Detached top rib sxs

[Krico woodcock]

As the top title. The to rib of my  kavanagh sxs has become detached 3/4 length of barrels.  Who would be recommended to re lay rib, and roughly how much to get work done.  It is a box lock in good order, got a re furb about 14 year's ago.  But it holds alot of sentimental value to me, so keen to get fixed.  Thank you,  waiting for pigeon wach experise for recommendation.  

[marsh man]

I have had the same problem a couple of times , the first time was with a German made s x s , when I bought it at auction it was like new , several thousand cartridges later you could tap the top rib and you got a hollow sound , at the time a chap lived on the estate who done small repairs to guns and came with me at times to do a bit of Pigeon shooting , I showed him this gun and told him if he wanted to try and restore it he can have it f o c and if he couldn't do it then hand it in to be scrapped , well he took the rib off and cleaned out between the barrels then wrapped wire around the barrels , used small wedges and managed to put the rib back , moving on a few years he had to pack up shooting due to a medical problem , he had my gun and two hammer guns so I bought the two hammer guns and he gave me my ole one back , I then carried on using this gun for a while without any problems , then one day I took a shot and I was left with the fore stock in my left hand , I thought it had just jumped off for some reason but no it was the bottom rib had came apart , so it finally ended up in the melting pot and the bottom rib is still in my garage.

My other gun was a B S A s x s , again the top rib sounded hollow , I took it to our local gun smiths ( Richardson's of Halesworth ) to show them and get a rough estimate and even at that time it was going to be in three figures and at least twice of what the gun was worth , so another one that might now be a part of a Rolls Royce 

P S    I did replace it with a lovely T Wild I bought from a auction for just a little more than what the repair cost would had been , so unless it hold a lot of memories and sentimental value then sadly it might had come to the end of the road .   MM

[London Best]

My friend just had a Powell SxS relaid at Mid Counties Blacking. £500. Highly recommended.

[Krico woodcock]

4 hours ago, London Best said:

My friend just had a Powell SxS relaid at Mid Counties Blacking. £500. Highly recommended.

My gun is not near value of a Powell,  but sentimental value worth far more.  Do they re blue barrels for that price?

[London Best]

2 minutes ago, Krico woodcock said:

My gun is not near value of a Powell,  but sentimental value worth far more.  Do they re blue barrels for that price?

Yes, the complete job, very nicely done.

[Krico woodcock]

Its a beautiful handling deserves the best.  Has done great service. Thanks LB I will contact them 

[Krico woodcock]

6 hours ago, marsh man said:

I have had the same problem a couple of times , the first time was with a German made s x s , when I bought it at auction it was like new , several thousand cartridges later you could tap the top rib and you got a hollow sound , at the time a chap lived on the estate who done small repairs to guns and came with me at times to do a bit of Pigeon shooting , I showed him this gun and told him if he wanted to try and restore it he can have it f o c and if he couldn't do it then hand it in to be scrapped , well he took the rib off and cleaned out between the barrels then wrapped wire around the barrels , used small wedges and managed to put the rib back , moving on a few years he had to pack up shooting due to a medical problem , he had my gun and two hammer guns so I bought the two hammer guns and he gave me my ole one back , I then carried on using this gun for a while without any problems , then one day I took a shot and I was left with the fore stock in my left hand , I thought it had just jumped off for some reason but no it was the bottom rib had came apart , so it finally ended up in the melting pot and the bottom rib is still in my garage.

My other gun was a B S A s x s , again the top rib sounded hollow , I took it to our local gun smiths ( Richardson's of Halesworth ) to show them and get a rough estimate and even at that time it was going to be in three figures and at least twice of what the gun was worth , so another one that might now be a part of a Rolls Royce 

P S    I did replace it with a lovely T Wild I bought from a auction for just a little more than what the repair cost would had been , so unless it hold a lot of memories and sentimental value then sadly it might had come to the end of the road .   MM

Some similar happened me yesterday MM. I was shooting  pheasants, well what you boy's call rough shooting,  and where I'd do be does be right rough,  anyway the last cock I shot something funny happened i didn't know if gun kinda opened but something strange happened could see as I took shot,  but couldn't see then. Any when back at jeep putting gun in slip, I noticed rib loose, and it will lift off barrels 3/4 length of gun.. any im on the journey to get it repaired,  probably going to cost more than gun worth,  but as I said,  its sentimental value far higher. 

