The quality of steel in war production no4s

[Bindi2]

What military would allow any bolt action rifle to be upgraded to a new calibre when the new calibre came with a new rifle in semi auto mode. NONE.
The No5 with the wandering zero myth, the Lithgow with too weak an action. The Indians proved otherwise. The no4 conversions are still on the ranges doing what they do best. The worlds armies went semi auto to keep up with the USA.
Stop being gentle Muff..

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[Ridolpho]

I apologize for dragging this out but it is quite interesting. Bruce in OZ- I located and read your old thread regarding materials specs for the '38 Lithgow SMLE. JMoore posts in that thread an elemental composition for the action body, as specified, that includes NI & Cr. So, is the "degraded" steel quote to be interpreted as meaning that some lower spec receivers were created to test the higher pressure chambering (seems bizarre) or simply that 1939 to 1953 steel was of lowered quality- ie "plain carbon steel" (it was wartime but that would be 415,000 rifles). Since the 7.62 program was to be a conversion program, not new construction, if the majority of available action bodies were of the "degraded" specs that would help explain termination of the effort. Finally, thanks to those out there that actually do basic or primary research and share the results with the rest of us. I can appreciate how difficult it must be to locate these old government documents. Unfortunately, for most of us, reading the available publications of true researchers is the best we can do.

Ridolpho