Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Heat Treatment for Mauser action?

Have a 1909 Argentine Mauser action I will be using for a custom build down the road. Not sure that it needs to be heat treated but probably wouldn't hurt. Anyone have any recommendations on for someone who would take on such a job? Don't really need color case hardening, just a normal case hardening / heat treatment.

don't

Correct

Blanchard

https://www.bmproc.com/

Sadly, about the only game in town these days.

Why not? I used a 1909 action to build a 257 Roberts, had it heat treated by PacMet .

They have carburised surfaces which leaves the internal metal resilient to take shock...if you want modern manufacturing buy a modern action.

So does that mean that the metal is already in good enough condition where it wouldn’t become more soft and malleable over time?? Meaning there is no reason to do it and waste money?? I have heard that certain people claim there is lug setback on these and that due to use over a long period of time, the metal
Can become soft and not hold up, as one would recommend heat treating the metal so it can hold up and withstand any possible “wear and tear” overtime…

I think it depends on who made your action. some were made in Germany and some in Argentina under license by Mauser., if I understand it correctly. It's the ones made in Argentina that might be problematic.

My custom .280 Rem. is based on a 1909 Argentine Mauser by DWM in Germany. The action and bold were Rockwell tested and passed with flying colors. I run some quite hot loads in that rifles, some of which snap at the heels of a .280AI. Think 160 gr. Speer Grand Slam at 2910 FPS, half inch accuracy, primers show little to no flattening and brass life is excellent.
PJ

Well worth reading:

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/11435788/Re:_Mauser_Heat_Treatment

I had a DWM (German-made) 1909 with the original 7.65x53mm barrel (I removed it myself) that had .006" of setback. I posted the photos on AR several year ago. I had the action annealed, recut the lug seats and then sent it to Blanchard to be recaurburized before I fit and chambered a new barrel. People will argue over this until they're blue in the face but, for my guns, I'm in the re-heat treat camp.

Stuart is correct. Many misunderstandings regarding this issue. A metal that is heat treated to a very hard temper throughout is more prone to shattering and catastrophic failure.
The Mausers have a surface hardening with a softer core that can stretch before grenading. They are safe by mechanical and metallurgical design.
That being said if you push them too hard you can have lug set back.
I have a 1909 in 338 mag. , 240 Wby mag and 220 swift and I push them to modern velocities and have experienced no lug set back.

Have you compared the carburising of a 1909 vs that which PacMet used to do? Big difference.

What is the difference? Asking because I don't know.

When speaking about Mausers and "heat treatment", they are machined from mild steel and cannot be heat treated through out the receiver. They are case hardened. Case hardening is a very thin layer of hardness, but it works.

The difference between the 1909's carburising and that of PacMet, and now Blanchards I suppose?

be prepared for a little sticker shock, Blanchard is now up to $200 for 1 action and $100 for each additional. I put off sending one in that did in fact have lug set back, and the price nearly doubled in 18 months.

I'm sending 3 in myself as soon as the 3rd gets out of jail and then gets back from the smith school getting the barrel removed

There seems to be some confusion here between heat treatment and recarburising.

The first is used to harden/temper carbon steel all the way through whilst the second is basically deep case hardening of a low carbon steel


And I am not sure how one would go about rockwell testing a surface hardened steel as the stylus will generally go through/deform the carburised surface and give a false reading. And testing under a carburised action is pointless as it is not a carburised surface.

Run a fine file over the carburised surface and see if it skids off...if it doesn't, then go get it recarburised.

For recarburising a desirable action that is cheap as chips, and definitely worth it.

This has been controversial for as long as I remember.

I even corresponded a few times with Ludwig Olsen back in the late '80's, early '90's & have that info somewhere in my files.........can't remember if he was in favor of it or not, w/o re-reading that info.

But for my own personal use I've had it done on a couple & a couple not.

I keep a close eye on any change in HS on those guns & have seen no difference between the ones that Blanchard processed & the ones not done (1909 & VZ24).

But they are not range toys & don't get shot all that much but they do get loads that are supposed to be around 60K PSI.

PO Ackley also did some testing as reported in one of his books about how much it took to blow up a couple of different Mauser actions, one a Spandau, don't remember the other one, but it took a LOT of Unique to blow them up. More than I would have thought.

MM