Advantages of a stainless ML barrel?

[PreglerD]

As I already told you I was able to get a Traditions (former Dikar) Woodsman Hawken .50 perc.with a round stainless barrel. Are there any advantages/disadvantages in comparison to a oct. blued barrel?

Regards

Kirrmeister

 

[410-er]

I saw some stainless muzzy barrels in the past.Most are of a cheaper,lower grade stainless that is no better than a good steel barrel.I know TC made a Cougar that was stainless but never handled one to really know.RoundBall had one I think and he probably has better insite but if its like the rest of TC's quality,its good.

 

[Idaho Ron]

I have two stainless fast twist 50's from Green Mountain. They are fantastic barrels. I never get flash rust. The fouling does not seem to stick as bad, and if I can't clean them until the next day I don't worry. I like them a LOT better than my blued barrles. Ron

 

[PreglerD]

These older produced Dikar ML are supposed to have GM barrels, too. So the buy was a blast.

Regards

Kirrmeister

 

[Idaho Ron]

I just ordered another Stainless 45 cal from green mountain. the twist is 1-28 and I got it for $110.00 that was a good deal. Ron

 

[ozark57]

I know, I know. Stainless makes sense with BP. It is more efficient. My custom AR15 with fluted stainless barrel is very efficient, don't need to clean it much at all. Fine "traditional" gun

 

[Len Graves]

I worked as a range officer at a public range for a while. Some of the"uninformed" shooters would come in with "stainless" barrel guns rusted badly. When I asked them how they cleaned them they said the manufacture said you didn't have to do that. So who is at fault? Some of the shooters who cleaned them had good results. I do think there is a difference in the steels, as before referenced,as to corrosion. Common sense would dictate you have to clean the gun. Common sense may be getting scarce.

 

[Zonie]

As I was about to mention yesterday, "Stainless" means Stain Less.

It does have a lot of iron in it and under certain conditions it will stain or even rust.

Cleaning a Stainless barrel should be done after shooting just as though it were a carbon steel barrel.

By the way. Those ads that say you don't have to clean a stainless barrel were written by the Advertising department, not the engineers that know about these things.

Not that Ad guys would tell untruths to sell a product but if they said a 3 legged dog was the "New, High Efficiency Model", it wouldn't surprise me.

 

[hanshi]

You're right. I remember when the S&W M60 Chief's Special first came out; really the first stainless production revolver. It was written up in The Gun Digest as a test of rust resistance. The writer managed to rust the h*#% out of one. Stainless steel (there are a number of formulations) is tough, alright, but not truly "rust proof".

 

[Vaino]

A while back I read an article w/ photos in some publication that compared the rusting of steel vs stainless steel. A plate of each steel had BP residue swabbed on and after some time, the rusting was analyzed. The steel plate had a shallow, uniform rust covering the entire plate surface but the stainless plate had random areas of rust which were fairly deep. The deeper random rust on the stainless plate was caused by the inconsistent alloying of chrome and steel and the rust attacked the steel areas. I don't remember the reason for the increased depth of rusting.....Fred

 

[R.M.]

There are so many grades and compositions of stainless, it's impossible to say that a certain barrel will be corrosion-proof. It all depends on the particular alloy.

 

[paulvallandigham]

"Stainless" does not mean " Stain PROOF!" There are all kinds of stainless steels, from the soft stuff you see being used for tableware- knives, forks, and spoons, to cheap bowls, and then on up to very expensive, and HARD steels with lots of chromium in the mix( alloy) that resist stains very well. Its unlikely that any barrel makers use the very best SS metals, as they are very hard to machine, and are therefore hard on tool bits. ( cutters.) Unless you know the EXACT alloy of steel that is being used to make a barrel, or other parts on a rifle, you are only guessing at what kind of stain resistance you are getting. :shocked2: :nono: :surrender: :thumbsup: