Gunsmithing.

The device is seated, timed with shims or a crush washer, and checked for clearance down the bore. A brake that sits a few degrees off pushes the rifle sideways, so this is worth doing carefully.

The crown is the last thing the bullet touches; a nick there lets gas escape unevenly and tips the bullet as it leaves. We face the muzzle in the lathe and cut a fresh, even crown.

The barrel is installed and headspace is set with gauges, then checked again. Pre-fit barrels save lathe time, but they still need measuring; we don’t take the label’s word for it.

Factory actions are made to a price, and small errors stack up. Truing takes a light clean-up cut on each bearing surface, only as much as it takes to make it square, so the bolt, barrel and receiver all agree on where straight is.

Lapping compound and patience bring both lugs into full contact with their seats. We check headspace afterward, because lapping moves it.

Go and no-go gauges tell us whether the bolt closes when it should and refuses when it should. It is a safety check, not a guess, and it’s worth doing on any rifle you didn’t buy new.

A low-melting alloy is poured into the chamber, pushed out and measured. You get the measurements in writing and a plain statement of what ammunition is and is not safe in it.

We zero with the ammunition you’ll actually hunt with and record where it prints at the distances you ask for. The card goes in your rifle case, in pencil, so you can correct it as you learn the rifle.

Same process, smaller parts, closer tolerances: the coating has thickness, and moving parts have to be allowed for. It is reassembled and function-checked before it goes home.

Each color is masked, sprayed and cured in turn. Patterns are quoted once we’ve seen what you have in mind.

Nearly all the work is in the polishing, because bluing hides nothing. The parts then go through a hot salt bath in a batch, which is why the turnaround is mostly waiting.

The steel is blasted and then treated in a heated phosphate bath. It is the finish on a great many military rifles, and it suits a working gun.

The gun is stripped and the metal blasted with fine glass bead at low pressure. It takes the shine and the handling marks off without removing metal you’d miss.

Rust is lifted with oil and fine abrasive, and the bare spot is cold-blued and blended as well as it can be. It won’t be invisible, and we’ll tell you that before we start.

A steel bar and lapping compound bring both rings into line with each other. It stops the rings bending or marking the tube, which matters more as the scope gets better.

We line the scope up with the bore using a collimator or by eye through the barrel. It is not a zero, and the rifle still has to be shot.

The rifle is shot from a rest, the barrel allowed to cool between groups, and the scope adjusted until it prints where it should. You get the target back.

The receiver is set up in the mill and the holes are located off the bore, so the bases sit in line with the barrel. It is $80 for the first hole and $25 for each one after, so a two-base job of three or four holes is usually $130 to $155. On an older or collectible rifle we’ll talk first, because it can’t be undone.

Sights are fitted to the dovetail by hand, tight enough to stay and not so tight they raise a burr. They’re set to mechanical center, ready to be zeroed.

The old bead comes out, or a new hole is drilled and tapped on the rib’s center line. A small job that is easy to do crooked.

No refinishing, no polishing, nothing that can’t be undone. It is usually the right answer for a gun with history.

The mechanism is brought back to working order with as few new parts as will do. Old parts can take months to find, and we’ll tell you when we’re waiting on one.

Hand polishing is what separates a restoration from a refinish: a buffing wheel rounds corners and washes out markings. It is slow by nature.

It starts with the evaluation and a written plan you’ve approved, and it runs for months. You get a written record of what was done.