by Wyliecoyote » 20 Jan 2023, 9:57 pm
Interesting that Ruger, the mob that developed investment casting of firearms, is being outdone in this area by Winchester, Howa and Sako. Billet is used for Tikka T3s, Rem 700s and later non 77 Ruger actions. The only "forged" anything currently is CZ and possibly the bolts of Howas.
A lot of misinformation about casting, billet steels and forging. All metals and metal alloys start off as a casting. From there a billet can be extruded. Still a casting just extruded and set to some sort of nominal size by either hot or cold rolling or even rough machining. Some really upmarket steel mills do a double or triple melt with alloys to increase blend quality. Regarded by many in the trade as being of the highest grade are the steels used by Bergara of Spain that are sourced from a nearby mill.
Forging is simply hit with a mechanical hammer to form the rough profile before machining. Lots of youtube vids show exactly the process. Actions are not fully forged, the steel glob is smacked to a profile that looks like a bolt or receiver and then later on is finish machined. This forging process is usually outsourced.
The strength gain with a forging over the initial cast metal is around 25%. Considerable gain, but that is more aplicable to a complete forging like a spanner, hammer ect and that percentage gain is not likely to be seen in any reciever. That means your Mauser 98, Krupps steel inclusive, is not as strong as you think, but it can be true of the bolt. There is evidence that an investment cast action, exactly like the Sako 85 post Barretta ownership, is stronger than a forged profile machined out because the crystal alignment is not compromised.
All manufacturers use good metal in whatever method of production they use. The way they are finish machined is their way of hiding how the action was made to either a standard like Sako, or are made to a price point like Ruger and Howa.
Personally, if you think you are better off strength wise without the Hawkeye, you are misinformed. Bill Ruger, probably about the same time Weatherby was doing the same thing back in the 1960s, did extensive tests on his 77 actions against 98 Mausers, actions he started off using before the 77 was introduced. He set out to prove investment casting was superior. He did exactly that. No doubt someone on here will have his book and can correct me on this, but the large magnum (exact cartridge escapes me) had the barrel welded forward of the chamber, case packed with the fastest powder they could find, heaviest bullet seated with the action suspended from a steel girder, a long pull string and then fired. The barrel left the action at the shoulder and the action was retrieved and was found to be fully functional. This one action had multiple attempts to destroy it and all failed. This test was done before many witnesses and for a very long time after, the 77 action was regarded as the stongest sporting action available.
