No underib?

[Turtle]

  Many NY halfstocks have no underrib -the thimbles being soldered to the barrel. I have built and shoot one and have several. A question- It works well and makes a nice slim forestock and is lighter-so why do nearly all halfstocks have underibs? Just for front lockbolt clearance? -many only have one lockbolt anyway.
                                                Thanks,Turtle

[Cory Joe Stewart]

I have wondered this too.  Museums and antique stores in the south are full of half stock fowlers with no under-ribs.  The only antique gun I have is like that and was in my family. 

Cory Joe Stewart

[alacran]

In Shumway's Jaeger book there is a half stocked .40 cal rifle that was purchased in 1709 by Denmark's King Frederick the 4th. It has a single pipe apparently soldered about 6 inches from the muzzle. Nothing is new.

[bob in the woods]

The rib allows clearance for the barrel fastening lug, and IMO, improves the look .  Style is a big part of it.  So is economy

[Bob Roller]

 If I EVER get the halfstock flintlock rifle finished it will have no rib.
The extra weight isn't needed and I will make 2 rod pipes on dovetails like a sight
base and then a dovetail on the bottom flat to tie the thing together with a flat key.
The 50 caliber caplock I made in 1972 had no rod or rib.It was a target rifle but a later owner
installed a set of pipes and a rod.The gun and home it was in went up in smoke years ago.
Bob Roller

[Hungry Horse]

Toward the end of the muzzleloading era, guns tended to be smaller caliber, and more economically made. So, many makers eliminated the underrib. I have a .36 cal. Halfstocked target rifle with an inch and an eighth, 42” barrel, and no underrib, made in Elkhart Indiana by John Rogers. This gun also has the slot for the single barrel wedge cut right into the bottom of the barrel eliminating another separate part.

  Hungry Horse

[Bob Roller]

Toward the end of the muzzleloading era, guns tended to be smaller caliber, and more economically made. So, many makers eliminated the underrib. I have a .36 cal. Halfstocked target rifle with an inch and an eighth, 42” barrel, and no underrib, made in Elkhart Indiana by John Rogers. This gun also has the slot for the single barrel wedge cut right into the bottom of the barrel eliminating another separate part.

  Hungry Horse

HH,
With those barrel dimensions It would have much felt recoil would it?
Bob Roller

[Hungry Horse]

Heck Bob, if I didn’t see the smoke, I wouldn’t know if it went off.
 This is one of those old guns wrapped in legend, and shrouded in mystery. It barrel is stamped J. Rogers, with a separate stamp for the word “maker” and another stamp for “Elkhart Ind.”. But the Elkhart Ind. stamp is intentionally overstamped with the J. Rogers stamp. The local family that owned it, swore it was built in Charles Slotterbek’s shop in Lakeport, and the architecture, and furniture seem to support this, but who knows. Maybe John traveled to California, and stocked up a damaged previous build in Charlie’s shop. Old gun mysteries are half the fun of owning them.

 Hungry Horse