doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Any way to tell if a rib has been epoxied down?

Picked up a shotgun for a pretty decent price but the rib makes me a bit suspicious. I can see a light brown material along the joints running down each side of the rib where the rib meets the barrels. There was also an area where it looked as though the material oozed up. It was hard but I was able to scratch it off with a fingernail. A toothpick also was used to scratch it out. Common sense makes me think there is no way it can be epoxy as it would be hard as a rock. Tapping on the barrels produces a nice ring. Bluing is fine under the mystery material. You probably cant tell much by the photos but I have included a couple anyway. You can see where I scraped some of the material out. Any advise/thoughts would be appreciated.

Just being a Birmingham gun predates almost all modern adhesives. Could be a much later repair.

Run down the side of the rib with a craft scalpel , if its tinned you see a bright silver white line . If its epoxied you will get a sample of residue. How do they sound when rung ?They will sound dull if they have been glued . Looking at the photos it looks more like seepage from inside and if you can scrape it off then I would suspect this to be the culprit and the only way to stop this if the ribs are otherwise sound , would be to drill some vent holes , inject some solvent to wash out between the ribs ,drain and dry out thoroughly then seal the vents . May sound a bit amateurish but will usually cure the problem short of a full strip and relay . Of course you could just brush it down and oil regularly .

I have seen something like this before and what it turned out to be was bluing solution that had found its way under the rib through tiny gaps and over time had leaked out, and as the water evaporated it left a crystalline deposit between the rib and the barrel.

See if you can scrape off a small amount of the brown stuff and put it in an old spoon or something and slowly heat it. Most epoxies begin to soften and break down at around 160 degrees or so. If the residue does not become soft and sticky, it probably is corrosion which needs to be neutralized somehow.

I agree with what's been stated. Those salts are corrosive and can & will do damage if left unchecked. I've used a solution of hot water saturated w/baking soda before; shot it into the vent holes w/a syringe & large inside dia. needle obtained from the pharmacist. Afterwards used hot distilled water followed by long session w/a hair drier to insure all water was out and then a few drops of 30 wt motor oil also using syringe before plugging vent holes w/small piece(s)of soft shot.

Lots of great advise and suggestions. So, went out and scraped some out into one of the Mrs good spoons. The material melted quite quickly, turning darker as it did and seemed a little sticky. Once it cooled it was pretty crystallized and hard. I explored several other areas along the rib and gently scraped with a scalpel tip. It is definitely silver underneath. I rang the barrels again and compared them to an older 101 I have. The sxs barrels are quite noticeably higher in pitch. The vibration was very similar on both, really could not tell a difference in the feel. This is a mid 50's gun so practically new compared to my usual stuff. It either hasn't been used much or someone spent a bunch of money on refinishing it.

I once owned a Browning 20 ga sporter and some white looking material use to ooze out of top rib in several places.Looked like the corrosion on batter terminals.I bought the gun new. Bobby

I just want to make it clear that while the picture shows a powdery material it was solid brown and had the appearance of something like grease that had oozed out of the joint then solidified. You are seeing the result of me picking at it with a fingernail. I have seen the powdery material that seems to come out of small areas after bluing which wipes away easily. I should have taken a photo before I messed with it. Thanks

I had a Ruger O/U that had the exact same thing, brown ooze along the rib. I used to shoot Sporting clays with a couple of guys who worked at Ruger, they said it was left over soldering flux that was coming out.
Pete