Future Darwin Award Nominee

[Lee Enfield]

How is the steel of my 1892 Vetterli made at Terni softer than the steel of my 1892 Terni Carcano ? The Vetterli has 2 large locking lugs at the rear and a sleeved [ stronger ] barrel [ + chamber ] . With the long bolt body in front of the lugs , the worst that would happen is a slow increase in headspace as the bolt compacted . Yes they would not last for decades of use like front line weapons , but they are not going to blow up . The Vetterli was loaded with smokeless for decades in the original caliber . The Italian military would not issue a dangerous rifle , they were used without ant undo problems in WWI . I know of a guy who put at least 200 rounds of Norma through his with no problems .

You're action would have been carburized and quenched. The issue isn't "softness", it is embrittlement.

This is common to all carburized materials - especially when we realize that temperature was determined by colour changes sensed by human eyes. Often varied by several hundred degrees depending on ambient light and other factors.

Embrittlement of steels


http://faculty.up.edu/lulay/failure/Lesson3.pdf

So you are saying shooting the rifle make the steel's molecular structure change and it becomes softer ? If you read my post you would see the rifle is not just going to "fail " . The headspace will just increase [ just like an Enfield , but the Vet is stronger ] until it will not set off the round . I have put 1000's of rounds through about 20 different Vetterli's of all calibers with no problem . I also shoot my 8mm Gras rifles , again with no problem and they have NO locking lugs . But my experience as a custom gunsmith and specializing in old military rifles, running a ballistic lab , testing ammo pressure , developing new cartridges , test firing over 2000 different military rifles over 30 years , running military rifle matches every week for 30 years at my range , pales to yours on Youtube .

Not "softer", brittleness is the real concern.