No. 4 Receiver Question

[Salt Flat]

I hate to ask questions like this, but here goes. I picked up a dirt cheap Lithgow No. 4 stripped receiver at a recent gunshow. It looked great until I got home and looked at it in really good light (damn cataracts!). I could see that the receiver ring had been heated, probably to aid in barrel removal. I tried the rudimentary file hardness test and it seemed as hard as the other areas. I have just a few dollars invested so that isn't the issue, I just hate to toss an otherwise perfect receiver. Anyway would you use this receiver or toss it? Another option might be to use it for a pistol cartridge or .22?
Salt Flat

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[Peter Laidler]

If it really is a LKithgow No4, then it's worth a kings ranson. But presuming that it's a No1 rifle, then it's bog standard Ordnance quality steel at that point. BUT if it's been quenched, then it might have hardened or otherwise upset the structure of the steel. If it was me............ I'm thinking now........ Just get it evenly up to cherry red again and leave to cool naturally. But hopefully one of the metallurgists will chime in. Are you there JM? Bruce in Oz?

You might find that if someones used a lot of heat to remove the barrel that they've twisted the body. Just my 2c's worth

[muffett.2008]

Yep, check the body for straightness, if ok then run with it, it takes a lot of heat to change the metal structure, I doubt that this one would be any different from others I have seen that copped similar treatment.
If the action is twisted, then that's enother story.

[Salt Flat]

Oops! It’s not a Lithgow, it’s a Long Branch No. 4 Mk 1*. I don’t think it is twisted. I don’t see any scale on it but it turned it a little darker than the rest of the receiver. I don’t think it was quenched as the file test seems to be the same as at the rear of the receiver.

Thanks Peter and Muffett! I started reading this forum for the Springfields but the more I see on the Lee Enfields the more hooked I am! Salt Flat.