Is gun cleaning a good business?

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To do ultrasonic cleaning as a business you really need two tanks. One for the cleaner, one for the lube/protectant. The cleaner is water based and you rinse with tap water. You cannot get all the water from the nooks and crannies with an air gun. You have to put the gun in the second tank with a water displacing dry film solution after cleaning it.

15 minutes,HA. 15 minutes in the cleaning tank alone, 10 more in the oil tank, Time for the protectant solution to dry a couple hours. All that not counting dis-assembly, bore scrubbing, re-assembly, book keeping, so on and so forth.

Yes, gun guys take care of their own guns. Gun guys are in the minority. Some of you should spend time in the back room of the gun shop to see first hand what comes in for service.

Carb cleaner cannot do everything an ultrasonic cleaner can do.

Trying to do a rifle/shotgun action in a pistol tank is a Large PITA.
 
If you are serious, I would develop a relationship with the local range(s), gun clubs, and definitely have a table or two at local to regional gun shows. It will take time to get the word out. It is not as easy as building a website and buying advertising in the yellow pages and you instantly make serious money. Yellow pages advertising is expensive. But you get included in the SuperYellowPages as part of the cost. A website is not enough.

I would look very closely at the insurance issue in terms of what the policy actually covers. Yes, you will need a Million liability coverage minimum, but you need to be absolutely sure just what the coverage entails. What if a gun blows up after you clean it and the shooter is hurt? It may not be your fault, but a judge may not see it that way. One lawsuit and you're out of business and possibly bankrupt. There are many scenarios that relate to personal liability. Remember you are a business and there are certain minimal expectations.

Good luck with your plans.
 
I live in Boise, ID, and there are 280,000 people within an hours drive. 52% are gun owners, and figuring 2% of those would the service, that is 2,912 customers. Now, if each of those people used only the $10 service, and they either had two guns per year to clean, or had their guns cleaned twice a year, that is $58,240 per year.
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Building a business plan is hard work. It is only as good as the numbers that are put into it. For a side business, you don't need to have a 20 page plan outlining your entire business but your market numbers should at least be reasonable. Your biggest flaw in addressing your market is the statement above. Your market is not the 140K+ people that own guns in Boise. A small retail business will attract most of its customers from a 3-5 mile radius. Your "addressable market" is vastly smaller than the number above suggests. Where will you be located? What are the demos like there? Population density? Gun ownership within 5 miles (higher or lower than Boise as a whole)? Your 2% penetration number may be reasonable, but you will end up addressing a fraction of the 140K people you assume above. Partnering with a local store/range would be a good idea, but most of their customers will also come from the same 3-5 miles. Having done the small business route, I can tell you that expenses will be higher than you assume. They always are...
 
I know a gunsmith who offers a detail strip, clean & lube for $20/gun. I was surprised that he's requested to do this more often than any other single service. There's a lot of gun owners out there who don't want to apply themselves to disassembling their gun just to clean and lube it, so they pay him $20.
 
I don't think it's a very good idea for the following reasons:

1. Most shooters are happy cleaning their own guns.

2. If you do it for $10 with the overhead you're talking you're not even making minimum wage. Charging $25-35 most people will just do it themselves.

3. There is too much fascination with detail stripping. The only reason to take any gun titally apart is if it's broken. Guns work well for years without detail stripping if they are maintained on a regular basis. I have some guns over 35 years that have never been detail stripped for cleaning including a 1911 that was only taken completely apart for a worn sear a few years ago.

4. While you live in a gun friendly area (which means more people have guns) you're looking at a small total population for your specailized service.

5. Becoming a gunsmith would create more business possibilities but as has been said takes time to learn, lots of equipment and tools needed, and most gunsmiths don't make big money. A business cleaning guns would make even less.
 
I live in Boise also, and actually i might be up for having a few of my rifles cleaned well once and a while, but i its actually hard to get a good FFL around here. So if your a FFL and give great service, it might be a good plan.
 
And you have to remember, Boise is only 220,000 people. But the the Metro area is over 580,000 people... and alot of them are gun owners. You would justhave to find your Nitch and go to alot of gun shows.
 
