I really hesitate to even post this again, it's been on this BBS twice with many others adding their own experiences to the thread both times it came up. I had a really bad experience with Briley's as well, a bit over three years ago now. Again, it was for "custom" work outside their so called field of expertise, which would be off-the-shelf choke tubes. It took me six months after I initially got my barrels back from them the first time to ever get the job done right, and even then they sent the barrels back to me with my brand new rust blued barrels scratched so badly I had to have them reblued again. My job involved having them make up and install a permanent choke "sleeve" in the left barrel of a very nice pre war Merkel 16 that someone had honed out too much choke, leaving only .002 in the left barrel. I simply asked them to make and permanently install a choke sleeve to give me more choke in that barrel, and make the job completely invisible inside and out. Not so terribly complicated for a good machinist, or so I thought.
There are a great many posters here who very regularly worship at the feet of Briley's, suggesting sending all manner of shotgun work to them. Just because a company is well known for one segment of shotgun work (screw-in choke tubes, in this case) does not mean they are a good all around double gun shop. I'll also never again send any work to Briley's, and would not recommend them for any work. There are lots of other good shops around that also do good choke tube work. If it was my gun, I would send it to Kirk Merrington or David Yale for sleeving and wait my turn in line.
