Email this page  Print this page  del.icio.us  digg  Feed

Subscribe to Shooting Sportsman : Print Section

Shooting

Ribs

Mr. Sheldon Whitehouse wrote in with an excellent question. He'd read my piece on shotgun sights ("Baubles, Bangles & Beads," March/April) and took it a logical step further: If guns don't need beads, why do they have ribs? And the answer is the same: tradition. Guns have long been supposed to have ribs, so they do. Ribs really don't serve a practical function in gunmaking. They don't hold the barrels together; that's done with spacers you can't see when the ribs are installed. Ribs are meant to be guides to the shooter's eye.

Do you like what you read? Subscribe to Shooting Sportsman»