A gunsmith is a person who designs, builds, repairs or modifies firearms to blueprint and customer specifications, using hand tools and machine tools such as grinders, lathes, and milling machines.

Responsibilities

Gunsmiths have many responsiblities:

• Fit action and barrel into stock and align parts.
• Install parts, such as metallic or optical sights, pistol grips, recoil pads, and decorative pieces of firearms, using screws and hand tools.
• Rebore barrels on boring machines to enlarge caliber of bore.
• Operate broaching machines to cut rifling into gun barrels.
• Install choke devices on shotguns to control shot pattern.
• Operate machines to grind and polish metal parts.
• Immerse metal parts in bluing salt bath to impart rust resistant surface and blue color to metal.
• Fire firearms with proof loads to determine strength characteristics, correct alignment, and assembly of pieces.
• Fabricate wooden stocks for guns according to customer specifications.
• Refinish wooden stocks for rifles and shotguns by hand sanding and rubbing with special finishing oil and quick-drying lacquer.
• Lay out plans on paper and calculate bullet flight arcs, sight positions, and other details to design new guns.