Gunsmithing Guns Of The Old West

Restoring Frontier Firearms in Gunsmithing: Guns of the Old West

Gunsmithing: Guns of the Old West is a simulation game on Steam where you run a 19th-century gun shop, restoring damaged antique firearms to working condition. You receive guns from customers in various states of disrepair — rusted locks, cracked stocks, worn barrels — and you methodically take them apart, clean every component, replace broken parts, reassemble, and test fire them. It is straightforward mechanics-simulation work dressed up in period-appropriate aesthetics. The game opens with you in a modest workshop. On your bench you have basic tools: a screwdriver set, files, cleaning rods, brushes, a hammer, and a vice. The first few orders will hand-hold you through the process, but the tutorial barely scratches the surface of what the game expects you to figure out on your own. Here is how the core loop actually works in practice. A customer brings in a firearm — usually a revolver, rifle, or shotgun from the mid-to-late 1800s. The gun will have visible damage: a broken trigger spring, a cracked walnut stock, a corroded cylinder, fouled bore. Your job is to identify every issue, source or fabricate replacement parts from your inventory, and restore the piece to a condition that satisfies the customer's quality threshold. Each restoration has a quality rating, and the rating determines your payout. Rushing through steps drops your score significantly.

The part-sourcing system is where most newcomers get stuck. When a component is worn or broken, the game typically gives you a list of compatible replacement parts. You may need to order from a parts supplier, pay a shipping fee, and wait a real-time cycle for delivery. Some parts are universal across multiple firearm models. Others are highly specific to a single make and model. Learning to recognize which is which saves you from wasting money on obsolete inventory. I ran into a specific problem early on with a Colt 1851 Navy cone. The game's part catalog listed three different cone variations, and I ordered the wrong one because the visual reference in the customer request didn't clearly indicate which variant the original gun used. The cone wouldn't seat properly, and I couldn't figure out why until I compared the part number in my inventory against the gun's manufacturing date. The workaround was straightforward once I learned it: cross-reference the serial or production year of the incoming firearm with the part documentation before ordering. It added about two minutes per gun but eliminated a whole class of rework mistakes. That lesson alone paid for itself within the first dozen orders.

Techniques That Actually Matter

Disassembly in this game follows a specific sequence for each firearm type. You cannot skip steps. The game will not let you remove a barrel before you've taken out the grip screws, for example. Pay attention to the order. Some guns have retaining pins that look decorative but are actually functional — removing them out of sequence will cause the frame to spring apart and potentially lose small components into areas where you cannot retrieve them without a complete teardown. Cleaning is not just a timer-based mini-game you can auto-pilot through. The quality of your cleaning directly affects the function of moving parts. If you skip brushing the internal passages of a rifle barrel, residue builds up and causes failure-to-feed during the test-fire phase. I learned this the hard way on a Springfield Model 1873 trapdoor action. The gun would cycle manually but jam under fire. I tore it back apart, found compacted carbon in the gas escape port that my initial cleaning pass had missed, and resolved it by using a brass bristle brush specifically on that passage. The difference between a passable restoration and a excellent one often comes down to whether you cleaned the places you cannot immediately see. Reassembly requires patience and a steady hand. The game uses a timing mechanic on certain operations — tightening screws, fitting pins, seating springs. Hold the button too long and you strip the threads. Release too early and the component is loose. The sweet spot is roughly one to two seconds depending on the fastener size. Small screws on trigger guards need less time. Frame bolts need more. There is no universal setting, so you develop a feel for it through repetition. After about thirty guns, most players stop missing these entirely.

Understanding Quality Ratings and Customer Expectations

Each order specifies a quality tier the customer expects. Basic, good, excellent, or collector-grade. The tier determines howly each step is judged. A collector-grade request for a Winchester Model 1873 will penalize you for using any aftermarket parts instead of period-correct reproductions. It will also dock points for minor cosmetic flaws that would be irrelevant on a basic restoration. Understand the tier before you begin, because it changes which materials and techniques you should use. Here is a counter-intuitive point that beginners consistently miss: original finish preservation matters more than most players realize. Stripping a rusted barrel and refinishiing it with a modern bluing kit will earn you full marks on a basic restoration but will tank your score on a collector-grade request. The game tracks whether you preserved original surfaces versus applying new finishes. If the customer brought in a gun with patina they wanted kept, keeping that patina is the correct call even if the gun looks worse in your initial inspection. Judge what the customer actually asked for, not what looks best on the bench. Another nuance involves the test-fire phase. After reassembly, you take the gun to the range and fire a series of shots. The game evaluates accuracy, reliability, and function. A gun that fires but has a gritty trigger pull or slight timing issue with a revolver cylinder will show up as reduced reliability scores. Before test-firing, always do a function check: cycle the action manually, check cylinder timing on revolvers, pull the trigger through both single and double action, inspect the lockup under tension. This catches about eighty percent of problems that would otherwise show up as test-fire failures and force you to disassemble again.

