Cracked Remington action.

[Waynzee]

Like I said in my previous post I'm done explaining myself about NEW Rem. 700 rifles. IMO they are junk. However, you fellas are correct about other rifles Savage, Browning, Ruger, ect. if it's mechanical and factory made there is a possibility that they could fail too.

 

[shortgrass]

The only way to know for sure that what we see in the photo is a crack is by Magna-Flux testing. Can heat treated and tempered 4140 crack? Sure,,,, all it takes is a heavy enough impact in the right place. There seems to be an assumtion that actions are heat treated and tempered , by Remington, after machining is complete. If as much material was machined away to 'make' an action, before heat treatment, it would wad itself into something not useful upon quench. Going from 1600*+ into an oil quench of 100* or less tends to do that. There'd be so much warpage they'd be un-usable. These, and most other actions, are made of materials that are already heat treated at the steel mill. Steels heat treated and tempered to 32C (plus or minus) can be cut with high speed tooling. They're pretty easily cut with a mill bastard file!

 

[J E Custom]

Like I said in my previous post I'm done explaining myself about NEW Rem. 700 rifles. IMO they are junk. However, you fellas are correct about other rifles Savage, Browning, Ruger, ect. if it's mechanical and factory made there is a possibility that they could fail too.

Hey, I don't blame anyone for disliking and action/rifle new or old. If I had repeated problems with any brand it would end up on my least favorite brand list.

What we/I am trying to say is they are about the same now days. I buy mostly older Remington's as well as other actions because they are cheaper and I like the older finishes better.

The Best action as far as machine tolerances are the Weatherby mark 5,s But I plan on blueprinting
all of them so It really doesn't matter what they are or how old they are.

I do have a least favorite action, but wont mention of it to prevent another debate. all I can say is it is not a Remington. By the way Remington does make the second worst action in my opinion and I don't mind mentioning it (The 770) It is a bad Idea (Integral recoil lugs in the barrel) and notoriously bad shooting.

Everyone has there likes and dislikes but that does not make everything else junk.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Trickymissfit]

The only way to know for sure that what we see in the photo is a crack is by Magna-Flux testing. Can heat treated and tempered 4140 crack? Sure,,,, all it takes is a heavy enough impact in the right place. There seems to be an assumtion that actions are heat treated and tempered , by Remington, after machining is complete. If as much material was machined away to 'make' an action, before heat treatment, it would wad itself into something not useful upon quench. Going from 1600*+ into an oil quench of 100* or less tends to do that. There'd be so much warpage they'd be un-usable. These, and most other actions, are made of materials that are already heat treated at the steel mill. Steels heat treated and tempered to 32C (plus or minus) can be cut with high speed tooling. They're pretty easily cut with a mill bastard file!

In the modern world (say the last thirty years or maybe even forty), we started learning machine processes known as "hard turning." Steel started coming thru that was called out as pre-hardened. Earliest I've dealt with was Maxell 3 1/2, and it was nothing like today's steels. Yet we learned fast. Maxell was prone to surface cracks, but still was pretty good. Then a couple new steels showed up around 1980. One I can't for the life of me remember the name, and the other was Versalloy. These two changed everything! Yet all three were 4*** series steel (I suspect all three were 4150 or 4160 C/M steel). The real issue back then was that they only came in round stock except for Maxell, and trust me this was important. Versalloy came in a centerless ground finish that was .020" to .035" over size. Then Baldwin and a couple others started doing 4150 pre-treat flat stock, but in a rough finish. Sometime around 1990 one of the big players offered it in a ground finish similar to gauge stock. And we just kept evolving from there till Baldwin offered a pretreat 17PH-4 stainless steel (pricey stuff by the way).

Now one would think hey they do 4*** steel in a pre-hardened for, so why not A2 or O-1? Not worth the time as these steels are rarely hardened under 54RC. Your typical 4350 or 4360 tops out at 47RC. Strength wise the 4*** series is the best. Yes you can cut a piece of A2 with a 60RC, but not on a production line! You can pretty much forget about 4*** with a 40 Rockwell. Yet 28 to 32RC does pretty well.

S why do I buy 4150,4350,4360 pre-hard steels? MONEY! I can machine it to size without adding extra stock because I have to heat treat it. Modern C/M steels are pretty much drama free, and the same can be said of the better brands of pre-hard steels. Forget the Asian stuff, and I'm not very impressed with much of the European steels these days. C/M pre hard steels with cracks or retained martensite are a rare sight. Just doesn't happen. Even if you nitride the pre-hard steels!

I would suspect that manufacture tried a new steel supplier, or the supplier added some Asian steel into their truck load of steel.
gary

 

[Garry J]

I just bought a 243 SHort action customs on snipers hide and when I get it home I see a crack through the last screw in the scope mount. It's all the way in the back of the action would is there anything to worry about. Will the scope move around. Could it be welded.
Craig

All Steels can welded, but is it worth the problem. If you bought it cheep and want to put the time in it. All the crack needs to be removed before welding and welded with a filler to match the base metal or a fill that is capable of welding hi carbon steel like a file or a Rex lathe tool. The bad thing about some fillers it will not match the color of your base metal and will not re-blue. I just repaired a Rem 700 and a McMillan bolt face cut from a primer rupture. A lot of time in both but did it for a friend and I owe him a lot, good guy. His name is Craig also. gun)Garry