There is one way to settle this once and for all. Take one gun and re-case color it repeatedly and see if any distortion or brittleness in the receiver results. Three or four times should settle this for everyone. I have several guns which are candidates and would be willing to submit one of them for testing. Any interest in finding out? I accept Dewey Vicknair's opinion and remarks and willing to back it up with a gun. Maybe we can end this rehash of "to color or not to color" once and for all.
John,..I have a box full of SCRAP frames that I've been using over the years to experiment with and perfect my CCH process., some of them have gone through the furnace as many as 10 times and I found that some are more susceptible to movement than others, but they will by the most part have some micromovements after a couple of cicles,.. but it all depends on the action type, the more delicate and dainty the frames are the quicker they start to show signs of movement, but all will anneal back to the softness of butter if properly done.
I've also gone the other route just for the hell of it and quenched some above the critical temperature,...and can tell you from experience that the colours will be unbelievably intense, but the warping comes quick and if done enough times tangs carburize right through and can be easily snapped with a light blow from a hammer.
Doing this will take a lot of dedication because of the big learning curve,..and spending a few bucks on equipment and ready set up components from brownells usually won't cut it. I've been contacted by a few guys that had started to do CCH and were looking for help, but none of them where willing to go the extra mile and put in the time and money required do it right so they gave up, unfortunately the reason they called in the first place was because they'd already screwed something up....well these are the guns that we hear about,the ones that got screwed up, the other ones ( most of them) are still in service and doing great.
CJ
