Building an under rib question

[msellers]

Ok, so put all the other builds aside to refocus my mind and not mess anything up. Decided to build an underhammer shotgun for grouse and whatever else I decide to hunt with it. But am needing an under rib, and wanting to stick with building it all myself. So there in lies the question, has anyone built an under rib from scratch? Have some ideas, but don't want to reinvent the wheel if I can learn from someone willing.
Thanks,
Mike

 

[Billy-by-gosh]

What material do you want to work with? Steel is traditional, but it's heavy and will slow down your swing. If you use aluminum it will save about 30% on weight. I've also seen a couple of dandy hardwood underribs that were even lighter (they were colored to match the barrels).

 

[Buck Conner1]

I had a Ron Long under hammer with changeable barrels, they all had stained maple under ribs, never had any issues with them and looked very period.

There are different shapes depends on what you want

 

[Billy-by-gosh]

Shapes... the 3 concave sides shown in Buck's post are what I see most often, however, you can simplify and use straight outer sides (just concave the bottom where the ramrod goes). I'm sure you can come up with variants as will please you. If using wood, simple round rasps and files will do great to contour the flats; just be sure to clamp down your stock. You may also want to taper vertical thickness, depending on how the ramrod hole lies.

 

[msellers]

Thanks for your replies guys. I am toying with making a tapered wood underrib, but had been looking at trying my hand at soldering up a sheet steel hollow rib from 26 ga.
Sorry for my slow reply back, just now saw that you had responded to my question.

 

[JeffG1]

I made a wood under rib on a halfstock .50 flinter. I used tenons, and it was tricky due to the wood wanting to split. It's doable, and I liked the result. (I don't trust my soldering skills.)

 

[Buck Conner1]

Nice job, makes a pretty touch to your rifle.

 

[Billy-by-gosh]

That does look very nice - the amount of time and work required for a seemingly simple item always amazes me.