Guys, thanks for the response, this is a great forum. I watched the video and have ordered a Wonder Blueing kit from Cabela's, per Joe's suggestion. A couple of you mentioned a proper cleaning of the metal and that would be part of the problem. I was hoping the final rubbing with the steel wool would be sufficiently clean, but after watching the wonder blue video, I'm sure it wasn't clean enough. Another thing is he uses some heat so it is a little more advanced than just rubbing a solution on cold steel. As far as fine sandpaper and steel wool sounding a little primitive, it's surprising how rough the finish is under the blueing on a lot of guns. The barrel on this Beretta is a long way from mirror polished and yet when blued, it'll look fine. I would never attempt to try and blue an entire rifle barrel, but this is only 4" long and should be doable by any of us. Hopefully, the Wonder Blue will work--if it works as advertised, I'll do a thread on it--