Quote Originally Posted by Lee Enfield View Post
AdE,
The OP is rebuilding it from a stripped receiver - if it gauges OK (and I would hardness test it too) it is OK.

From discussions with PL, the reason that a rifle is DP'd is generally because of the receiver, every other part is replaceable.

I wonder if the OP has all of the necessary gauges to say it is 'safe' ?
Good point on the hardness, as PL says that the hardness of the locking lugs was a failure point, and that the bolt locking lugs could actually 'hammer thru' the body locking lugs and get into 'soft' metal.

Bearing in mind that these are Indian DP bodies it may be advisable not to try and resurect them particularly if they are post 1949, as after independence Ishapore decided to change the steel from that specified by the UK and that led to 1000s of rifles being declared DP and many scrapped. Eventually they changed the proofing standards until the actions with the new steel just passed.

Short extract from an Article :

Extract from “Gun Digest 33rd Anniversary 1979 Deluxe Edition”
Article Author : Mr A G Harrison
Qualification : Former ‘Proof Master’ of the ‘Rifle Factory Proof House, Ishapore, India’

From 1908 to 1950 all military bolt action rifles made at Ishapore were proof tested with a dry-round, followed with by an oiled proof round. The proof cartridge was loaded to 24 tons psi breech pressure, or 15% higher than the service pressure. In 1950 (after the departure, in 1949, of India from Britishicon control) the material for the rifle bodies was altered from an EN steel to SWES 48 steel with the recoil shoulder and cam recesses being heat treated. With this change the rifle receivers distorted when oiled proof cartridges were fired. This was discovered when hard and sometimes impossible bolt retraction was experienced. Large quantities of rifles were rejected.


It goes on and more about the testing and also the 7.62 rifles failing proof testing.