Wow Slamfire, thank you for all the info. It is good to know! I am shocked at how long it took to get a good Springfield. I would love something that I can more pull out and shoot. What does MOA mean exactly? Also are they hard to reload?
You can pull out and shoot all of them. I am picky and want best accuracy I can get out of a rifle, therefore I ended up bedding a lot of military rifles. Never needed to do with a Swiss rifle. Mosin Nagants, the bedding is so bad, that the receivers actually bow when the screws are tightened on new Soviet era rifles!
MOA is minute of angle. One MOA is one inch at 100 yards, two inches at 200 yards, three inches at three hundred yards, four inches at four hundred yards. There is an infinite amount of self deception in the accuracy of firearms, owners typically shoot enough groups till they get a good one, and then they claim the weapon is capable of one MOA, because they shot a one MOA group. It is the Texas Sharpshooter fallacy. However, of the military rifles that I have owned, Swiss rifles are exceptionally accurate, but they are not target rifles. It used to be the standard of accuracy was one MOA, but the internet has driven that to half MOA, and I expect, with continued exaggeration, all will be claiming quarter MOA. Three shot groups of course, because shooting ten rounds in a half or quarter MOA is difficult, and no one shoots 20 rounds sub MOA. Unless they are really, really good.
These are by the same shooter, different years, prone with a sling, with irons. He is nothing compared to the great internet marksman who don't embarrass the lesser beings by shooting in matches.
Beautiful rifles by the way!
Thanks.
I have heard mention of this heattreated thing, what is that all about? I have no idea on what is or isn't real with that issue
You will have to look up the serial number spread for Rock Island receivers, but the single heat treat receivers are all the SA receivers under 800,000. Basically the heat treat is a century old misdirection of the real problem. The real problem were Arsenals that had chaotic production lines, out dated equipment and processes. While it is easy to beat up the Army on this, Congress provided very little in terms of military funding, and the Ordnance side of the house had a very low status within the Army. So it was terribly underfunded. I have heard the Arsenals were still using Civil War era machines on the production lines. What we do know is that there was one
pyrometer at SA because it is referenced in pre WW1 SA reports. It was used for springs. Where ever else heat was applied, temperatures were evaluated by eyeballs. And, in the forge shop, workers were paid piece rate which created a perverse incentive. If the forge shop workers cranked up the heat, they could stamp out parts faster, and get paid more! Incidentally there is no evidence of the use of pyrometric cones with the forges or heat treatment machines. What toppled the whole thing was two 1903 receivers fragmenting at an Ammunition maker during the ramp up to the American involvement in WW1. That entity had real metallurgists and being outside the Ordnance Bureau, could not be shouted down by Army Ordnance. This affair caused a complete shutdown of the 03 production lines at Springfield Arsenal in the middle of the greatest shooting war in human history to date. Which would have been a scandal, but the Army managed to prevent that information from getting out, and it is such a muted affair, that even today, no one notices the blip in rifle production and the implications. What did happen was a complete over haul of the production lines, a creation of a Metallurgical Department in SA, which was 10 full time workers, and a lot of test and inspection of product. Unfortunately in my opinion, SA stayed with their 1890's plain carbon steels instead of upgrading to 2340, a period nickle steel.
The steel used by SA was a 30 point carbon steel, this chart has a 40 point, but the nickle steel is the same.
Anyway, instead of upgrading to an alloy steel, SA decided to use a much more time consuming heat treatment on their "Class C" steels, and called the subsequent receivers "double heat treat". The heat treatment was superior to the simple heat and quench on the "single heat treat" receivers, but the heat treatment was not the problem. It was the lack of temperature gages when heat was applied. If you want to understand what a problem this is, watch the show "Forged in Fire" The knife makers there are under pressure, they are eye balling the temperatures of their billets, and virtually every show someone's knife fragments because the steel was burnt.
There are single heat treat trolls who deny there is anything wrong with single heat treat receivers. Just as there are double heat treat cultists who believe that those receivers are the ultimate achievement of humanity.
For Springfield Armory, the double heat treat range was from serial number 800,000 to 1,275,767. Receivers above 1,275,767 are the nickle steel receivers.
RIA Single Heat Treat serial number less than 285, 507
This receiver is a Rock Island nickle steel receiver, approximate serial number 403,000, and based on the serial number, this is a receiver that was not finished at Rock Island before that production line shut down. It was shipped to Springfield Armory and made into a rifle. Of course, that rifle was made into this sporter.
This might be of interest, I did not know what I had, the same individual who told me about my RIA receiver being finished post war, identified this bolt as a rare nickle steel RIA.