Savage uses nickel barrels?

Nickel finish is a plating and if not properly applied and/or cared for - can allow rusting processes to occur under the plating. Usually results in the plating coming off in chunks and looks like crap. That problem doesn't seem to happen much with modern plating techniques though. Nickel steel is an alloy of steel, loosely defined but generally less than 6% nickel content. Some barrels are made of what is termed "nickel steel" but will usually wear a blued finish. Stainless contains a minimum of 10% chromium and will also contain nickel and/or manganese. What you see on CVA and Traditions is nickel plate over steel. I guess some of the upper end CVAs now also come in a stainless alloy.

I asked Remington what the barrels in the blued and stainless version of their Genesis rifles were made of (meaning specific alloy, but did not ask that as it seemed an obvious thing). Some gal answered and told me they use steel. I responded to ask her if she meant steel as opposed to rubber... then explained I wanted to know the specific alloy. She tried but could not get an answer to give me. And that is typical of the information with regard to Spanish barrels - it may be fine but who the heck knows? Remington Arms apparently does not.