annealed heel

[cgroc09]

Bubba

Information

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[MJ1]

.......
And?
Nice photo.
Is the btm one a rebuild?
There must be a story?
refinishing can also cause the receivers color.
it almost looks like a Blue Sky receiver a friend had.

Cheers

[RCS]

I know that I looked for many years to find an early (pre June 1941) Winchester receiver "without" the anneal color before something turned-up. You could almost say that about 98% of all early pre June 1941 WRA receivers have the anneal color !

[Pirate69]

The receivers were cracking while firing rifle grenades. The annealing was to soften the heel and stop the cracking.

[RCS]

Pirate69 you need to do some homework ! the action will not open when the rifle grenade is fired

[browningautorifle]

Back to the wives tale about broken op rods when firing grenades...

[Bob Seijas]

I don't think it was all a wives' tale -- I'm guessing two things might be responsible: one is that the cracking occurred during initial launcher testing before the need to vent the gas was realized. Another is that perhaps the stronger recoil flattened the bolt lugs/op rod camming surfaces just enough to allow a few thousandths of overtravel. Possible? It might also be bolt wear or tolerance slop that was coincidental with launcher development. I'm just working backward from the answer... they went to a softer steel, a rather big deal... and speculating on why that could be.

[browningautorifle]

OK Bob...back and forth we go on this one. I believe that in the beginning they broke a few, but that was what trials were for. Then the gas cylinder lock screw relief valve came out and that was that. I think the most just gave up with time and 50,000 rds. The reciever tail on the other hand, takes a slam whenever the bolt travels rearward, and if you let your spring get mushy it's magnified. Just examine the wear marks on any standard rifle for that...

[Bob Seijas]

You may be right, but I think there is a clue in the fact that there were very few such incidents in the first million rifles. The bolt isn't supposed to hit the rear of the receiver.

[jmoore]

The bolt isn't supposed to hit the rear of the receiver.

??? Eh?