Crockett,
If you decide to do this, you can avoid the ribs coming loose by wiring them together with soft iron wire (tie wire, used for tying reinforcing rods together) and blocks/wedges. When claw mount saddles are soldered to the barrels, this is how they prevent the ribs from coming loose. Understand you will lose some or all whatever choke the gun has, depending on how much you shorten the barrels. On the other hand, some of us like more open chokes than commonly seen on old drillings. As the law stands now, the barrels have to be at least 18" long. There are some lawsuits working through the courts that might change this, but the decision is not known yet. Regulation of the barrels may change some, but this can be addressed for the rifle barrel with the sights/scope and for the shot barrels it might not be noticeable with more open chokes. You won't know until you shorten the barrels if the top rib is thick enough there to mill the dovetail for the front sight (I think Brownell's has the proper "caterpillar" type cutter). If not, you may have to do something else. The barrels, themselves are not soldered together full length, but are held together by being all soldered (soft solder) to the ribs.
Good Luck,
Mike
Last edited by Der Ami; 10/01/25 11:15 AM.
