If the pioneer settler hit a moving target with his big smoothbore flintlock fowling piece, he was lucky. Birds had to be shot before they took to the wing. If, for mechanical reasons, the pioneer's gun couldn't hit anything at all, it could be taken to William Antis who, in 1790, set up a gunsmith shop in Canandaigua, N.Y. Antis could repair the gun or sell his customer a new one for $8 or $9 dollars. A second-hand fowling piece could be had for $2 or $3.

In 1803, the Remington Arms Company developed a system to mass produce gun parts and by the 1820s, the firm began to supply those parts to gunsmiths like Antis. The state of the art changed significantly as the gunsmith gained access to the technology of the day.

Since the gunsmith was the most skilled tradesman in the community, his apprentice had a lot to learn. The master gunsmith was an accomplished woodworker and joiner. He could repair or replace gunstocks. He could forge metals, and knew how to heat-treat metals — both ferrous and non-ferrous. The skills and tools of the jeweler were required to make springs. To decorate patch boxes, the gunsmith had to be a fairly competent engraver.

The gunsmith shop at Genesee Country Village was moved from Dalton in lower Livingston County, where Jonathan Thompson with his brother, Joseph, ran a general repair business when they were not busy farming. In the small shop, Jonathan made and repaired guns when the occasion arose. The tools and equipment now in the shop came from the Amos Wood gunshop in North Hamden, N.Y. Wood apprenticed under A. D. Bishop of Decatur, N.Y. Examples of guns made by the two men are almost identical, as may be seen in those displayed within the shop.

A skilled woodworker gives daily demonstrations in this shop.