Taken from a forum elsewhere:
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Frank de Haas reviewed the Hoch action and its successor, the Hoch-Meacham action in his A Potpourri of Single Shot Rifles and Actions.

According to him, it was made by both manufacturers as a "kit" with the parts being either unpolished or polished, and the final fitting and heat treatment up to the purchaser. De Haas didn't know why this was so, but I believe Ken Bresien did the same thing on his Stevens actions to avoid the financial and liability hassles of becoming a "gun manufacturer."

If it is a Hoch, it will say "U. S. A." on the left side of the receiver, for "Uncompahgre Scheutzen Arms." Meacham's version will have his name and address. As 4060May said, the original kits were pretty crude, especially the inside fitting, and De Haas was pretty unhappy about that. He was, however, able to build a .32-40 rifle on the action. Meacham improved the fit and finish of the action parts, as well as details such as the underlever catch, which of course raised the price of the kit to $300 or so, a fair amount of money back then.

De Haas liked the design, said it was simple, effective and unlikely to go out of order. It's a big heavy action, as they go, but Hoch designed it for Scheutzen shooting with .32-40-type cartridges and low intensity loadings. He opined (and Hoch concurred) that he low sidewalls render it unfit for hot cartridges, the extractor won't work with rimless, and a cartridge with a .30-40 head size is about the limit to go into the action, even with some extra grinding and fitting.

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You can always Rockwell it to tell if it has been hardened. 

Unhardened it should run about Rc 20. Hardened maybe between 30 and 40.

I can get Rc 44 out of 8620 with a water quench, which I don't recommend.
Better to put a .02 or more case on it and then quench in oil. 

I asked the metallurgist at the  company where I buy steel about TEM (temper
embrittlement ) and he said there was not enough carbon to cause a problem.   

However, before you harden you really need an idea of the alloy used. 

I just pulled up an image of the Hoch; indeed the designer went for functionality not 
beauty.  Butt ugly is being polite!

If anyone really wants to be a perfectionist I have a citation for a carburize and
double heat treat that raises the impact resistance about 10 times. (8620 only)

Quote:


I'd be interested in this.

I bought my Hoch in 1987 (#132, I think) and paid $275 w/engraving (barely engraved) but, had to wait months to get it. It was a mess and I wasn't happy with the parts when I did get it. As a machinist, I spent more than 40 hours making a working action out of it but, I will never part with it. I believe the orginals have a better trigger than the Meacham's. I got mine down to 8 oz, it wasn't hard to do  and it's been trouble free since.

I shot it with the CBA for at least 2 years. My orginal barrel was a 30 cal, 14 twist, Douglas barrel in 32/35 Stevens (2.2 cc Case capacity). In those years, I shot at least 1000 rounds of ~2200 fps loads with 190 gr bullets. Later when I got QL, I ran the loads and they where ~32K psi. It's still going strong with no wear. It's pictured in my Avatar.

Frank

I have one of the early ones and it's been a very good rifle.  I did not do any heat treat on it and it does show some wear in the lever/block as mentioned above.   

Regards, Joe

I have found loading data that would keep pressures under 30,000psi using 200 or 210 grain bullets breech seated. I am not saying this action will take these pressures, but hope someone can yes or no.
Dave

Frank, Thanks for bring my attention to your previous post , which I read yesterday, but failed to write it down so was gone today. Mine is serial number 120 S and I think at this time I will have the rockwell hardness check and if low will have it case hardened. If it checks ok finish the gun. If anyone has other suggestions I would appreciate the input. 
Dave

Thanks Dave, That is a pretty good run, 30,000 rounds.  BTW, What do you do in the evening if you're not casting bullets