Once again, Kutter has come up with a great solution. It doesn't sound as if he has actually done this, but his idea suggests that a great deal of thought, reason, and intelligence went into it. I was going to suggest feeding lengths of thin electrical solder down the rib void from the front, and gently tamping it into place with a piece of steel rod so it would remain stationary. I like the Cerrosafe idea better.
Cerrosafe has nearly the same density as lead or solder, so it can easily provide the desired weight. It has a low enough melting point that it will not damage the rib solder joints. It has a high enough melting point that it will not interfere with any future rust bluing of the barrels. It is stable, and it is easily reversible.
At the other extreme end of the spectrum are these suggestions that should be avoided at all costs, in my opinion:
What if you poured wax in there? Probably would not hold it after a long time, but you could heat it up gently to remelt. It wouldn't rattle.
You could also stuff various foam plugs in there. I would electrical tape the wire first - as large as you can do it and still get in town there.
Probable better solutions (set screw through the rib?), but wax or foam with tape seem easy and won't give you headaches down the road.
Wax does not have anywhere near the density of Cerrosafe. The melting point of wax is well below the temperature of a rust bluing boiling tank, so it would create all sorts of headaches if someone ever attempted to reblue the barrels. Wax would likely even melt if the gun was left in a hot vehicle for a short period, and might even run out of any small void in the rib solder joints. That could damage the lining of a nice gun case. Not much thought went into this idea. This is the sort of "fix" that this forum was intended to help amateur gunsmiths avoid at all costs.
I just don't know what to think about the second suggestion of stuffing "various foam plugs in there".
What...??? like foam ear plugs, or maybe foam insulation backing rod, or what??? Neither has anywhere near the density of Cerrosafe, or even wax. 50 feet of foam backer rod MIGHT weight 3 ounces... or not. That's going to be a problem to stuff into the rib cavity of 25" barrels. Not worth even thinking about the pitfalls and future negative ramifications of this idea.
I'm also not sure what is meant by "electrical tape the wire first - as large as you can do it and still get in town there"... At this point, I don't think I even want to know.
When Dave Weber added this gunsmithing sub-forum, he asked us to "contribute answers when you can." Kutter has consistently shown us his ability to do that, with obvious experience, time proven solutions, and intelligent suggestions. It is up to us to read through all suggestions given to various gunsmithing questions, and decide which will fix our guns, and which are mere bodgering that will do more harm than good.
