RUSSELLVILLE — Having served as an infantryman in the U.S. Army, Jeremy Blanton has continued to work with guns since his discharge, though in a dramatically different way.

Blanton said he learned the art of cleaning and repairing guns during his time in the Army, routinely working with a gunsmith while stationed in Hawaii.

During his military career, which lasted from 2000 to 2014, he served as an infantryman, a platoon sergeant and a marksmanship instructor.

When he left the military, he decided to put the gunsmithing skills he’d learned to use.

“When I got out of the Army, I needed to do something flexible because my wife was deployed and I have kids,” he said. Figuring operating a gunsmithing business would give him that flexibility, he set up a workstation in his garage.

Blanton also works as a pawn shop gun salesman.

Though most of the money he earned in 2015, the first year of his business, went toward reimbursing himself for the costs of setting up the business.

“There was a lot of work that went into getting set up and a lot of money that went into getting set up so it balanced out last year,” he said.

Preparing for a gunsmithing business often involves taking a course with instructional DVDs from the American Gunsmithing Institute, according to David Bentley, owner of Bentley’s Gunsmithing in Thebes, Ill.

“It’s not some little chump thing where they send you two DVDs,” he said. “It’s tough. It took me a year to finish it.”

The course teaches aspiring gunsmiths to be able to repair a wide variety of firearms, Bentley said.

Blanton’s workshop is a long, narrow room cut off from the rest of the garage. If the inner components of the gun he’s currently working on aren’t laid out on part of his work bench, there are no obvious signs of the workshop’s purpose at first glance.

The guns he has yet to get started on being are stored in a safe not much smaller than a refrigerator and other than a vise, a vertical mill and a lathe, no tools are routinely left out in the open.

On a regular basis, Blanton is working on five to 10 guns at a time and, unless there’s a major problem with them, he usually gets them back to the owner in two or three weeks.

“I really enjoy working on stuff and fixing stuff,” he said. “I haven’t really tried anything else.”

People typically come to Blanton needing their guns cleaned or refinished though he will sometimes need to fix or repair broken parts or make modifications, like adding glow in the dark sights that are easier to see at night.

“What I really like to work on is older guns,” he said, adding that they’re a little more interesting and complicated because they tend to be individually crafted rather than mass-produced in factories.

Among the more interesting guns people have brought in have been old revolvers and World War II-era firearms, including a Japanese service rifle used in the Pacific Theater.

Of all the guns he’s worked on, his favorite has been a Remington Model 1, “It was a handmade gun,” he said.

Blanton said a neighbor urged him to start the business and became one of his first customers and keeps coming back.

— Follow Daily News reporter Jackson French on Twitter @Jackson_French or visit bgdailynews.com.