Mike Orlen has done perhaps 8 or 9 sets of barrels for me over the years, from screw-in chokes on one set to opening chokes on 3 or 4, repairing a loose rib, lengthening forcing cones, and polishing out bore pitting on several. The first few jobs were very quick, then followed by one job that took much, much longer than anticipated, and with poor communication, until it finally was received and a good job of it, then followed by more jobs delivered quickly. I think he simply gets over-booked from time to time. The bad communication is not a good thing, but he says he is just not good at emailing and he can't hear the phone??? As for Briley's, I have only sent a single job to them, and will never go back!! They not only botched a very nice set of pre war Merkel barrels, but were unpleasant when discussing it. Their reputation is certainly much better than the single job they did for me, so I guess the point is that anyone can indeed mess up from time to time. I'll tell you what makes me want to stick with Mike and cut him some slack: it's the many times he has posted here and shared methods and instructions on how to perform a certain task. I remember well the photos he posted and instructions on how to make and use a stock bending jig some time back. I have never seen Briley's share squat on this forum! Mike has, and his quickly finished jobs outweigh the single slow job for me. I really appreciate his sharing of his knowledge.
