Which is better for a barrel nickel or stainless steel/ Why?

Stainless Steel they claim does not rust up as fast as the other barrels. I have read that the stainless steel cleans up easier which would make sense. All of them you have to clean after you shoot because of the nature of black powder. So stainless steel might clean up faster and be more forgiving of neglect for a longer time. I clean mine right away and never neglect them so, I guess it would boil down to cost and balance on the rifle you are chosing....

I have a nickel barrel on one inline and I do like it. I have blued barrels on the others and to be honest, I like the blued barrels a lot. The advantage of the other barrels are you can see the crud better on them.

Stanless steel outsurvives nickel -- stays cooler than nickel & won't stain to the degree of nickel. Barrel quality is determined by whether or not a manufacturer offers stainless or nickel. Those that only offer nickel I avoid because those barrels are softer & will contract & expand occasionally to a higher degree.

I can rapid-fire my T/C barrels but not my Traditions barrels. When I rapid-fire my Traditions, I get a bullet stuck 1/2 way down from contraction or I will feel the bullet start down the barrel loosely, then tighten -- then loosen -- then tighten with age. That means the Traditions/CVAs... etc use softer steel & the barrel warps over time... especially shooting in warm/hot weather too rapidly.You get what you pay for in this ML/BP business.

Stainless steel is far better than nickle. I had a nickle plated muzzleloader once, I kept getting the nickle plating out of the bore when I swabbed the barrel between shots. I don't think it helped my accuracy any.[:@]