the most common use of swamped ribs is by the french. in my limited experience there seem to be as many french guns with swamped ribs as with "conventional" top & bottom ribs. i've never seen a MF without a swamped rib...and i have seen old MF literature reproduced on this site that tout the ribs as a superior design.

i find myself in agreement with that concept. rather than two separate strips with small bearing surfaces relative to the tubes, both top & bottom; a true swamped rib is one piece shaped roughly like an I-beam. installed at 3:00 & 9:00 between the tubes, this considerably increases the bearing surface available for securing the joints. and it also offers another clearly superior advantage - there is no gap inside the joined tubes. thus no place for hidden rust to begin acting on the structural strength of the barrel set.

question: who has ever seen a french swamped rib barrel that has separated from the rib? again my experience is limited, not that many french guns in my part of the country...but i have seen some beat to hell guns with the barrel sets intact and sound.

and on the subject of swamped barrels, burrard states that many light english game guns have thicker tubes at the muzzles than in the last 10-12 inches. the purpose being to strengthen the muzzles resistance to denting. we might be talking only a few thou increase - not visually apparent - but that is by definition "a swamped barrel".
best regards,
tom

"it's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards."
lewis carroll, Alice in Wonderland