doesn't have to be written up in their bound book - a far simpler exercise.

If you're having work done on a gun, the gunsmith will have had to jump thru' all those hoops anyway. If you're just "Mr. Gun Cleaner", strictly speaking I suspect you'd need to at the very least have proper A&D (acquisition and disposition) records and probably an FFL.

One way I've thought about it is to rent a kiosk at a gun range and then while someone uses the range shooting other guns, the cleaning is done. That way the owner of the firearm is still on the premises, and given the right controls and processes, you could argue that the gun is still under his control.

There are some subsidiary questions though. If you're cleaning someone's gun and you identify a problem on it while it's disassembled, and you don't have access to gunsmithing expertise on premises, how would you proceed? Reassemble the gun in its defective state and inform the owner when he collects? Effect a fix to the best of your ability?

Both are potential problems if you just want to hang up your shingle and make money out of a gun owner's laziness and/or ignorance. I'm sure that a lot of business would arrive because their gun didn't work and their first thought is that it needs cleaning. The budding entrepreneur could end up with a lot of guns sitting at their premises that are clean but still non-functional. If that entrepreneur undertook any kind of fix (and especially if he did so regularly) that would almost certainly attract attention unless they held appropriate federal permission-slips.

Note: I'm not an attorney and I don't play one in the movies - don't interpret what I said above as formal legal advice. It just seems to me that those are some of the barriers to launching a business like that.