SS -vs- steel barrels

[Picher]

I was watching Wild West Alaska and when the gunshop owner was standing in front of the rifle rack there were about 8 stainless ones and a couple of blued ones behind him. I noticed several stainless lever rifles they made up for folks who wanted bear protection rifles and a few stainless magnum handguns as well. Stainless may not be the perfect material for corrosion resistance, but it's pretty darned good and more affordable than it used to be.

I have three SS barreled/action rifles and two blued ones with stainless barrels. My truck handgun is also stainless/synthetic.

All my scopes/rings are black-matted finish, since we've noticed that silver-colored scopes seem to make a stainless rifle stand out in the field a bit too much for our likes.

 

[ndking1126]

I'm not an "expert;" those folks are.

We finally stumped Bart B! Haha

Very interesting reading. Although when I picked my barrel for my one and only rebarrel, I went blued because it was cheaper. I know I don't shoot often enough to know which one will last longer, nor am I am a good enough shot that the barrel material will be the deciding factor in how well I shoot on a given day. I've got lots of other factors to master still!

 

[Bart B.]

Those chrome moly barrels made at the arsenal in Springfield, MA, for Garands were bored and profiled, then single-pass broach rifled with 4 grooves, 1:12 twist, then chambered with a MIL SPEC 7.62 NATO reamer. Same way M14 barrels were made. A new broach made .3084" to .3085" groove diameters. Several barrels later, when the broach teeth worn down, .3078" to .3077" groove diameters were made. Those tight groove Garand barrels shot Sierra bullets from hand loads under 4" at 600 yards. Commercial stainless steel barrels with the same bore-groove numbers shot equally as well.

 

[jdscholer]

It maybe should be mentioned that when talking about chrome/moly barrels, we're not talking about chromed bore barrels. Some folks don't know the difference. jd