Hi All,
Parker-Hale of Birmingham was one of the pioneers of Hammer Forging and the Germans' used it especially for their MG42 machine Guns of WW2. The Hammer process toughens and aligns the grain of the steel and work hardens the surface which makes it more resistant to wear which of course is important in a machine gun
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I have heard that a Hammer forged barrel can suddenly go off but as this came for the target crowd I am sceptical as it's more likely the shooter than the barrel. He just concentrated more with his "new" barrel so his score improved again
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The P-H M85 was the British choice for a sniper and counter sniper rifle for a while until replace by the more modern Accuracy International AW which is now used. Having witnesed the accuracy obtainable from a P-H 85 I wonder how much the change to the AI AW was political as the P-H 85 is outstanding in performance.
BSA also used the hammer forging method for their barrels in the later stages of their life until their demise in 1987
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Now as to free floated barrels well my take is it's a cheap quick fix for poorly cured/designed stocks and bedding. It's cheaper than cutting the bedding accurately so it's "better" well at least in modern parlance
. In this day of Kiln dried wood which is prone, very prone it seems to warpage where as the old Air Cured wood remained far more stable but of course takes a lot longer and so they say costs more
Composite or plastic stocks are not, well the ones I have seen, as stable as properly cured wood
they flex and twist so much that they need alloy bedding shoes to provide a reasonable bedding platform for the action and even then the stock flexes
No give me properly cured wood any day of the week.
Oh yes I know all about the stories of warped stocks
I have even seen a wildly warped fore end on a .243 but that was a kiln dried piece of wood
it's funny how we don't seem to see the old rifles with warped wood, all the military rifles which went through the tropics before kiln drying, I wonder how that happened? I have some rifles on which the bedding was cut by old masters, to look at them they are worlks of art and the bedding is still good and the express sights on the Mannlicher are still in regulation some 113 years later and that has a tightly fitted barrel in the fore arm, no room for even a fag (ciggerette) paper down the side of the barrel
and the bedding for the Mauser Octagonal barrel is so well fitted and smooth ..........................