Inventory and Supply Management

Your workshop starts with a limited stock of common parts and cleaning supplies. You will burn through files, abrasives, and basic fasteners quickly. Ordering too much at once ties up capital that you need for higher-margin part purchases. Ordering too little delays your work and costs you time that translates directly into missed orders or delayed deliveries. The efficient approach is to keep a running list of what each current order requires, cross-reference it against your inventory, and place orders only for what you are missing. Do not bulk-buy generic items in large quantities until you have established which ones you go through regularly. I found that cleaning solvent, brass brushes, and standard screw sets are consumables I reorder every few in-game weeks. Specialty parts like replacement hammers or cylinder bolts should only be ordered when a specific gun demands them.

Known Limitations and Frustrations

The game does not scale well past the mid-game content. After you have restored approximately two dozen firearm types, the variety drops off and you start seeing the same models with slightly different damage patterns. The customer request pool becomes repetitive. This is not a flaw in the restoration mechanics themselves, but a content limitation. If you find yourself bored around that point, there is not a lot the game does to keep fresh challenges coming. Another honest assessment: the part-catalog search is inadequate. Looking up a specific component by name or number is clumsy. You often have to scroll through category lists manually. If you know exactly what part you need, this is manageable. If you are trying to identify an unfamiliar component from a disassembled gun, the navigation makes it unnecessarily difficult. Bookmarking or noting part names as you encounter them helps, but the game provides no built-in reference tool for this. The pricing economy also skews early in a way that rewards exploitation more than skill. The first several orders pay disproportionately well compared to later ones, which creates an inflation effect on your available capital. Players who spend aggressively during the early phase often find themselves flush with money but facing diminishing returns on what that money can accomplish later. The workaround is conservative spending until you understand the long-term part costs for each firearm category.

Practical Workflow for a Typical Restoration

Here is the process I follow now that I have completed well over a hundred restorations in the game. First, inspect the incoming firearm and write down every visible defect. Note the expected quality tier. Check your inventory against the parts list the game provides. Order anything you are missing before you begin disassembly, because taking the gun apart and then waiting for parts creates idle time that wastes your work session. Second, disassemble in the correct order. Photograph or mentally note the position of every component. Reassembly goes faster when you know exactly where each part belongs and in what orientation. I keep a simple notepad for tricky guns — especially lever-actions and falling-block rifles — where spring tension and pin placement can be unforgiving.

Third, clean thoroughly. Use the right brush for each passage. Remove all old lubricant, carbon, and corrosion. Inspect each part for wear that cleaning might reveal. This is where you find the problems that were hidden under grime. Fourth, replace damaged or worn parts. Fit each replacement carefully. Do not force anything. If a part does not seat naturally, you have the wrong variant or it is installed incorrectly. Fifth, reassemble in reverse disassembly order. Apply appropriate lubrication to moving surfaces. Do not over-oil — excess lubricant attracts debris and causes function issues during test-fire.

Sixth, function-check before test-firing. Cycle the action. Check timing. Pull the trigger. Verify lockup. This step prevents the most common test-fire failures. Seventh, test-fire and record the results. If reliability or accuracy is below the expected tier, identify the cause before declaring the restoration complete. Adjust timing, clean additional residue, or replace a marginal part. A second test-fire after corrections usually resolves whatever went wrong. Eighth, present the finished gun to the customer and collect payment based on the quality rating achieved.

The entire process for a standard revolver restoration takes roughly fifteen to twenty-five minutes of real time depending on damage severity and your familiarity with the model. Rifle restorations run longer, especially those requiring extensive barrel or action work. Collector-grade requests add time because they demand more careful part selection and finish preservation. If you approach this game as a methodical simulation rather than a race, you will find it genuinely satisfying. The satisfaction comes from getting the process right, not from finishing fast. The gunsmithing discipline the game teaches — even in its simplified form — is accurate enough to be useful if you ever move into real-world restoration work. That is rare for a game in this category.