This will probably sound like a dumb question to 99% of the people on here so apologies, but here it goes:

I assume you don't need to heat treat a Mauser action that has had surface sanding on the outside of the front ring? (or the outside of the whole action).

I'm trying my hand at rust bluing and am prepping action with hand surface sanding. It's looking really good BTW.

Not dumb at all. I can show you some actually dumb ones.
No, the outside of an action means nothing as far as strength goes. As long as you didn't grind it paper thin. Not saying it is suitable in the first place; but unless it is a pre WW1, it will be ok. (and most of them are too) Or a Chinese, which no one would use anyway.

Commercial Husqvarna 98 from the 50/60s

Those are FNs; Husqvarna never made a 98 action,
don't worry.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Those are FNs; Husqvarna never made a 98 action,
don't worry.

When I say commercial Husqvarna - it was a Husqvarna 9.3x57 factory rifle that I rechambered to 9.3x62. Yes, my bad, it's a FN!

Yep; I have at least a dozen of them. Various calibers. Most of the 9.3x57s were on 96 actions; the Swedes considered them as strong as a 98 and even put 30-06s on them; something we wouldn't do.

I’ll second what Tom said: no, you don’t need to re-heat treat an action just because the outside was ground.

If that is the 9.3 Austin put pics up of a few years.ago I loved.it. Nice pictorial essay of his project. In fact, I'd love it if he'd repost to give us something to chat about. I have two of them undrilled and.they are terrific.rifles.