Jimmyray, I've read where folks were using detergent and water for cleaning. A few years back, folks were recommending Simple Green. Shortly thereafter, it was found that Simple Green eats aluminum, and the Army was sending out strong safety messages about this (mainly for rotary wing aircraft). So, folks using ultrasonic cleaners with Simple Green as the detergent were screwing things up. Never got it confirmed, but my local shop screwed a SIG up for a customer - stripped the frame to bare aluminum - and I think they used Simple Green. Moral of this story - use something designed for guns. :)
 
use something designed for guns.
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Or..just don't use Simple Green. BTW,I have used Simple Green and Mean Green for a couple of decades to clean aluminum A/C and refrigeration condensors and evaporators,works super!
 
if i give a working fire arm to be cleaned and does not work when i get it back, would expect you to pay for repairs. . Then again would rather clean my own. If it gets broken, i know to blame myself.
 
XDMHMMWV Yes i'm not alone!! I drive an old truck have a 1950/60s? lathe (its areal old south bend) among other machines. i have a love for almost anything mechanical. i can relate my parents are still mad over some of things i wanted to see the inner workings of. Guns are fun because they have history. Its always interesting to see what used to be "high tech"
 
Well tackstrp, since the ultrasonic cleaning only requires a field strip, if the gun is not working after the cleaning, there is a good chance that it was not working beforehand. But, you bring up a really good point. I will use the pen test to make sure the firing pin works, and get snap caps for each caliber to do a function test.
As long there are people who think a function check is rapidly moving the action back and forth on a new gun, there will be people who will go to get their guns cleaned by someone else.
 
Well tackstrp, since the ultrasonic cleaning only requires a field strip, if the gun is not working after the cleaning, there is a good chance that it was not working beforehand.
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In ANYTHING in life , there are always going to be a very small group of dishonest people who will try to "get over" on someone.

Start a "file system" for each gun and do a small video of you putting it in the tank etc. with a clock showing etc. --- then copy to a DVD etc.

Example = " hey , you broke my gun !!! It worked fine before you cleaned it , now you owe me XXX dollars or I will sue " Your reply --- " There is NO WAY that I could have done so and I video tape ALL THE WORK I DO -- see ya in court !!! "


EDIT --- a gunsmith buddy of mine also has the customer sign a "release" when they pick up their firearm stateing it is cosmeticlly in the same condition as when he got it.

A VERY VERY VERY small minority of dishonest people really would go to court !!! If a honest person really does think you "broke" their firearm -- well , show them the video and take it from there.
 
My uncle takes his pistols to a smith once a year to be cleaned even if he hasn't fired them. At 40.00 each for 7 guns, I think there are more like him out there. You have to look for the new gun owners that have recently gotten into this whole "gun thing" and have no clue about how to clean their gun. There are more of them than there is of us.

Target your service by areas. Around gun stores & ranges target shooters that don't have time to do it themselves, make up a flyer that shows that you can do it for them in a few hours while they shop or something. Target most other areas with flyers that inform folks that their guns need to be cleaned in order to keep them in reliable working condition. There are lots of new gun owners that don't realise their guns need to be cleaned. They will gladly pay 10.00 to have this done.

Make some good paperwork to include both parties names, type of work to be done, fees, gun info(brand, caliber, serial#), disclaimer to include:1-cust is happy with gun as picked up & 2-should any problems arise due to malfunction you are not liable. Stuff like that. Cover your bases and most of all cover your butt.

I'd say go for it.
 
Thanks everyone for your input. I have decided not to go through with the business.
I contacted the ATF and they consider gun cleaning as gun smithing, and requires an FFL, which has to be tied to a structure. So, I can't drive to someone's house and clean their guns for them.
I then thought about cleaning them in my garage, and using that as the store front.
But, the house I bought at the end of April is within 1,000 feet of a school. So, that pretty much was the last nail in the coffin for that idea.
Thanks again.
 
I think as newer shooters enter the sport there will be a need for the service. There are more women (yes I said it!) and inexperienced men entering the sport. Some have the $$ to spend on top dollars firearms and would pay to have them detailed like their fine autos. SERVICE IS KEY!!
 
For $10 a firearm for a complete ultrasonic cleaning, I am moving to Idaho, and you can clean all of my firearms until I kick the bucket, and one final cleaning before my Wife sells off my collection!

Most places charge $25-$35 or more, you might seriously get a lot of the other people's business if your service is good and their main business is something else.

You might also consider paying guys a small amount to pick up their brass and bring it in to you, then cleaning the brass and selling it on the internet or locally, and possibly clean brass for local reloaders, although most of them will do it themselves.
 
Thanks for the vote of confidence, but the proximity to the school makes this too much of a liability, in my mind.
The ATF should get back to me with the final say on the 19th of July. I still think it is going to be too much of a risk though.
 
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