westerner wrote on Jan 15^th, 2016 at 11:05am:


Joe, You may get more replies, and possibly barrels  if you offered to pay the postage on them. 

Harry

A 4140 HT barrel, such as Douglas would make, will have a Hardness of about RC34 and a yield strength of 142,000 psi

Not to mention that that I doubt if you'd be able to blow it up at any temp.

Frank

From a discussion on, American Long Rifles Forums, Dated July 2010

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To quote LaSalle:
. . .The impact energy, as measured by the Charpy test, is given as a function of the test temperature . At low temperatures, the impact energy was found to be very low, less than 5 ft-lb (6.8 Joules), and the transition temperature . . . higher than 70°F (21.1°C)   
Translation: this steel, as do  others, becomes brittle from cold.  “Cold” to 12L14   is room temperature.

It should be understood that LA-LED® has low impact properties with wide scatter as measured by the Charpy test, and users should be aware of this fact. . . if impact or shock loading is anticipated, particularly at low ambient temperatures (i.e., an American’s idea of room temperature, or below) this aspect of design and material selection should be considered . . . 

LA-LED is LaSalle's trade name for 12L14.

I can also look up the barrel failures that I read about in the 80's in my Muzzle Blast magazines.

I have no issues about using 12L14 for 22rf but, if I had one of these barrels in CF, I would for sure send it to Joe

Frank

Marlene wrote on Jan 17^th, 2016 at 3:45pm:


I think you are taking the 4130/40 numbers from the steel in the annealed state.

From a completely different venue I have recently learned that some steels can display different yield and tensile depending on whether the stress is applied parallel to the direction of rolling, or across it.  I'm wondering if the 1134 and "L" steels fall in this category.  If so, the hoop strength of a barrel might be compromised.   

Still looking for a link to that "metallurgist letter".

Don't mix those old soft steel barrels with modern leaded or sulfurized steels they are not the same thing. Pope Zischang and Schoyen didn’t leaded steels. Screw machine steels are made to have a short chip and do not have the hoop strength that the older soft steels had they are both softer and more brittle than other steels. A few of the screw machine steel barrels have come apart over the years because of minute fractures that grew over time. Shooting in cold weather can start or acerbate the fracturing. I have a heavy barreled .32 Ballard that i suspect is made from screw machine steel. I shoot it occasionally but never in cold weather. I know why some of the barrel makers used it. It gave a very short chip and a good finish that unfortunately doesn’t mean it has good strength properties.

40 Rod

When I worked for Jim Wisner quite a few years ago, we got a letter from Pacific Steel, in Portland advising gunsmiths, barrel makers, etc. NOT to use 1144 Stress Proof for barrels, as they were getting reports of catastrophic failures in centerfire rifle barrels
.
IIRC, it had to do to the sulfur content.

I know one of Jims barrels he was making, tapered octagon, integral quarter rib,integral front sight, integral barrel swivel  band, etc. went into the scrap barrel because the blank was made out of 1144.

Perhaps Pacific Steel still has info on that particular steel.

I don't recall Magnaporting being mentioned by the steel company, just to discontinue the use for barrels.

We used it for the three position safeties Wisner use to make, and never had any problems with it.