doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Shooting Fox with annealed frame?

I had Fox frame and forend iron annealed and have scalloped reshaped frame and restocked the gun.I have read and heard that gun should not be used without having rehardened.Anyone had any experience with this? Thanks,Bobby

Bobby,
I'd have it re-casehardened before use. Will it damage it if you shoot a box of light loads? I doubt it.

I have a customer who likes to shoot his guns in on a custom stock. We are doing a Parker upgrade currently and he shot it for POI in it's annealed state. No harm done. I would recommend keeping it to a minimum.

On line with Bobby's question, I have an field grade Ithaca someone did a whole lot of very fancy engraving on and then, I think, blued. I suspect it was annealed to allow for all the engraving and that it was never re-cased since it was blued.

How can I tell if it was re-cased? For whatever its worth to Bobby, I've been shooting the gun with Bismuth Classic which I don't think is particularly low pressure and have not noticed any problems...Geo

the purpose of hardening shotgun parts is to increase the life of those parts at their wear points. seems like working the action of a gun without hardening it's working parts would cause those parts to wear out sooner than later?

Frames on vintage double guns were originally case hardened at the factories for a reason.

Annealing brings the steel back to its pre-hardened softness. Shooting an annealed gun will likely lead to premature wear on the bearing surfaces and cause the action to go loose before its time. Surface dents, dings and scratches are also more likely to occur. For those who've ever filed or sanded hardened and annealed steel, the difference between the two is remarkable. If you intend to shoot it, have it rehardened. If you don't like case colors, they can easily be brushed off to enhance the engraving.

The case hardening of the receiver makes it act like a spring. Otherwise it bends and stays bent.

Best,

Mike

I have serious doubts that case-hardening gives much of a spring effec to a piece of steel. After the case-hardening process if there was warpage etc, these gns were "HardFit". This meant they were bent back into shape. I do not believe that in this hard fitting they were moved enough they would not have gone back had they had a spring temper, but they stayed bent, indicating they were not of the nature of a spring.

Thanks to all.I may test fire it.George when you put a file to case hardened metal it will hardy cut. Bobby

Case hardening affects maybe a surface depth in mild (AISI 1018) forged parts like receivers of 0.0025"- annealing affects the entire area, but remember, whenever you subject a formed metal part to heat input, it flows towards the thinner sections- all the great American made side-by-sides (except the Winchester M21) were "double fitted"-- first in the pre-case hardening state (soft fitted) and then final or hard fitting after case hardening-- The great Parker authority now the late Edward Muderlak discloses this quite well in his book on Parkers, and even shows fotos of the late Dr. Oscar Gaddy with his furnace and chill box-

I have seen how well fitted the AH Fox guns are from my Sterlingworths- I would agree with the other gent who posted here- I would have the gun re-case hardened by someone who really knows what they are doing--