Blued vs stainless

[northdude]

Whats your guys thoughts on blued vs stainless rifles as far as spooking game?

[No1Mk3]

Never saw the problem when I was younger and hunted through the Kaimanawas and up the Rangitaiki with a Ruger M77 paddle stock 308. Had hunted the area before with my Win 94 and don't believe the Ruger changed anything. Over here in Aus I have hunted Sambar, Pigs and Wallabies with the Ruger and don't feel it had any effect on the game either. Cheers.

[bigpete]

I think they're more likely to pay attention to the puffing,sweaty,noisy human carrying the firearm....

[Blr243]

Polished chrome barrel would not be advisable but they not exactly a thing and if u did take one hunting you deserve to have a dull day. Stainless is matt finish. I see no issues

[northdude]

Yea probably.. Was wondering if the stainless might stand out more like what happens with uv brighteners when you wash your cloths with it

[No1_49er]

Wrap it up with this stuff https://www.guncity.com/?q=camo%20tape
Should be one near you

[jwai86]

I have a tangentially related question. It's my understanding that stainless steel requires nearly the same level of cleaning and lubrication as blued steel as it is still capable of rusting. Is it worth the price premium?

[bigpete]

I have a tangentially related question. It's my understanding that stainless steel requires nearly the same level of cleaning and lubrication as blued steel as it is still capable of rusting. Is it worth the price premium?

To me its not. I specifically bought a stainless weatherby vanguard years ago because I believed it wouldn't rust,and it most certainly did ! Then again,my rossi 92 was stainless and that didn't rust. Probably wasn't used as hard as the vanguard though.

[rc42]

I thought the real benefit of stainless was how much prettier it looks, if only we could get scopes in stainless and not that cheap looking silver plastic to match.

Blued and stainless have similar resistance to corrosion and both need to be looked after as high humidity and a tiny amount of salt (even from the touch of a hand) will get them all eventually. Once you get a little corrosion starting and remove it the blued protection in that spot is gone but stainless is back to fully protected.

[Clint Ellison]

I don't reckon the stainless barrels on rifles these days would be reflective enough to spook to much. I've never had a problem with it and prefer a stainless or ceracoted barrel. It's much better then oiling your barrel every time you use the rifle in damp conditions

[teabagga]

The only disadvantage I can see of blued steel vs stainless is that blood will quickly damage the bluing on your rifle. Learnt the hard way, and as far as I know it won’t have the same effect on stainless, at least as quickly.

[Blr243]

When I was young enough to hunt tahr in New Zealand I remember After we climbed out of the valley floor we had to climb thu heavy green bush. Dark green. We called it the bush line. I absolutely hated it. Difficult to move thru. I could not wait to get out of it. , I liked the higher open rocks ice and tussock. It’s possible in the bush real dark green that a stainless might stand out more than a blued but I thin the weather resistance of the stainless would be really beneficial.. New Zealand equals WET ...

[Peterwho]

I think they're more likely to pay attention to the puffing,sweaty,noisy human carrying the firearm....

I resemble that remark

[animalpest]

Stainless will stand out more than blued. A matt finish will help. Otherwise we would all be walking around hunting with bright tin hats on

[Blr243]

Next time I go to cape York walking up the creeks I will dress up bright red and yellow Ronald mc Donald suit

[bladeracer]

I think they're more likely to pay attention to the puffing,sweaty,noisy human carrying the firearm....

I have learned never to stalk uphill

[duncan61]

The box I had my rifles stored in one winter was exposed to moisture for a few months.All rifles were in bags which may not of helped.This is the result
.7mm Remington Sendero 26 inch fluted S/S.A few spots of rust that polished off easy.I stripped it down and made sure I got the lot took 10 minutes
.222 Ruger lightweight 22 inch S/S plain.about the same as the 7mm in spots and took 10 minutes
.243 Howa blued steel 22 inch the entire bag was orange on the inside and I threw it out.I contemplated destroying the rifle however the receiver was not corroded at all and is a lot shinier than the barrel.When I calmed down I scoped the barrel inside and it was fine as I oil my barrels before storage and pull them through before using.I took it to where I was working and polished the barrel back to steel.I wished to do something different so I painted it camo with airfix paints I had in stock at the time and it is fine.My rifles are working tools I am not after flash looking stuff and am happy with the result.I do 95% night time culling so shine is not an issue.The SLR I was issued when I did the Tully battle school had most of the bluing missing of the bit of pressed steel that slides on the receiver and by 10.00AM staggering around in a rainforest it was showing signs of rusting.Fortunately the Corporal had seen me cleaning it that morning or my Sergeant would have had my butt and not in the nice way.I am sure a well blued rifle would stand up to a bit of weather but stainless is a lot less maintenance

