Editing Gunsmith (section)

==Common tasks==
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(listed in approximate, but not exact, order of increasing difficulty)
* Disassemble, clean, inspect, lubricate and reassemble.
* Remove corrosion and touch-up finish.
* Repair burred or damaged parts with files and stones.
* Replace defective parts with factory-made replacements, hand-fitting as necessary.
* Add after-market customizations:
** sling-swivels
** recoil-pads
** iron-sights
** scopes
** grip caps
** butt plates
* Repair and re-finish wooden stock parts.
* Checker or re-checker grip areas.
* Deepen or clean up worn or damaged engravings and markings.
* Re-crown damaged muzzles on a lathe.
* Repair dented shotgun barrels.
* Install (solder) or repair rib on shotgun barrels, or repair double-barrel assemblies.
* Measure and correct head-space dimensions.
* Check for excessive bore erosion.
* Troubleshoot and repair feeding, ejecting and firing problems.
* Test-fire guns with conventional loads to ensure proper operation.
* Fabricate wooden stocks to customer specifications and body dimensions. Fit same to existing receiver and barrel.
* Glass-bed actions to stocks to improve accuracy.
* Remove existing metal finish, and re-blue metal parts.
* Fabricate replacement parts from metal stock.
* Modify trigger-pull weight through careful stoning of trigger mechanism parts.
* Fire [[Proof test|proof-loads]] through weapons to ensure sufficient strength of parts under over-load conditions.
* Replace worn barrels, which have fired so many rounds that they are no longer of the specified caliber (which leads to loss of accuracy).
* Change caliber or cartridge of existing rifle, by changing barrel, and modifying receiver.
* Re-cut rifling and change caliber of existing barrel.
* Design and build complete rifles by fitting stock barrels to stock receivers; fabricating or purchasing additional parts as needed, and fitting same to rifle. Fitting custom stock to the same.
* Design and build a complete rifle, shotgun, or combination gun from start to finish.

Top-end custom gunmaking:

A good example of a firearm type requiring the skills of a Master Gunsmith is a Combination Gun, commonly referred to as a "Drilling". These are highly complex hand-made long guns with several joined barrels. These are firearms that combine both rifle and shotgun barrels sharing a common breech and buttstock. Since these are completely hand crafted by Master Gunsmiths, these can be made in almost any combination of rifle calibers and shotgun gauges. The most popular arrangement is a Side-by-Side shotgun with a high-power rifle barrel underneath with various firing mechanisms housed in a common breech.

Another firearm type demanding the highest skill levels is the completely custom-made Side-by-Side or Over and Under double barrel shotgun. These "Doubles" are referred to in the British Gunmaking trade as "Bespoke" firearms and are referred to as "Best Guns". Their starting prices are commonly in the $150,000.00 (US) {2024 pricing} range, with customer-specified changes adding to the cost. Close examination of any examples of these rarified firearms by one knowlegable in this field will show why these firearms are priced in this range. It is some of the highest level of wood gunstock blank selection, shaping, and fitting combined with flawless metal crafting. These firearms are commonly also hand engraved to a level of artistic design, layout, and execution that rivals (or surpasses) the finest printing plates used in currency printing. These firearms overall are time intensive in their execution and demand the highest quality workmanship as the customers purchasing these arms are invariably highly knowledgeable and communicate within their select group. Less than the finest work will become quickly known and this customer base will abandon any future business with that gunmaker. 
The highest level of custom-made firearms usually start out as several pieces of blank steel stock or rough forged parts, a slab (stock blank) of walnut; steel tubes with rifled or smooth holes ("bores") drilled their length. Many smaller detail parts are fabricated in-house and are fitted by the maker. The highly skilled gunsmiths that craft these masterpieces commonly use nothing more than an occasional lathe or milling machine for roughing the parts to their final fitting stages plus a heat treating furnace for making springs, hardening parts to the proper hardness, and color case hardening. But the majority of roughing, fitting, and finishing is done completely by hand using files, scrapers, abrasive paper and cloth, woodcarving chisels and rasps.