My opinion is that if there are air bubbles coming from the rib during the boiling phase they need to be relayed. I wouldn't drill a hole in the rib to relieve water that may have gotten under a leaky rib. The right way to do it is to relay the rib. Weep holes on rust blued barrels indicate a potential problem to me. I carefully check these barrels and if it appears that there aren't any problems, I plug the weep hole with glass bedding compound and then boil them to see if the ribs leak.

Between the keels and the amount of solder fill at the muzzle, the drilled hole for a bead almost never goes into open space.

The "almost never" is what makes me think they waited. Why chance it. Maybe on a Parker it would be a rare occurrence, but not other guns. And if every time I had to relay the ribs due to voids, I would never buy another late Fox gun. It is just the way they were.

In fact if you put air into the weep hole, one will be surprised where barrels leak. Yet the ribs are solid for the most part.

So why did Remington start doing it? Maybe their QC was not as good as before the acquisition? Or maybe they had learned something?

Almost every set of fox barrels I have had to refinish have had voids in the solder joints.

Thats interesting. I've only done one set of Fox barrels in my lifetime and that barrel set didn't have gaps. Relatively few Parker barrels that I have worked on have had voids in the solder joints.

If it’s got weep holes, I like to take a syringe and squirt some 190 proof alcohol in there (Everclear), it will help remove the water, then follow up with a good water displacing oil.

190 proof grain alcohol is also a very good solvent for shellac. I like it because it has less impurities than denatured alcohol