doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com SxS barrels sleeved by Briley

Has anyone had a set of SxS barrels sleeved by Briley? I'm not asking about inserts here. Comments are appreciated.

Thanks,

Joey

Hi Joey, I asked the same question, here's the thread:

http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbt...true#Post256349

Good Luck to you!

Greg

Hi Greg �

Thanks for the past thread but I need a straight answer to a simple question; Does Briley do nice work sleeving doubles? Also, comments in the thread about a sleeved gun being �out of proof� are anecdotal. First of all � there aren�t any Proof Houses in North America. Secondly � the new barrels used in the sleeving process can handle any modern ammo.

The late Michael McIntosh, a SxS collector and great [upland game] writer had one of his doubles sleeved. I wonder who did the work for him.

Joey

Hi Joey, I totally agree with you. All I wanted is a straight answer also. But, perhaps no one on this forum has ever had one sleeved by them. Time will tell!

Good Luck!!!

Greg

Can't speak on Briley personally for sleeving, but have no reason to question their work in any manner. Jess & Co. have run a tight operation for a quite long time. They recently changed the POI [point of impact] on a friend's vintage hammer gun w/their thin wall chokes; in this case, to suit the owner's wishes w/a full set of eccentric custom chokes & they patterned when tested exactly as requested on the grease plate. That takes precision.

Kirk Merrington also has been doing excellent & impeccable sleeving work since his arrival many years ago. Recent thread lists his number.

I had Briley sleeve barrels for a boxlock just after Kirk Merrington had left to open his own shop. They did an acceptable job. The part line is noticeable, but the they gave me what I wanted in chamber, barrel length, and choke. This was about 12 years ago or more. I think it was one of the first sleeve jobs they did without Merrington. I had to return the gun for a headspace problem which was corrected very quickly. I'm not sure what it cost today, but at the time I thought the price fair. Hope this helps. BTW, metal polish and blueing was excellent.

Thanks Felix, so how noticeable is the seam? Just a thought, could you perhaps post a pic of the job they did. I know I'd appreciate it!

Thanks again!!!!

Greg

Joey:
Why search for assurance in a shop that you are obviously not comfortable with? I'd send the barrels to Kirk Merrington and relax. The job will be done right. And after all, isn't that what you want?

My personal opinion of Briley is that you'd be better off with Kirk for a SxS.

Not to beat a tired horse, but I tend to agree, in this case, with Kensal Rise about the general quality of work other than choke work by Brileys. A few years back I had an awful time with them getting what I thought would be only a moderately difficult job done on a set of barrels from a very nice pre war Merkel 16 gauge S x S I had sent to them, after I had called first and spent 10 minutes on the phone being assured that "oh, yes, we can do that, we do it all the time, etc." The short story is that they appear to be specialists in simple screw-in choke work and appear to be good at that. Other barrel work may or may not turn out well. I ultimately got a full refund ($600) for the work they attempted on my gun and went elsewhere to have it finishd up. It is not my intention to trash Brileys, indeed they are noted for screw in choke work. If you need something else, go somewhere else would also be my suggestion.

Is the gun in question American-made? If so, then your point may be correct (although most US makers did their own proofing). If not, you would need to consult the proof house rules for wherever the gun was proofed to determine if it still in proof after sleeving - sleeving certainly requires re-proving in the UK.