Chuck;
I recall in the late 70's early 80's Ithaca was advertizing these bbls big time. They stated how the cold forming process incressed the strength & hardness, producing a "Vastly Superior" bbl but the machinery was "Extremely Expensive", but they were "Willing" to utilize it to bring the customer the best possible product.
Then in about 1981 I read an article (By Ithaca) in one of the machining Trade Mags where different corporations wrote up how different processes had affected them. In this "Rag" they explained how the process had allowed them to drop the grade of steel used from 4140 as I recall to something on the order of 1030-1130 & the process resulted in the final product having essentially the "SAME Strength" as their previous bbls had. They further stated that with the savings in both mat'l & labor they expected to completely amortize the new equipment in approx 3 years. Beyond that time savings would be tremoundous.
