Rib Width Question

[Bruce Day]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

Two or three years ago we had quite a discussion here on this very topic. There were a good number of pictures posted by discussion participants and a lot of discussion ensued though I don't think we arrived at anything conclusive.

I'm sure someone could dredge up those old threads and link them right here.

Dean, I searched and did not find a thread on this topic. We did however, have a significant discussion with photos on rib matting terminations. Perhaps that was what you recalled?

I'm not sure others had noticed that there are differences.

Bill, no letter that I know of mentions it and I have letters on guns with the narrow ribs that could. But, I have not asked Mark if he has seen any mention of it. The rib issue is the sort of matter that I believe individual shooters could have a preference, I know that on a longer barrel for long deliberate shots, I prefer the narrow rib. Others prefer the raised ventilated rib for the same targets.

Others have raised that it is a weight and balance issue. I'm not sure that it is, because I can point to substantially equal guns with equal length barrels, and some will have the narrow rib, others the wider.

But there is a lot about Parkers I don't know, and this is another.

[Bill Murphy]

Order #143,202, an Abercrombie and Fitch order that should be framed and displayed, includes several guns specifying "narrow rib". Sure enough, some of those guns are light. A friend owns a 28" 12 gauge AAHE from that order that is one of the "narrow rib" guns and was specified to weigh 6 1/2 pounds. I have owned guns with tapered ribs that are narrow on the front end. I would have to look at my friend's AAHE again to determine whether it is narrow from end to end or tapered to a narrow front end.

[John Truitt]

Yes Sir Mr. Swanson. I had planned to include a picture of that one.

Guys give me until this weekend. I have alot burning at both ends right now. I will include pictures of ribs, their width, barrel length, and unstruck barrel weights.
I can provide this for 30", 32", and 34" guns. Some are lighter weight guns some are heavy.
Any other info that would be helpful?

John

[Bruce Day]

Well this is interesting. It appears that rib width was yet another variable that the purchaser could and sometimes did specify. Thanks for finding the order letters, Bill.

So, standard untapered, narrow tapered, flat, concave, raised, ventilated, matted, unmatted.

[Autumn Daze]

Interesting topic. I had a chance today to pull a few guns out and measure the ribs. I only measured concave matted rib guns.Here are my findings.First dimension is rib at breech and second dimension is rib at muzzle.

1)Trojan 26" 20 gauge Serial range 181xxx .550/.410

2) DH 26" 12 gauge Serial range 84xxx .538/.420

3) VH 16 gauge 28" O frame Serial range 183xxx .570/.410

4) PH 16 gauge 26" Serial range 68xxx .535/.390

5) VHE 16 gauge skeet 26" Serial range 237xxx .514/.308

6)GHE 16 gauge 30" Serial range 163xxx .520/.384

7) VH 20 gauge 30" Serial range 171xxx .542/.398

A couple of obsevations here. These are all pretty much "off the shelf" guns.

1) No two ribs are exactly alike so that tells me these ribs were all fitted one at a time by Parker.2) Barrel length does not play into rib width as there is no direct proportions exhibited here. 3) And this may be because the gun is a late Meriden gun. The rib on the "skeet" gun is noticeably narrower and much more deeply set than the other guns shown.

[AmarilloMike]

Here is some data. The measurements were rounded to the nearest 64th. The decimal figures are from converting the fractions. The hyphenated numbers before frame size are unstruck barrel weight, current barrel weight, and gun weight:

AHE 20 214XXX, 26", 11/32" or 0.344", 15/32" or 0.469", 2-15, 2-7., 5-13, O frame

DH 12 84XXX, 28", 23/64" or 0.359", 1/2" or 0.500", 3-10, 3-0, 6-13, 1 frame

VHE 16 156XXX, 26", 3/8" or 0.375", 1/2" or 0.500", 2-15, 2-8, 5-11, O frame

VH 16 134XXX, 28", 19/64" or 0.297", 1/2" or 0.500", 3-2, 2-9, 5-14, O frame