doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Sprung rib repair (I guess)

Morning all,

I've seen a few things in my time, but I recently bought a gun at an auction that I knew needed a restock, but the gun (small bore graded Fox) was in my opinion worth a restock. Contacted someone on this forum to redo the barrels in advance and laid on a stocker. All was well until the gun arrived. While everything else was as disclosed, apparently the auction house missed a rather dandy repair to the rib right behind the front bead (which had no doubt been replaced). Well, a picture is worth a thousand words and here tis:



Whether is was a sprung rib or something else, it appears as if a hole was drilled in the rib and then a small screw or pin inserted and dressed down. For what its worth the barrels rang. While I was pretty sure I was going to send them back I sent the pictures to the forum member and then we talked. I leave his name out of this but he can certainly chime in with input if he desires.

Our collective opinion was this might fall into the "Pandora's box" category and the only way to know was to drill out the pin, and pull the top rib to see what we have and then relay the rib and re-mat the top of the barrels after Micro TIG. Our belief that was a bridge too far. After consulting with the auction house and sending the attached picture they agreed immediately to a full refund which is in route now. I shipped the gun back to them the day after receipt.

Morale to the story is make sure you deal with an auction house that will make things right if there is a problem on their end. Second morale is trust your instincts to walk away. Goodness knows where this would have gone in a worse case scenario.

PS. The hunt continues for another 20 bore Fox with 28" barrels to have restocked to fit me that doesn't cost two arms and at least one leg.

Hi Tom:

Glad to see that your money was returned and the gun returned as well.

The picture of the muzzle you sent over, from the front, was also very notable, showing the disturbed solder and voids. The solder mix for the top rib and the bottom rib appear to be different as well...?

You are correct about working with honorable auction houses that stand behind their errors.

Best Regards,

If that is a sprung rib repair it must be a screw that threads into the bottom rib. But then, how did he thread the hole in the bottom rib to receive it? It appears to be off center, which reeks of more shade tree. I can't see how a pin, pressed in, would hold a loose rib, either. Another observation, if it is a screw that has been dressed down, he did an amazing job of dressing off the top, without any damage at all to the surrounding rib. Could you see where the solder joints on the sides had been broken?

Indeed puzzling, and I would have returned it, too.

SRH

Looks to me as if someone in the past has fitted some kind of sight . After removing the "spare" hole has ben plugged .

Beats me. This is the other photo PA 24 was referring to taken from the front, and you can see something weird is going on under the front rib:

One more reason that reinforces my preference for ribless doubles. Alex Martin had the right idea, but mental inertia keeps most double gun construction at the level of the tinsmith, even on otherwise CNC constructed top doubles.

If you are not restrained by collector considerations it is worth considering converting this, and any double, to a ribless setup. If the absence of the rib disturbs then a carbon fiber snap in rib can be configured to hide the gap.

Right muzzle looks a little out of round, too, mashed in a skosh at about 11 o'clock as it sits in the bottom picture.

Q for the Fox experts: Did the rib pattern on unmolested Foxes continue to the end of the rib? Or were they like Parkers, where there is a short stretch of un-patterned rib at the muzzle (on uncut ribs)?

Being new to the double gun addiction, I'd like to ask a couple of questions: 1) if the barrels were cut off, is this what the finished product would look like? (Not including the offset extra bead.). 2) If someone decided to make this right, how much would the job cost and would the price be justified (rationalized) by owning the gun that you want, i.e., the small bore Fox?

Educate me please.

Dave in Maine. Unlike Parkers the rib matting goes to the end of the barrels on Foxes.

Burkdog, the barrels were not cut. I have the factory card for this gun and they were spot on at 28". Regarding cost to fix who knows? That's the reason I returned the gun. Goodness knows what one might find by pulling the rib, which would IMO have to be done. The gun was choked full/mod, so an option would have been to cut it back to 26" as it would certainly have some choke as Foxes chokes are normally 3.5 or 4 inches long. Once again not something I had not contemplated when I purchased the gun.

If you look closely at the picture of the muzzles you will see the steel filler called a keel is missing from the upper section between the barrels. If both keels were missing it would be a very good indicator that the barrels had been cut. These do not look cut.

The largest cost associated with a repair in this location would be relaying the ribs which is typically a 1K job. Add the hole repair and fixing the matting you would be in the 1300$ plus range. As to whether or not these type of repairs are worth it, each client must decide for themselves but from a financial stand point it often is a money looser. Of course grade, condition and initial cost also factor in.