I just received Dakota's newsletter which goes into detail about the design, manufacture and benefits its action versus the Model 70 and others. Interestingly, it does not appear to be forged but maybe I am a little unclear what forged means. The newsletter states they start with bar stock and harden it then remove material with CNC machinery. Is this forging or something else? Thanks.

Onslow - Welcome to the forum.

Dakota actions are CNC machined from solid stainless blocks. Tolerances are held within one to two thousandths. Accordingly, they are some of the highest quality and most expensive actions available. Don Allen made many improvements over the Model 70 action making the Dakota 76 one of the safest, most reliable actions out there. Then again, you pay through the nose for all this quality.

Not sure exactly how they make the rifle action, but forging and machining are two different things. It is very possible to do forging and then machining to make an action. It seems like the term forging is often misused in the gun industry.

Onslow,

To answer your question, the bar of steel that the action is machined from has been forged, meaning "having been formed under heat and pressure". The block, having been formed under heat and pressure, is then hardened and drawn or tempered. The heat treated block is then placed into a machine that will carve it into the finished action. The action is then considered "forged", or made, from a solid block of steel.

An action that is cast means that "molten steel" has been poured into a mould of the desired shape and once cooled, the piece is heat treated and then machined to it's final dimensions.

Malm

IS - Receivers are machined from 4140 pre-hardened bar stock to Rockwell 28-32 - that is direct from Dakota. The "stainless" reference is not correct. Dakota does not machine and then heat treat as some do. They use pre-hardened stock in order to maintain tolerances.