gentlemen,
A lovely English 12 bore SxS BLE came into my possesion from my father in law. I bought him a light 20 bore sxs, as a swop, to enable him to continue shooting at the grand old age of 80.
I knew his gun had several issues - including the need to completely strip and relay the ribs. However, inspection of these ribs encouraged me to examine in detail the ribs on my other doubles.
I am mortified !
Very close examination - even of what appears to be a perfect joint, reveals the soldering on many guns leaves a lot to be desired! Ribs not bedded properly to the barrels and gaps here and there - and many of these are on so called best guns!
However, one of the cheaper guns - an AYA No.4 which I have owned since new for roughly some 30 years - which I thought had perfect solder joints, there is a section of solder missing adjacent to the top rib near the muzzle - it looks like a perfect joint, but a .002" feeler gauge will slide in easily.
I immediately removed the lead shot plug from under the forend and blew oil through the inner cavity with an aerosol - dirty brown oil flooded out of the gap.
What now? I am in a quandry because the gun has been used in all weathers, and there is no way there has not been water penetration between the tubes / under the rib. Everything appears perfect - but it could have rusted internally. In all other aspects the rib is solid, without any evidence of rust or loose material between the ribs.
Do I have the ribs stripped off?, or just the section soldered where the gap is ? Or live with it and take care that the gun is dried thoroughly and oil blown through the void after getting wet.
It could have been leaking for 30 years, the gun was also re-rust blued about 24 years ago - water could have been in there since then...
I don't want to lose a hand (or worse), has anybody removed a rib that has been leaking ? and what have you found ?
I am now tempted to drill holes in all my ribs under the forend - just to blow oil in there occasionally !
any advice most welcome...
Jonty
