sad looking 1903a3

[ssgross]

with company that says they can but us not being certain after.

To be completely fair, I did not see the company I posted advertise any restoration heat-treating services on their website. I was of the naive opinion, pre-Hatcher, that metal is metal heat and cool slow to soften, reheat and quench to harden. I AM ENLIGHTENED THAT THIS IS INDEED NOT THE CASE! with such tight tolerances in process, composition, and end product specifications as in these receivers.
I think they specialize in heat treating for new things - like mill your own receiver from soft steel and send it to them for finishing. I would think that they could very well duplicate the original heat treat process if you decided to mill your own receiver from scratch - as we all know there is a substantial custom-action market that they likely serve.
If it were tried, the only way you would know if was successful would be a destructive test - which showed non-uniformity of results in Hatcher.
I'm very satisfied with the knowledge I gained in this conversation. Hopefully we have added some clarity to the issue. The other forums quickly digress into religious, uninformed debate on either side whenever the question is asked, making the answer not as all as clear as you all have done here. Thanks!