The situation you describe forced me to learn to do as much work on my guns as I could myself, without having to send them out. To be sure, there's still work that I send out, but I can do very good rust bluing, have relaid several loose ribs (something like a 2 to 4 inch loose area, not the entire rib), made firing pins and some springs, made screws, and I think I can do very good wood finishing. I cannot checker, nor would I ever attempt case coloring work. I have learned to disassemble actions and polish them prior to sending away for case coloring however, and now am not afraid to get inside an action to see what might be broken if something isn't working right. A nice working relationship with a good doublegun smith is a nice thing to have, maybe even multiple relationships. Mike Orlen has done good chamber and barrel work for me in a timely manner. I am not a fan of Briley's for anything except their standard choke work, others continue to think they are the Holy Grail of gunsmiths, however. Part of the fun of collecting and shooting the old ones is the anticipation of getting it back from your gunsmith.
