I keep seeing reference to case hardened "rebar like material" in '03 Springfields.I am not picking on anybody, but where did this idea come from
Receivers and bolts of SA, serial number 1 to 800,000 were made of Material, Class C Steel. The double heat treat receivers, Receivers and bolts of SA, serial number 800,000 to 1,275,767, were also Class C steel.
Look up the composition of Class C steel, find a close equivalent today.
When I looked at data on Matweb, the low carbon steel used in these early receivers is today not used for complicated parts, non heat treated it is used for rebar.
I use the rebar analogy as a pejorative.
Mausers, Russians, Carcanos are all cased with junk under them and you don't hear to many stories about receiver failure with them
Hatcher has a section on low number Springfields in his book "Hatcher's Notebook". Without that record of receiver failures we would be oblivious to the systemic issues associated with low number Springfields.
I never knew there was a problem with firestone tires and Ford Explorers until I saw a database of crashes and deaths. Remember this?:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestone_and_Ford_tire_controversy
I am unaware of any single entity collecting Mauser, Nagant, Carcano failures. Does that mean they do not happen?
I will bet there are. It is just that they are not being reported here.
I have this picture. Don't know the story.