Issues with titanium actions?
- Thread starter jzerfoss
- Start date
You mean besides increased tool wear, surface finish challenges, galling threads, bolt lug setback, galling bolt/action sliding interfaces, stress cracking, stressed material creep, cold dwell fatigue, notch-defect stress risers...
Titanium is a good material for a lot of things. Something that encounters repeated high impact loads, scratches, dents, and sliding motions typically isn’t on this list.
I’m not saying that you can’t engineer around these issues to some extent - Lone Peak has done a pretty phenomenal job all things considered - and for something that’s only being shot a few hundred times it’s probably fine. But when/if I do a lightweight build, the Defiance AnTi will be my pick, specifically because it’s not titanium.
Titanium is a good material for a lot of things. Something that encounters repeated high impact loads, scratches, dents, and sliding motions typically isn’t on this list.
I’m not saying that you can’t engineer around these issues to some extent - Lone Peak has done a pretty phenomenal job all things considered - and for something that’s only being shot a few hundred times it’s probably fine. But when/if I do a lightweight build, the Defiance AnTi will be my pick, specifically because it’s not titanium.
gnochi, have you personally seen the issues (in red) above in rifle actions, or, can you direct us to some documentation? Thank you
I’ve seen many of those with my own two eyes. Remington tried it about 20 years ago and they were trash. I wouldn’t waste my money on finding out if others don’t have the same issues. Great in theory but didn’t work out. I’ve learned that they knew how to make guns a long time ago and there’s not been any significant improvements in many years. Look at the 1911 or m16 or the ma deuce, the baby of the bunch is around 60years old same with the Remington 700 or 40x. There’s actions that weigh the same or less so I don’t see any reason to risk getting something like that.
Yes, a friend had a titanium action 300WSM. Emphasis on “had”. I don’t seem to have taken pictures, but I remember that action lugs aren’t supposed to look like that...
Separately, I recently switched from engineering in automotive applications to engineering in aerospace applications. One of the things we need to be super careful of is titanium’s propensity for crack propagation from surface defects.
Here’s a decent paper on cold dwell fatigue: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142112316304054
Hi,
Being that was their original intention I would agree with you, lol.
It does not take a rocket doctor to read the documentation on titanium's' strength AND weaknesses. The weaknesses far far outweigh (no pun intended) the strengths when we are discussion rifle actions and their utilization.
Fatigue evaluation of TC17 titanium alloy shaft with surface scratch based on FEA and fracture mechanics
With the development of advanced mechanical equipment, more attention should be paid to the fatigue evaluation of the critical components affect by su…
www.sciencedirect.com
Finite element analysis of titanium alloy-graphene based mandible plate - PubMed
Titanium alloy based maxillofacial plates and implants are widely used in fracture treatment and reconstructions. Filler materials Graphene Nanoplatlets(GNPs) were used in a Titanium alloy maxillofacial plate and a Finite Element Model (FEM) was designed to reconstruct a fractured human...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
I have spent literally the past year in doing alloy analysis and FEA on various alloys, some common ones and some that heat treat facilities have never heard of, lol......I would build a polymer receiver with a 4140 insert with 4340 bolt IF I wanted to loose weight and retain full utilization of a lightweight action.
Sincerely,
Theis
