Fox Collectors

I’m crushed. I noticed a crack in the rib extension while on the range this week. See attached photo.

I’m thinking about taking out a little material between the barrel and the rib extension with a vertical mill and tigging the crack up. Does anyone else have experience fixing this issue?

Wow, expanding your pic shows the crack from the top rib almost to the bottom. There's really no flexing there and it’s a mystery to me how/why that happened. The extension is a very close fit between the extractor/ejectors and their shell rim cuts; and even if successful you'll have some serious re-machining to get functional. Also complicating things is that the rib extension was originally furnace brazed between the barrel stubs, and usually a "contaminant" like the copper, zinc, etc in the braze will goof up nearby TIG welding. Net, I think a repair isn't practical or maybe even possible. If it were me I’d look for a good used barrel to be retrofitted by a capable ‘smith. An A Grade barrel can be engraved to make it a C Grade as your barrel looks to be. frank