Gun enthusiasts can take their hobby to a new level and law enforcement officers can earn education credits when Flathead Valley Community College premieres gunsmithing in mid-July.

“It’s not just one course,” said Susan Burch, executive director of economic development and continuing education. “It’s three weeks and seven classes.”

Although aimed at the hobbyist, these courses teach precision skills qualifying for law enforcement continuing education units. In the past, local officers have had to leave town to take courses required to maintain state licenses.

Burch called gunsmithing courses a good fit with Montana’s outdoor sportsman heritage. She said this program mirrors four programs affiliated with the National Rifle Association that are offered in California, Colorado, North Carolina and Oklahoma.

“There is nothing like this in the Northwest,” Burch said.

Brandon Miller of Miller Precision Arms worked with Burch to set up the gunsmithing courses. He served as the NRA coordinator in charge of Murray State College’s gunsmithing program in Oklahoma.

“We drew people from Maine through Alaska down to California for these classes,” he said. “It brings quite a few people in from outside the state, so it’s a benefit to the entire community.”

He said courses as basic enough that students can start with little knowledge. Classes have hands-on instruction so participants leave with enough proficiency to work on their own firearms.

According to Miller, one of the instructors in Oklahoma suggested that he approach the community college here about starting gunsmithing training. He decided to talk with the continuing education division.

“I went in and talked to them and they were pretty excited. I told them the benefits of the program that we had down there,” he said. “I thought if we got the program up and running here, it would be an overwhelming success, considering this is like the new gun valley.”

Miller was comparing the proliferation of gun-related manufacturing here to that of a small area of Italy where Beretta and others manufacture guns. He said many people in the firearms industry have moved here or are looking at the area.

“I don’t know for what reason other than this place is beautiful and why shouldn’t we be here,” he said.

Miller was more than impressed with the facilities and equipment available at FVCC. They exceed those he used at Murray State, one of the top gunsmithing programs in the country.

“These are absolutely fantastic compared to what we were working with down in Oklahoma,” he said.

Miller has an associate’s degree in gunsmithing and a background of several years in special operations in the military as well as in police units, where he served as a tactical medic to the Dallas-area SWAT team.

At Miller Precision Fire Arms, he specializes in long-range precision rifles and 1911 pistols. He has worked for more than 20 years with AR-style weapons platforms both as an end-user and armorer.

The gunsmithing program has classes designed with law enforcement in mind. Miller said students will be able to maintain the department’s as well as their own firearms in-house.

“We stress implementing a maintenance program for the department and we’ll work with them to help them set those up,” Miller said.

He said Sheriff Chuck Curry expressed a lot of interest and support for this program. It saves the department the expense of travel and lodging while officers get their education credits.

“So here it’s local so it keeps it in our community,” Miller said.

He said the college wants to do a test run this summer to see how many students sign up before looking at an expanded version affiliated with the NRA. So far, everyone he has talked to about the program has been enthusiastic about the courses, which cost $300 each.

“If we get a decent turnout, that’s going to build steam for next year,” Miller said.

By next year, he expects to obtain sponsors such as Brownell which help by sending out thousands of brochures about the gunsmithing courses to gun enthusiasts around the country.

“I’ve got two instructors ready to go and I’ve got nine or 10 that would be willing to come,” he said. “They’ve actually taught some of these courses across the country. With what we have here, they are more than excited about coming up here next year.”

Along with Miller’s skills, the new program draws on the talents of Lee Helgeland, one of the country’s premier stockmakers and a board member of the American Custom Gunmaker’s Guild. The third instructor, Fred Zeglin, owner of Z-Hat Custom, has designed a line of successful wildcats called hawk cartridges as well as his own reloading dies.

For more information, contact Miller at 257-9095 (www.millerprecisionarms.com) or the Continuing Education Center at 756-3832 or www.FVCC.edu/continuing-education.html.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.