Hey everyone- I got a call from the gunsmith earlier today. The fellow is installing a bolt-handle conversion kit from ATI (and a few other things) and he called me with a concern of some kind. He says that the rear 1/3 of the bolt body was incorrectly heat treated and is brittle. The bolt in question has the semi-turned down bolt handle, and I don't know when/where it was manufactured. He didn't say HOW brittle it is, but he was under the impression that the rifle may not be safe to shoot because of this. I am curious to know if this excessive heat treatment which he insists was done to the bolt (probably by the original manufacturer) really does make the rifle "unsafe" to shoot. Is this sort of excessive heat treatment pretty standard for Mauser bolt bodies? I'm really not too worried about it and I think he is making a bigger deal out of it than he needs to be. Anyone else want to weigh in on this?
-thomas
