Barrels Back and Observation on Ribs

[ArtS]

I didn't want to hijack Breck's thread on Rib Art, but today I recieved the barrels he pictured there and put them on the gun I am restoring. I think they look incredible. Here are a few shots of the action and barrels, along with the stock I am trying to complete.

The gun is a Grade 3 Lifter 1880 10ga 3 frame. Barrels are Parker Laminate and Breck' measurements showed them to be in excellent condition. The gun itself needed attention. The stock had apperantly been severely damaged and replaced with a lower quality one in bad shape. I am making a new one and planning on using the original forend if possible. The trigger guard was bent out of line and is being straightened as we speak. The trigger plate was cracked through the trigger slots but incredibly still worked perfectly. I have welded it up and shaped it back to original. It has now been inletted into the stock. I need to make a couple of tiny fill welds and draw file it. The buttstock is complete, sanded and sealed to protect it from dirt and stains from the pistol grip back. All that section needs is finish. I have final shaped the pistol grip area and need to smooth it, fine tune the inletting and finish the wood. The forend shown is the original that will require recheckering. I want to save it and plan to add just a touch of alkanet or similar to the final coat of sealer on the butt and I think they will be OK together. If not I have a duplicated forend from the same block as the butt to replace. I went as deep as I could on the forend without raising the metal to an impossible level, but I believe it will be OK after checkering.

The skeleton buttplate from the original gun was on the replacement stock but it is so corroded and altered that I see no way to save it. I have installed a black Pachmyer thinline until I complete the gun and then I can start thinking about locating a buttplate. I left the stock long enough so it can be installed later.

I had mentioned that I might go ahead and re-color the action, but after seeing the barrels mated to the action, I am really pleased with the silvery nickle like color of the action against the black and white barrel colors. They look really good together, but for some reason it seems hard to get closeups of aged recievers with a digital camera. The surface reflections of the tiny bumps and dips and the way they reflect light tend to take on the look of some sort of stain or discoloration that isn't really there.

I am going to post a few other pictures in another thread in a few minutes that was triggered by reading the entire Rib Art thread. It occured that it was something I never really noticed, but looking at a few guns made me think about the entire barrel making process.

[charlie cleveland]

just wow...charlie

[Keith Sirmans]

Wow that is going to look like you are waving a wand around