Fox Collectors

I have what might be considered a dumb question. What is the construction technique was used to attach the barrel tubes and rib? Were all three pieces simply soldered together? I'm a new Fox owner and my 20 ga. barrels have a nice "ring" but there seems to be a very slight void in the "solder" on the muzzle end of the tubes. If they are simply soldered together is there any risk of the solder melting after high volume shooting? Also what type of solder was used that "sticks" well to steel? Why wouldn't they use a weld (which I assume would be much stronger) than soldering.
Thanks!

FBN

BTW: I have now shot two rounds of sporting clays with my 84 year old 20 ga. and I l absolutely love how it handles. I am having a little trouble getting used to the sighting plane with the "convex" rib. It's quite a change from my O/U Beretta. Any suggestions?

FBN,
Lead/tin solder has a strong affinity to bond to steel at the molecular level so long as the steel is clean, the correct flux is used, and the heat is regulated well. For barrel joining work the tubes are generally wired together in the correct position. A typical 80/20 alloy melts at ~530 deg F. and in conventional S x S shooting there is nil chance of getting the barrels hot enough to melt the solder. The soft solder barrel-joining process has been used and refined for many years. The bond of the solder to the barrel tubes is sufficiently strong, consider the total surface area that's been soldered. Welding is out of the question due to excessive heat and micro tensions within the weld that would warp thin shotgun tubes. Some modern shotgun manufacturers are now using silver solder. It provides a stronger bond, the tubes can be joined more quickly and can be hot caustic blued as compared with the slow rust oxide process. However the use of lead/tin solder is not obsolete, consider that Perazzi still uses it for joining tubes on its highly regarded competition guns. The army skeet team has used Perazzis for years and some of their guns have > one million rounds fired.

You wrote the rib on your Fox is convex and I assume you meant concave. My advice is to keep your eye on the bird, not on the rib or the sight. Sure, you'll "see" the rib in your peripheral vision but if you are consciously seeing the curve of the rib when shooting I'd say you aren't focusing strongly enough on the bird. Silvers

Silvers,

Thanks for your detailed explanation on how the tube soldering process works. You're right the sighting plane is concave rather than convex on the Fox. For me, the older shotgun is harder the shoot properly than my newer shotguns with pronounced ribs. I guess it just takes a little practice.

FBN