I am working on a 7X57 on a m24/47 action. I have worked most of the pits and dings out of the surface and was wondering if, as a rule, these actions need to be heat treated.

Rolland, your M24/47 was made after 1947 and case hardening was part of the process and as such requires no further heat treating (per folks at Pacmet)

I recently sent a Persian and a VZ-24 receiver for additional case depth because I'm building a .375 Ruger and a .416 Ruger and wanted the assurance of additional tensile in the lug seats.....for a 7X57 this should not be necessary.

Depends on who you talk to, Jack Belk says that is like painting a tin barn. D'Arcy Echols says all Mausers need to be softened and then brought back up to specs...I have never been led astray by D'Arcy on anything gunwise.

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
Rolland, your M24/47 was made after 1947 and case hardening was part of the process and as such requires no further heat treating (per folks at Pacmet)

Actually, the M24 was made prior to 47, they were just re-worked starting around 1947 hence the M24/47 designation. One example should not be taken to be representative of all samples of a particular model.

The M24/47 is chambered in 8x57. What would be the point? The action isn't the potential problem as much as the old barrel. Your new barrel is likely to be tougher material and there will be more of it (7mm hole vs 8mm hole) The chamber at the rim is likely the same so no change there. Question! Why would you bother taking pits and dings out of a M24/47 when you can buy the whole rifle in nearly perfect condition for $125.00?

There are a number of reasons
1. near perfect condition is not perfect condition
2. Cause I like working with metal
3. When I get done it will be a hand built custom rifle by me for me
and besides I want to

Sound like good reasons to me.

Carry on sir!

Hey, going to 7 makes perfect sense. My .02 is that if you are going to chamber it for a high pressure cartridge ie. 270 win, anneal then heat treat. If you are going to do any machining on any load bearing parts, anneal, machine, then heat treat.

Annealing (or normalizing) will make everything easier to machine (mot to mention be easier on the tooling). Hardening will not only makes the action stronger, it also makes the bearing surfaces feel smoth as ice. If you spend a bit of time on the guides, locking lugs, and lug recess, you will get a nice custom bolt feel that is always nice to show off to others.

John