Metal on Handi underlugs

[Joel45acp]

What type of steel is NEF using for the Handi's underlug?  I'm thinking of possibly machining some from scratch and fitting on a custom barrel for a 7.62x39 or some other caliber of relative low pressure.  Thanks for any insight.  Later.

[quickdtoo]

I dunno, but the underlug on my new 357mag barrel is harder than the last one I worked on, I'm doing an extractor to ejector conversion on it and I had to sharpen my 7/64" HS drill bit twice drilling just the one hole for the latch, it seems to be considerably better stuff than older barrels I've worked on. Maybe an improvement they've made due to the underlug setback issues they've had in the past.

Tim

[Joel45acp]

Quick, do you think its harder than stainless steel?  Thanks for your input.  Later.

[quickdtoo]

Never worked with stainless much, but I don't think so. I did put a .026" SS shim in a 270 Ultracomp, don't ask me what kind, it's some stuff my dad gave me that he got from the marine outfit that he retired from, it's holding up well, but not as easy to work with as mild steel.

Tim