Build guns full time for 26 years then tell me how long that is. Nearly four hundred guns in that time, nearly all carved and engraved. You don't need epoxy in the barrel channel unless you have poor craftsmanship. All the contemporary glass bedded guns I have taken apart have terrible rust and pitting on the underside of the barrels. The water has nowhere to go but to sit there.
26 years vs 272 years back to mid 18th century, not a very long time, in comparison.
You're right though, moisture can't easily get out unless it can wick into a raw wood barrel channel, which moves the wood, which causes its own set of problems.
Epoxy is just one way to seal the wood, as are many others. I don't NEED to bed a barrel channel, so don't assume I do because I don't scream like a little school girl not to. Personally I like a waxed barrel channel.
The context of what I posted that you chose to be snarky about was, they didn't use it for anything gun build related, because they didn't have it to use. Yet today, builders such as yourself use EVERYthing that they had available at the time. I'm sorry if you can't see that point made.
And, rusted barrels are a maintenence fail, not the fault of how the gun is built. There are millions upon millions of modern rifles out there made with the same steels and bedded into their wood and fiberglass stocks, that don't rust. So...........
