Don, Over the years I've had three different vent ribs bent from someone looking at the gun I was shooting or starting to pick it up and then carelessly dropping it back into the rack at shoots. I've seen it happen to others. Had a friend dent or put a bend in a DT-10 vent rib two weeks back when he slipped & dropped it. Its being repaired as we speak. I have a 28 0/U with a very slight ding in it's rib right now that I'm not positive how it got there, but probably during the last skeet shoot when I used it & from being in a rack a few minutes. I watched a rack full of very expensive guns get blown over at a shoot several years ago and saw dented solid and vent ribs on several guns and two broken stocks as a result of that incident; that was the second time I've witnessed a rack of guns getting blown over at a shoot. I've seen solid ribs dented from falling out of a storage locker. I had an individual accidentally knock a gun I was shooting at a trap shoot out of a rack and it bent the stock bolt & cracked the stock, but didn't dent the rib. I've seen ribs dented from bird boys mishandling a gun in SA, owners inadvertently knocking the gun into the side of the truck or setting it too hard against the tailgate and I've seen a ribs shot off of two different Belgian 20 Supers in hot corners and one 101 Winchester 12 that may have had a bump or two to help it along. I have a French 16 that got the lower rib loosed somehow [original attachment most likely cold solder joint in part] that I am in need of having repaired. I've watched 21 bbls being bent in a round pipe truck bumper at a flyer shoot, one left a kink, the other did not. I have a set of Perazzi bbls that took a load of steel shot near the muzzle from another gun in a duck blind; it damaged more than the rib.
Aside from that, not much experience w/the issue;-)
Best, tw
