wooden barrel ribs

[patkinson]

If a person decided to glue on a wooden bbl rib on a small caliber half stock what would be the strongest glue suitable for the job(glass bedding, slow dry epoxy, etc.)   Thanks for any advice.  Phil

[rich pierce]

Mostly traditional methods practiced here.

[Dave B]

Phil,
The use of a wooden under rib is common in the rifles from the New England area. The under rib is held on not by glue but by pins through under lug tenons just like the normal full stock fore stock would be. The pins are just shorter. The one I have seen used three under lugs. I dont think I would use any type of glue. Wood expands and contracts with moisture and would break the bond over time. Pins go through the tenons that have slots in them to allow for expansion and contraction.

[Hungry Horse]

 A lot of gun with wood underribs started life as a full stocked and became half stocked as a matter of necessity. A soldered underrib is not only hard to solder on after the fact, but it would require refinishing the barrel as well. The cure is a wooden underrib, that attaches to the lugs that originally secured the forearm. Living in California, I have seen wooden underribs on nearly every school of Longrifle ever made. It seems the long trek across the plains took it toll on Longrifle forearms.

  Hungry Horse

[Daryl]

Taylor and I pinned the wooden under ribs we made.

[Kermit]

Only one I did was with homemade brass lugs soldered to the barrel, then the rib pinned on. It's still there. Wasn't much fun fitting it to an OTR barrel. I didn't learn though; I've got another in the works.