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, Krico woodcock said:

Its a beautiful handling deserves the best.  Has done great service. Thanks LB I will contact them 

It look a tidy gun and sentimental value is priceless , very few , if any of my guns have held that same kind of value , we are in a age now where even £500 like L B quoted would give you a vast amount of choice for side by sides , the last one I bought ( T Wild of Birmingham ) was £200 plus auction fees , it was in mint condition and will very easily out live me , even if I ended up as the oldest person in the U K 

[enfieldspares]

Ooh! Sharp intake of breath and sucking of teeth. It won't be cheap. Last I had done was by Derek Fearn at Catton Hall and it cost £120 so cheap even back then. My advice is this, Do you ever intend to used the gun again as a gun? If not then relay it yourself using epoxy resin adhesive. It'll look the same as it ever did. 

[marsh man]

33 minutes ago, enfieldspares said:

Ooh! Sharp intake of breath and sucking of teeth. It won't be cheap. Last I had done was by Derek Fearn at Catton Hall and it cost £120 so cheap even back then. My advice is this, Do you ever intend to used the gun again as a gun? If not then relay it yourself using epoxy resin adhesive. It'll look the same as it ever did. 

Serious question , Would you been able to use it afterwards as a working gun ? , I was told something very similar from a gunsmith but they wouldn't had been able to had done it ( for various reasons ), they said fill the gap up with two part Araldite Epoxy and it would had been usable 

[enfieldspares]

41 minutes ago, marsh man said:

Serious question , Would you been able to use it afterwards as a working gun ?

I would not want to as barrels heat when shot. In fact it is why the technology we use today to shoot is so very very inefficient. Something like 1/3rd of the energy used goes in heat to the barrel.

But Alex Martin sold so called ribless guns attached only at the breech, midway and at the muzzle. And some modern O/U guns also have a gap between the two barrels.

As a relay and reblack will anyway have to be done if you mess it up it might be worth trying yourself? You need BTW iron wire or at least wire that isn't galavanised and a non-corrosive flux or solder that has a non-corrosive flux core. The issue is getting the heat correct.

[marsh man]

23 minutes ago, enfieldspares said:

I would not want to as barrels heat when shot. In fact it is why the technology we use today to shoot is so very very inefficient. Something like 1/3rd of the energy used goes in heat to the barrel.

But Alex Martin sold so called ribless guns attached only at the breech, midway and at the muzzle. And some modern O/U guns also have a gap between the two barrels.

As a relay and reblack will anyway have to be done if you mess it up it might be worth trying yourself? You need BTW iron wire or at least wire that isn't galavanised and a non-corrosive flux or solder that has a non-corrosive flux core. The issue is getting the heat correct.

THANKS for update , I am glad mine ended up in the melting pot , mine you the two part filla might had cost more than what the gun was worth  .  MM

[Krico woodcock]

2 hours ago, enfieldspares said:

Ooh! Sharp intake of breath and sucking of teeth. It won't be cheap. Last I had done was by Derek Fearn at Catton Hall and it cost £120 so cheap even back then. My advice is this, Do you ever intend to used the gun again as a gun? If not then relay it yourself using epoxy resin adhesive. It'll look the same as it ever did. 

The gun is used regularly and i intend using it as long as i can. Which is why I want it fixed professionally.  I'm just going to have to grim and bear the cost. Which Hopefully won't be too extortionate.

[marsh man]

16 hours ago, Krico woodcock said:

The gun is used regularly and i intend using it as long as i can. Which is why I want it fixed professionally.  I'm just going to have to grim and bear the cost. Which Hopefully won't be too extortionate.

The £500 L B quoted was a lot more than I was quoted , they asked me if my B S A held any sentimental value , no it didn't , that gun was also bought from a auction . it was an ejector but that didn't mean a thing to me as I used to catch them before they came out of the breech , they said it would be around £150 / 200 depending how much cleaning was required when the rib came off , he looked at my gun that was a work horse and they told the gun was worth nothing with a loose rib and no more than £100 after it had been repaired , so as it had a lot of use and there were plenty of sound s x s on the market then it just wasn't worth doing , to me that is . MM

[London Best]

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

The £500 L B quoted was a lot more than I was quoted , they asked me if my B S A held any sentimental value , no it didn't , that gun was also bought from a auction . it was an ejector but that didn't mean a thing to me as I used to catch them before they came out of the breech , they said it would be around £150 / 200 depending how much cleaning was required when the rib came off , he looked at my gun that was a work horse and they told the gun was worth nothing with a loose rib and no more than £100 after it had been repaired , so as it had a lot of use and there were plenty of sound s x s on the market then it just wasn't worth doing , to me that is . MM

What year was that John?

