blued or stainless, what if you paint?
 

most people say to get stainless if you can. and several people suggested to paint it if you get blued. if you deceid to paint it does it matter if it's stainless or blued to begin with. i'm just curious because i've seen some painted rifles and i really like the look. but would it be pointless to get the stainless and paint it, if that's the case would it be better to get the blued and paint it

Honestly the older and fatter I get the more I grow to hate SS metal, plastic stocks and camo ANYTHING! But I realize I'm far in the majority when I desire a rich, deep finish on a nice wood stock complimented by a nicely blued or slightly matted finish on the metal work. But for me guns are as much the look and feel as the performance and "weatherproofness". In the old days when we hunted in the rain we just spent an extra half hour at night cleaning the gun as a labor of love. :s4:

But to answer your question, if you ARE going to paint it then in theory it shouldn't matter. BUT having said that, I assume you are talking about a serious hunting tool you have no concerns with regarding cosmetics so wood and blueing are off the list anyway. In such a case I'd honestly STILL pick SS over black matte for the main reason that the internals of the gun will be that much more weather resistant than any carbon steel gun would be. You can paint the barrel and outside of the action but that doesn't do anything for the internals or even the barrel inside the stock if you aren't going to seperate the barrel/action from the stock when you apply whatever finish you desire. Just be sure that if you pick a slick/polished SS finish like Ruger or the Marlin lever guns that you first prime them or I doubt you'll get most paints to decently stick on such a slick finish.

Some of the cheap, spray on enamel matte sprays like the Wal-mart brand rattle can will actually wipe easily off of a blued gun and even high luster/polycoated wood stocks! But with todays ultra cheap, crappy blues, mattes and stock finishes that might not necessarily be the case anymore. :s14:
HL

Buy stainless matte and you're good to go IMO.

i like the idea of stainless and i know this has come up before, but at the same time is it worth the extra $246 for one of the particular rifles i'm looking at and only $100 difference in the other one, go figure amazing how much difference there is between companies, but i guess you get what you pay for

I'd pay $100-$150 extra for SS, but not $250+. In that case I'd just paint the crap out of it and deal with it.

Teflon coating, Black Ice does a nice job of it.