doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Opinions on vented rib on SxS?

Strawberry roan;-)

Back to point, the shallow vents as found on some Berettas [GR series] or AyA's [Matadors] do not seem the least out of place. For the field, a solid rib is hard to argue with. In the end it is primarily/wholly a matter of personal taste. A vent rib will always be more easily bent, but it may be straightened much easier than a solid rib.

How many time have you bent either one?

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

Well, I forgot how hard on guns that target shooters are!

Well Don . . . I guess the bent rib thing is a commercial for the swamped rib on a sxs, or a ribless OU. Course one can always bend the barrels, but then a VR would not prevent that.

A vent rib on a M21 seems right at home to me, but my friend ordered a CSM Fox with a M21 style vent rib and that seemed out of place to me.

I really don't care for the big ramp up in the back of the vent ribs I've seen on some Parkers. I don't know if they were factory ribs or done later. Looked bad to me.
http://www.bullseyesportingarms.com/photos.php?id=230&category=Shotguns

I suppose there's a place for them, else they wouldn't still be available.

I just can't imagine what/where that place might be.

A vent rib on a clays gun is a positive addition. On a dedicated field gun a raised rib would prove a liability.

Parker and Model 21 vent ribs are of the same design in appearance. The frame is humped up a little at the breech and the rib runs fairly level to be low at the muzzle, not exactly parallel to the bores but not way up in the air. They are the best looking vent ribs. The Italian Berettas, the Galazan RBL, and the AYA are too low to perform the job that a vent rib is designed for, dissipation of heat waves. I see no problem with the vent rib on my 26" Parker in the field as long as I keep the underside wet with oil. Most older guns are brown with rust underneath the rib, but a spray with oil now and then keeps it from being a problem.

On the model 21 I think the vent rib adds weight to the guns as compared to those with matted ribs.....at least on the ones I have owned.