[Krico woodcock]

Well I have just got a reply from one gunsmith and £665 to re lay rib and re blue😫.. I am still awaiting a reply from mid counties..

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, London Best said:

What year was that John?

I have now had my ( new ) gun for about three years so that would be 3 / 4 years ago .    MM

[Krico woodcock]

Whats the name of that guns smith MM ?

[marsh man]

10 minutes ago, Krico woodcock said:

Well I have just got a reply from one gunsmith and £665 to re lay rib and re blue😫.. I am still awaiting a reply from mid counties..

I will tell you the truth , I have never spent half of that quote on any gun I have owned , I bought a English sidelock ej when I was still single for £300 and I was married for 47 years so at the time that was a lot of money  , the chap was getting married and needed some cash so I coughed up and bought it, when we moved just over seven years I had it valued for insurance purposes , the gun shop where I used valued it at the time for £1, 250. , now I recon it have lost at least £100 a year since it was valued and if I was selling it I would be looking at around £5 / 600 , that one was the most I had paid for a gun , the cheapest was a fiver for two 12 bore hammer guns , at that time in our reckless lives the names on the rib didn't mean a thing so we never did know who made them and can't remember if they even had nitro proof stamped on them , they did account for a lot of Starlings using Yellow Wizards and well worth the money , I might not had said that if I was a few fingers and thumbs missing after a mishap 

This is my sidelock which I have still got , it did go to the London proof house many years ago to be reproofed and it passed with flying colours .   MM

3 minutes ago, Krico woodcock said:

Whats the name of that guns smith MM ?

Richardson's of Halesworth ,Suffolk , I am not sure if they still take that sort of work on as both the brothers are now in there 70s and in semi retirement , might be worth giving them a ring , is there any gun shops in Ireland who could do it ? , I was just thinking of the cost to send it over here and then back again when the work was finished .   MM

[Krico woodcock]

12 minutes ago, marsh man said:

I will tell you the truth , I have never spent half of that quote on any gun I have owned , I bought a English sidelock ej when I was still single for £300 and I was married for 47 years so at the time that was a lot of money  , the chap was getting married and needed some cash so I coughed up and bought it, when we moved just over seven years I had it valued for insurance purposes , the gun shop where I used valued it at the time for £1, 250. , now I recon it have lost at least £100 a year since it was valued and if I was selling it I would be looking at around £5 / 600 , that one was the most I had paid for a gun , the cheapest was a fiver for two 12 bore hammer guns , at that time in our reckless lives the names on the rib didn't mean a thing so we never did know who made them and can't remember if they even had nitro proof stamped on them , they did account for a lot of Starlings using Yellow Wizards and well worth the money , I might not had said that if I was a few fingers and thumbs missing after a mishap 

This is my sidelock which I have still got , it did go to the London proof house many years ago to be reproofed and it passed with flying colours .   MM

Richardson's of Halesworth ,Suffolk , I am not sure if they still take that sort of work on as both the brothers are now in there 70s and in semi retirement , might be worth giving them a ring , is there any gun shops in Ireland who could do it ? , I was just thinking of the cost to send it over here and then back again when the work was finished .   MM

Beautiful gun MM. There are no gun smiths in Ireland,  you can certainly get guns repaired and fixed,  but to do a job like this,  there is no one. I'm sure ill source someone over there, that is not going to charge arm and a leg🤞.. the £665  i was quoted is taking the p****.

[marsh man]

Another gun smith that is very popular is Phillip Webster at Wymondham in Norfolk Tel 01953 600929

We have got a nearer one ( R Tilney in Beccles ) but he spend most of his time on the Antique Roadshow in his bright check trousers like he was last night while waving a Japanese sword about 

[Krico woodcock]

 

£ 550 Quoted From mid counties blacking. I rang Richardson's of Halesworth,  very nice chap,  but snowed under with work,  and he recommended bill blacker too.. doesn't seem to be a easier way out 

[enfieldspares]

Try R J Martin near Newark. Again if they cannot they may know someone who can? 

[Penelope]

Ladbrook & Langton would be worth asking. They are based near South Mimms, just to the north of the M25 in Hertfordshire.

https://www.gunrepair.co.uk/

[Krico woodcock]

4 hours ago, Penelope said:

Ladbrook & Langton would be worth asking. They are based near South Mimms, just to the north of the M25 in Hertfordshire.

https://www.gunrepair.co.uk/

I have tried,  they came back with first quote £675!!