The only job Briley ever did for me was fine. They threaded an old MX8 of mine for S1 series thin wall chokes. But ...... I have heard some horror stories about them in the last 5-6 years.
Personally, I'd feel more comfortable using Mike, right now.
SRH
I have seen threads describing negative experiences with a number of different gunsmith. Some like Briley and Kody Kearcher. Like you I can only describe good experiences with both. I really need to take pictures and post the butt stock transplant Kody did as it was excellent. On Briley my good experience was in the last six months.
If someone posts a bad experience I am ok with that provided they are clear and straight with facts as at times things do go badly. I cannot think of a posting where I did not see what I thought was straight forward. I believe part of the value of this board comes from guys posting things about their good and bad experiences.
I have learned that long distance gunsmithing can be frustrating and requires real trust and exceptional patience (things always take longer than I expect except in rare instances. I had a gun with Kirk Merrington for more than two years for a six month job when he went down with Cancer. His wife offered to return it as is and I choose to wait and it turned out to be worth it when I got it back as the work was excellent.
In the end sending a gun out to be worked on is a leap of faith on everything from shipping it with UPS, to the quality of the work, to the timeliness.
