Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Cast recievers

This is NOT a discussion of which type of construction is best. My question is, when and what company first started using cast receivers. Some wise man said that the Winchester model 20 in 410 built in the 20's had a cast reciever. Don't know. That got me wondering. Did the early 1900's cheap single shots had cast receivers. I read once that it was only when Thompson Center started their company, that casting receivers was perfected. Does anyone know?

Almost all of the old single shot guns used sand castings for the recievers. Stevens, Iver Johnson, really any old break action shotgun made in the US is likely to be a casting. Generally when you remove the barrel or barrels and look inside the bottom of the action you can see the unfinished surfaces that will shot mold lines and a rough texture due to the sand mold.

I’m pretty sure even the original Ballard rifles were sand castings. Been going on a long time.

And laminate construction too.

Big difference between old sand cast receivers and modern investment castings. Quality of metal being paramount.

Cast receivers are used now because the reduce the labor and machining needed to make a gun. Ruger has been a pioneer, not only making their own but others for Montana and while many don’t know this they made the frames and slides for the Interarms and Walter USA ppl and ppk/s.

Fwiw...I’ve had one catastrophic case rupture and it was in a 77. Gun never even flinched. GREAT rifles

Ruger was a pioneer in this country for investment casting. I think it started in the 1980s with one of their 9mm handguns they were trying to get the US military to try out. (P89?)

1963

https://www.ruger.com/casting/index.html

DF

Tc still does a ton of casting. They have a separate company they do it under. One of the clients i work with at my job.

Earlier than I thought!

What about National Ordinance who made a cast receiver for their 03a3 Springfields and built then up with surplus parts in the 1970s? They also made M1 carbines and M1 garands. They were NOT a US govt contractorf. Receivers were rough but kind of worked...😣

Old Ballard 22's had cast receivers. I do not know when they started being made but they can be identified by the number of lines in the address stamped on the side of the action. It is also possible to see the rough texture of the sand casting by looking inside the action. Ballard did not use cast actions for their center fire rifles. The cast receivers have caused problems when the action was later converted to shoot center fire cartridges. An example of this is the 40-65 which blew up at the Quigley match several years ago.

I had heard that Remington 700 receivers that started with the serial number 'F' used cast receivers.

Indeed. And Ruger 77's, 77MKII's, and 77 Hawkeye's have used cast receivers exclusively since 1968.

Interesting...ive not heard that. Anyone know more about these?

Bill Ruger was a genius. The 77 is such an under rated rifle...fantastic in about every way. Its easily my second fav behind only the CZ/BRNO's. I wish they made the african in 7x57 as a regular catalog item

I believe Jim Sullivan (mostly) designed the M77, and Lenard Brownell designed the stock for it... but of course Bill Ruger was smart enough to hire them.

You are correct. Jim Sullivan also had a hand in some other interesting guns IIRC

I always wondered why the original 77s were made as a push feed. Seems the MKII and the current hawkeyes are all pretty darn nice

Very similar to Thomas Edison who insisted all inventions at his company carry his name. Always those out there more than willing to take credit for other's work.

I can't go into the history of cast receivers but I do use ruger 77 and Hawkeye and the No.1 rifles for good reason. They are decently made and made in left hand versions. As a left hand person this is a big deal. Thanks for the left hand models Ruger and hope the Hawkeye is a available for the foreseeable future. Love mine.

No sir, they are still machined from barstock. I'm sure not afraid if a quality cast receiver though.

Savage 99's went to investment cast receivers in the late 80's. Course, sales dropped through the floor at that time, so 99.999% of Savage 99's aren't cast receivers.