Bushveld, Reading your description of the proper laying of ribs leads to the thought "why do all this for bits that provide no functional benefit".
A question that maybe you would do well to spend more time considering. The best gunmakers in the world devised the bottom, and side ribs for S X Ss and O/Us. A very, very small number of guns without those ribs were made to try to create a niche market, in hopes the creators could convince the world that everyone else was wrong. Since the world hasn't beaten a path to their doors, doesn't that raise a red flag for you? It does me. They haven't built a better mousetrap.
On the same line of thought, why hasn't wood been replaced with synthetics on ALL new guns built? Wood is arcane, unstable, it shrinks, it cracks, it breaks. I dare say there is at least as big a business in the gun repair trade restocking old doubleguns as there is relaying their ribs. Why hasn't some stable, lightweight, material replaced wood? Because wood looks right, it has beauty. Same thing with ribs on shotguns. Looking at a ribless shotgun leaves me feeling sorry for it, kinda like a castrated boydog.
Anyway, interesting discussion, and my opinion is just that, mine alone and carries no more weight than anyone else's. Thanks for your thoughts, but as I said earlier ........... count me unconvinced.
