SwampCollie

I can not find anywhere that shows the Omega Stainless comes with a factory Stainless 'weather shield'. TC does offer a Stainless looking barrel that has been treated with a 'Weather Shield' finish - under that finish is a plane carbon steel barrel. Also remember the 'Weather Shield' finish is applied to the outside of the rifle - there is no weather shield on the insde or on the crown...

Reading TC description:

As you can see they do not refer to as having a stainless barrel...

TC is trying to be competive with foreign competition and is try to keep cost down - stainless is expensive and 'weather shield' finish is less expensive.

keep the cost down? their weathersheild costs more than a real SS accura! Hell the bone collector costs more than a SS Apex that can switch barrels.

IMO they saved themselves money while charging the customers up the butt for it.

I paid $240 for mine... so I don't think it was such a terrible deal.

It does chaff my cheeks though.... the whole thing sounds like slight of hand marketing to me.

I take great care of the thing... haven't had it two weeks... I spend four hours in the rain, run a dry patch down it, one more hour to the house, clean her good and guess what...... I have rust damage in the bore.

I'm contemplating sending the gun back to TC... five hours... on a gun that is supposed to be designed to hunt in the rain???? I don't think so! So much for having a sub MOA muzzleloader... it was nice while it lasted (all of 10 days).

they dont put the weathershield down the bore. Which IMO is the most important part of the rifle. If the bore is rusted to hell, whats the point? Nickel plated barrels are better because its dipped into it and covered inside and out.

SwampCollie

I still think you have a very good gun and I am sure it will shoot very well for you. I think you may have been mis-lead a little with the 'stainless' 'weather shield' thing - but stlll that gun will work just fine.

Let me ask... did you do the normal thing when you loaded for your hunt? Did you strip the bore of all protection, with alcohol or something like alcohol? If you did the surface rust you experianced should not be considered as a surprise, especially if you live in an enviroment that might have a bit of acid type rain.

I have long ago given up on the thought of 'stipping' the bore to shoot sabots. Agreed the bore can not be heavily oiled - but it need not be stripped. The original thought of 'stripping' relates originally to shooting real BP then when sabots first came out oil would possibly cause the loss of some accuracy. With todays new formulation of sabots and sabots that fit tighter it is not necessary to 'strip' all of the protection out of the bore. You are just asking for the possibilty of rust.

For the last 4/5 years - I have given up on that task. I do not want to be hunting the rotten weather of Northern Idaho with a bare metal bore. To combat this I use Montana X-treme Bore Conditioner. It is an extremly light oil and contains glycol ether that drys and evaporates very rapidly.

As an example I was hunting in a rain/snow combination - i did have a muzzle mitt on the barrel but even then i was unconcerned about the bore rusting as it was still protected. When I got home I ran a dry patch to wipe the bore and collect any possible moisture. Then I ran a very lightly oiled BC patch and a tight fitting dry patch... The gun was still loaded and now the bore is protected for the next hunt. This procedure does not effect the accuracy of the rifle.

Just sharing some thoughts that work for me....

One thing a person must realize is there are a lot of different grades of stainless all the way from a minimum of nickle to the high percent chrome the grade normally used for muzzleloader barrels is not the best I am sorry to say .

O.K. I just had to look up what the (Professionals Say) about SS Barrels. Since I Own 2 Bargera Barrels I contacted Bargera Barrels and this is what they have to say.....
Question to Bargera, (Is a SS Barrel better than a Blued Barrel)
Answer....Generally speaking NO, each material has the same potential for accuracy, however in cartridges that are hard on the chamber throat such as the 22-250 and short mags, you may have a longer throat life and therefor accuracy life with a SS Barrel.
Question 2 (Can my SS Barrel Rust)
YES it can and will if neglected. Stainless Steel suitable for rifle barrels and other gun components has a (different chemical makeup) than Stainless Steel used for other purposes, such as used for handling corrosive materials or medical use.
So from this a SS Barrel will rust, they are as good accuracy wise as a blued barrel. The only noticeable difference you may experience is a longer throat life in your barrel.
I guess than this is the way it is, unless anyone can prove otherwise. I do like a SS Barrel better and (thought) it was weather-proof, but it looks like Im wrong????
(BP)

Breechplug, you would be wrong if think Stainless can not be oxidized. You would also wrong if you think its not different than carbon steel for corrosion resistance. A rifle manufacturer isn't going to tell you that you don't have to care for your rifle because if that were the case people wouldn't and the slightest rust and people would demand replacement.

If you read my comment thoroughly you would understand that it doesn't conflict in any way with what that manufacture said. All metal corrodes with use. To be corrosion resistant does not mean that corrosion doesn't or can't happen. So in the case of my rifle do I suppose absolutely no corrosion took place? No ... but then I looked for evidence of it. For example, I looked for rust on the cleaning patches, discoloration of the bore and pitting. Whatever corrosion may have happened is not visible and I can tell you that I inspected it closely. Last night I tried to photograph the bore but I just could not do it with my camera.

If you are suggesting that I am lying ... well you are simply wrong. I think the biggest risk with stainless steel is moisture not the powder itself. You could put my experience to test on your rifle. Just pick an inconspicous place on the exterior of your barrel, take some real blackpowder and put a little pile there. Then ignite it and leave the residue there for a year. When you go about to clean it off report your experience here. Whether you observed any rust or pitting and whether the residue had been in contact with water.

SwampCollie, my system crashed at work and Sabotloader beat me to it.

Just to be clear, unless you have some kind of after market application, TC does not make any ML "stainless with weather shield." It is either actual stainless steel with no coating, or it is a standard barrel with weather shield coating on the exterior (meaning, no coating in the bore). I called TC to confirm this. I say this because I know of a few retailers that refer to the Weathershield treated Omega (Z5) and Triumph as “stainless steel muzzleloaders.”

Regarding the corrosion resistance of blued versus stainless, I was out yesterday with my Omega X7 (stainless) for about four hours in constant rain. Forgot to put a dry rag in the car and did not have a chance to really clean it until the kids were in bed, many hours later. No sign of any corrosion. If I had a blued barrel I would have found time to clean it sooner. The point is not that stainless is impervious to any rust or corrosion, just that it is more resistant than regular carbon steel. I honestly thought everyone knew that.

I never in any way even considered thinking you were a Lier, all I wanted to say was that (I myself thought that a SS Barrel was indeed way better than a non SS Barrel) and that I thought a SS Barrel was and should be rust free from rain, weather and snow. I only suspected that a SS barrel could and possibly would corrode. All I wanted to do was point out what the Manufacture of the Bergars said about Rust and Corrosion and if SS Barrels were better than non SS Barrels. All I wanted to show is what they said. Forgive me if I offended you as I never ment to, all I wanted to do is get opinions and facts from other Hunter's who use SS and non SS barrels and there findings.
(BP)