[northdude]

Ive found my tikka is more prone to rusting over my howa which are both stainless and kept in the same safe

[NTSOG]

bigpete: "I specifically bought a stainless weatherby vanguard years ago because I believed it wouldn't rust, and it most certainly did !"

SS is used, for obvious reasons, in sailing, especially in the ocean. It was my understanding that SS itself does not rust, but other material may stick to the surface of SS and those particles may rust giving the appearance that the SS is rusting. I raced off-the-beach yachts for over 25 years and never saw rust on the SS fittings on any of my boats. It's 35 years since I last sailed, but I still have some leftover SS fittings in the garage and they are clean and shiny though having been sitting in a box all that time.

Jim

[bigpete]

bigpete: "I specifically bought a stainless weatherby vanguard years ago because I believed it wouldn't rust, and it most certainly did !"

SS is used, for obvious reasons, in sailing, especially in the ocean. It was my understanding that SS itself does not rust, but other material may stick to the surface of SS and those particles may rust giving the appearance that the SS is rusting. I raced off-the-beach yachts for over 25 years and never saw rust on the SS fittings on any of my boats. It's 35 years since I last sailed, but I still have some leftover SS fittings in the garage and they are clean and shiny though having been sitting in a box all that time.

Jim

It was definitely rust

[NTSOG]

G'day bigpete,

I found this article: https://www.rocheindustry.com/does-stai ... teel-rust/

It explains why SS can and does rust under certain conditions. Apparently it's far more common that I understood from my sailing experience and my use of SS in some other situations.

Jim

[bigpete]

I think they're more likely to pay attention to the puffing,sweaty,noisy human carrying the firearm....

I have learned never to stalk uphill

I don’t have much choice on one of my hunting blocks lol.

[Blr243]

Whe. We are kids we are taught that stainless steel does not rust. And we carry that info with us for decades until sooner or later we realise it does rust but stains less. Less rather than stains more. It was never called rust proof.

[Gamerancher]

There are different types of stainless steels, (about 100), it is corrosion "resistant" not corrosion proof. Steels with greater than 10.5% chromium are classed as stainless. The chemical make up determines the properties of the different types of stainless. A "marine" grade stainless, where the priority function is to resist corrosion has high Chromium and high Nickel content. The addition of Molybdenum greatly increases this grades resistance to corrosion.
The type most often used for gun barrels and actions needs to be relatively easy to machine and heat treatable for hardness and has a lower Chromium content, low Nickel content and a high Carbon content (0.8 - 2%) The addition of sulphur makes it easier to machine but is detrimental to corrosion resistance.

[Blr243]

I have a book somewhere it’s first chapter relates to metallurgy. It’s very involved technical and complex. Just browsing it lightly makes me realise how little I know about steel

[northdude]

Wrap it up with this stuff https://www.guncity.com/?q=camo%20tape
Should be one near you

theres a few near me. only problem would be Id probably have to open up the barrel channel more. was thinking duracoat might be worth a look

[No1_49er]

Not necessary to open up the barrel channel at all.
If you're only getting rid of the reflectivity, it's only necessary to cover the parts that are exposed to the view of the outside world leaving what is in the channel "naked".

[deye243]

If you build a firearm out of 316 stainless you won't have any rust problems but the downside is you will more than likely have some structural issues problems most firearm stainless Steels are 4000 or 5000 series they are not meant to or were intended to be weatherproof .

[Barbarian]

Grew up shooting blued firearms exclusively, when I went to buy my first hunting rifle I got a stainless Tikka against my old man's advice and after it began to rust it's been sitting pretty with a good coat of FDE Cerakote which handles the wet much better. I've also never had a problem with any of the rifles I've painted with duracoat, or krylon before finishing up with the matte rust-oleum clear.

End of the day, there is no free lunch.

[mickb]

I never really cared whether something was blued or stainless regards to hunting or weather resistance. I admit stainless looks pretty on some guns though