and around and around we go...
as I said it is a rather heated debate and both sides have a valid argument IMO, Kraigwy is usually my counterpart in these discussions and knows quite a bit about the subject.
There is no such thing as a Weeded Out, low number reciever. They are low number or they arn't. The <800,000 Springfields are UNSAFE. Just because one hasn't blown up yet, doesn't mean they wont.
ok you know as well as I do that the reason for the unsafe receivers was the heat treatment process n where the factory workers had to guess the temperature of the metal by the color as it heated up and on a bright sunny day where the metal was being hit by direct sunlight through the windows you would have to heat the metal up quite a bit more to to be able to see color change than on an overcast day of time of day where sun was not directly hitting the metal. this is why
SOME of these receivers were over baked and became brittle. to say
ALL low number Springfields are unsafe is a broadly incorrect statement. a fair analogy to that, and I hope it's still not too soon for this but it is like saying that all sons of Connecticut teachers are mentally unstable based on the occurrences of late. furthermore in all of the instances where the receivers failed, they were accompanied by casing failures, a side effect of early mass manufactured ammo, modern brass is much stronger and would not be nearly as likely to fail and therefore put all of that loose pressure on the receiver. and in the great colonels testing, he had to load his test rifles with vastly overcharged rounds to reproduce the failures in a lab setting.
I recommend not firing it, as mentioned, the CMP will not allow any low number Springfields to be used in their matches regardless whether one thinks the Low Numbers have been weeded out
this is just my personal feelings on the matter but:
it is unfair to the many people that buy these rifles prior to hearing about the low serial debacle and then being told that they just spent $600+ on a gun that is to be fired under no circumstances, that no gunsmith will touch because of the liability and which certain organizations ban from formal VIMBAR matches for safety reasons. I am well versed with your role in CMP competitions but I still must assert that the CMP bans these rifles for liability reasons rather than an actual fear for everyone's safety. can you please tell me the last documented case of a low serial springfield going KaBOOM? apparently it hasn't happened since the internet was invented because I've been trying and all I've come up with are high number serial rifles exploding from squib loads blocking the barrels.
I continue to recommend testing in a controlled environment from cover and shooting loads that are stronger than what you plan to shoot on average. then if it holds up, the shooter should be free to use any ammunition lighter than that and use it for whatever purpose he sees fit.
here is a pretty good write up on the receiver failures issue, I read it soon after buying my low number serial springfield unwittingly.