Well, whenever I encounter a problem, I back off and try to think about things. On this forum, you have some of the best people that I've never met, LRF, Der Ami and many others. Don't take my advice until others have added their opinions, but you should be able to tell
hardened steel from unhardened steel fairly easily, just remove the action from the stock and find a spot on the receiver that will not normally see the light of day and try a file against it. If the file doesn't cut it, the steel has been hardened. How well, well that is another question.
