In addition to a scarf joint, a magazine from a solid tube would add strength to the assembly.
Note: per
@Invictus77 measuring his
original, the
forearm is 19 9/16" and the
mag tube is 20 3/4" (so there's your wecsoggin' constraints).
Note that there's folks already set up to cut the front and rear threads on A5 /Rem Model 11/1100/870 magazine tubes, so offering a straight 8 round tube shouldn't be too hard. The biggest problem would be removing old tubes from receivers (ask me how I know this. Derp).
The roughly 2/3rds of a normal forend (towards the receiver) is internally cut to allow clearance for the recoil spring, then it 'steps down' for the remaining 1/3.
When I've been noodling this problem, I've noted that many of the A5 forends in the wild will have stress fractures on their receiver ends (from what I understand, this is a result of too-loose fitting magazine caps so the wood gets slammed around due to excessive slop) and then the rear of the forend will 'splay out' like a tired donkey.
Sooooooo.
In addition to a scarf joint and single piece magazine tube, maybe inlet some picatinny rails into the finger grooves to act as "bridges" between fore- and aft- pieces, as well as compression on the weaker rear section of the front forend.
It's not a purist answer, but the idea would be in spiritual alignment with the A8 concept.
That make sense?
