Sorry Zippy, I obviously didn't make my point clearly ... I agree with you / most local gunsmiths have very little formal training and no where near the capability of some of the better shops like Briley, Kolar, Wilson Combat, etc ...
I was trying to say -- even for an older 1100 that I wanted to keep for a long time and especially if it was a gun I really valued ... I'd send it to Briley as well ...vs a local gun butcher ....precisely because I've heard too many horror stories from local shops.
By the same token ...I'm trying to improve my own gunsmithing skills ...on my own shotguns ...so I can competently replace firing pins, and common issues on all of my Browning O/U's, my Benelli's - and my handguns ( at least 1911's, Sig Sauer's and S&W revolvers ). I have no intention of hanging out a shingle to work as a gunsmith ( I don't need the liability
) ....but completely stripping a trigger mechanism from a semi-auto shotgun shouldn't terrify any of us either ....if we take our time / get a little knowledge ... and use Briley and Wilson Combat as our "backups" when we screw it up ...
I'm actually having fun working on my own guns ...even though, like I shared recently, a wayward spring has a tendancy to end up bouncing off the walls ...and living in spring heaven ...under my table saw or behind my bandsaw or something ( and that's when 1 - 800 - Brownells comes in handy ) ...