Stainless vs. Blued
 

I've never owned a gun with a stainless steel barrel. Is it worth it. What are the advantages?

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

Stainless rifles are generally regarded as having a longer accuracy life and are more corrosion resistant than blued. Most of the match grade (accurate) barrels are stainless. You can do a google search for the specifics of the steels

Oh yeah, You asked for advantages:

Your friends and hunting buddies will go "OOOHHhh!" when the see it.
My stainless M70 feels like a surgical steel instrument, next to a "simple" wood/blued gun
Makes your penis bigger.

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

Now those ares advantages I like.:D

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

And shinier too:D

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

Almost forgot... If your in the market for a stainless rifle you might check out Sako/ Tikka it seems they have a new Xploder model;.)




crusin for a brusin I know.

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

OUCH. lol

As far as I have read and seen from bu buddies rifles it's much easier to maintain and will hold up to the elements better.

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

A well made stainless barrel holds up a little better then a well made chromemoly barrel but they still rust . You don't have to worry so much about fingerprint rust spots but they do rust. They also lose a lot of strength at very low temperatures . If your talking a custom barrel manufacturer the top 5 are pretty much even as far as accuracy goes in a hunting barrel. Domestic Firearm manufacturers on the other hand vary tremendously in quality.

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

Oldelkhunter, You mentioned about s/s loosing strength at low temperatures. Could you elaborate. I just purchased a new rifle with s/s barrel and it can get pretty cold up here when hunting.

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

Can't speak for OEH but most barrel manufacturers will not let you order below a certain profile in SS. Basically they will not let you order an ultra light weight profile barrel in SS. Why I can not tell you, maybe there is a metallurgist out there that can give us a qualified answer. I would hate to start a fallicy descrediting SS barrels in general.

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

Guns with blued barrels don't work. You need stainless, and you need to pay a lot more for it.;););)

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

[quote][Guns with blued barrels don't work. You need stainless, and you need to pay a lot more for it/quote]

Your kidding right?

As an example Weatherby's which have thin barrels to start out with builds their barrels with 410 steel which is harder then 416 steel. I had a weatherby lightweight a few years back in 300 wthby that had a fluted barrel, they stopped making it a year later. If you go to the Krieger barrel website and look under profiles they have a disclaimer at bottom about not going below a certain dimension and recommend 410 steel at a higher price. USMC has pointed this out as well. SS looks great and all but maybe it isn't all they are cracked up to be. I wouldn't turn down a NULA rifle or a D'arcy Echols Legend just because they come with a chrome moly barrel. Echols doesn't make it in SS and it is an option on the NULA. And if recent events are any indication concerning Sako , manufacturers have to be extra careful making barrels or any other high stress component out of this material. So happens that Sako was able to isolate the production dates of their rifles to recall them and it will cost them dearly in sales and a smear on their reputation but do other major manufacturers have the same documentation in place...I seriously doubt they all do. I would say that any stainless steel barrel that is not fluted and has a regular contour and not minimal contour should be be fine.

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

Of course, kind of like the larger penis statement. Just having some fun.;)

But you have to admit, there are some guys out there buying stainless barrels when, for all intents and purposes, a blued barrel will fit their needs just as well. Some guys (me included from time to time) just like to pay more for bells and whistles.:D

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

USMC, From your comments it sounds like you’re talking about custom barrels. So regular s/s barrels from manufactures should be ok.

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

oldelkhunter, Thanks for the info........

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

Many very experienced metallurgists will argue that stainless loses no more strength than chrome moly at low temperatures.Due to the added corrosion resistance that stainless provides, our company uses a great deal of stainless steel at our plant in many applications where strength is very important.We often experience -40 and don't have any strength problems with stainless steel failing.

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

It would be interesting to know the temps at the time of the current rash of stainless failures...Although the thing they seem to have in common was the few # of rounds to failure less than 50 I think...anyone with more info

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

Trailer, I can not go as far as to say that any factory SS barrel is perfectly fine. I would attempt an edcuated guess that in the companies interest they would not push the barrier of common SS barrel practice simply to prevent any lawsuites stemming from a barrel malfunction. Personally I would try to stay away from Ultra Light or super thin tapered SS barrels even from the factory. If well known companies that produce high end aftermarket barrels are not willing to stake their name on the thin SS barrels, I'm not so sure I am willing to possibly stake my life on it. I am not qualified to judge SS as I am not a metallurgist, I am just pointing out best practices of well know companies regarding SS barrels. I would read what others have to say on the topic and possibly consult a custom barrel manufacturer via phone, most are more than willing to answer any questions that you may have. I would trust the folks that produce barrels for a living.

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

I refer you to Krieger Barrel and click on the profiles tab and go to the bottom of the page.

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

Maybe Canadian Chemist argue that, but its pretty well known observation and fact in the metal world. At my engineering college it was anyway 15 years ago. Maybe things have changed.

RE: Stainless vs. Blued
 

Of course it will depend on the alloy used.The most common stainless by far, used for barrels is 416 stainless which is much harder than many of the more commonly used stainless alloys.A magnet will also adhere to it and it is not as corrosion resistant as many other stainless alloys.