Twmaster, you did not ask if the T38 was a do it yourself project, now? you know. When I remove barrels the strong get weak and the weak pass out, I have an action wrench without a handle, if the action is stuck because someone used a Baldwin Locomotive to secure the barrel, I get a big hammer, if the action is stubborn I do not hit the action wrench harder, I get a bigger hammer, torque hammers.
This is the first time a T38 receiver has been discussed without someone saying something like “It is the strongest receiver in the world etc.,” and I always say “Forget the receiver/action, give me some of those cases that did not blow up when they tested the receiver”. Anyhow, I have 3 receivers I need to do something with, to me the Japanese receivers looks like the receiver ring is compromised, could be I got cheated, looks to me like the receiver ring on the right side is cut seriously in half, then there could be another reason for all that missing metal, The T38 has smoke holes, so the big missing piece of metal from the right side must not be for gas escape?
Stay in touch, I have a pile of barrels and have always wanted to build a rifle with the strongest action in the world and with a big chunk of metal missing from the right side, finding a T38 barrel has not been easy, that leaves me with threading one or a few of the pile of barrel I have, I have no good reason for choosing a T38 action when I have M1917 or M98 actions. I will dig and let you know.
F. Guffey