Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Stainless Steel and Temperatures less than zero degrees?

I skimmed through the "Which Barrel is best" thread in the ask the gun writers forum and decided to look at the Krieger web site. In the Calibers and prices page there is the following line at the bottom of the page: "It is inadvisable to use stainless steel in very cold temperatures, i.e. less than zero degrees."

Only one question, Why? I'm in the thinking stages of a parts gun project and had thought of using stainless steel in a gun that would go up north. That line got me scratching my head.

Scott

It's bullschitt for the most part. Plenty of folks in the north using SS barrels in light contours.

MtnHtr

Any thoughts as to why? I doubt Krieger would just put up a statement based on opinion or preference. May have to email them and get it from them. I suspect there are quite a few SS rigs running around AK and Canada.

Scott

That pretty much sums it up. For better and worse Krieger takes those minuscule chances to heart. They also won't throat separate from chambering.

Guess it depends on which barrel maker you want to go with. Here is what Dan Lilja has to say.

Dan Lilja

It's been stated by others the owner is pushing that weird policy, although their employees don't necessarily agree with it.

MtnHtr

FWIW, I've hunted a lot in cold temperatures. A bison at -44 degrees with a hot-loaded 300Wby and a stainless barrel for instance. Lots of deer and coyote hunting at -20 and -30 degrees. I think it's a bunch of hooey.

Back when I was working on nuke plants this was standard stuff, not to pressurize unless the pressure vessel and system were above the Nil Ductility Transition Temperature -- temperature where the steel becomes brittle. I have not seen any published limits for the steels used in barrels, but that would be the source of Krieger's limit.

jim

I have to ask the question a different way...

Why would a barrel company make a barrel in a condition they believed was disfunctional or destructible at temperatures below zero Fahrenheit? That seems pretty silly, at least in North America.

Dennis

Upon building my custom I came across the same question with Kreiger because I wanted a #3 contour in SS, and kreiger only would sell me a chrome-moly. Krieger loses so much business because the owner refuses to sell SS and believes CM is better for frigid temps,ect.

After speaking with guys here, and couple top gunsmith's, I decided not to buy CM because it will inherit rust & corrosion quicker {Although Kreiger told me to just keep oil on it at all times}. I hunted in northern SK {25 below 0}in 2005 and my SS Tikka shot accurate and never had a problem,plus no surface rust!

I like SS. Do a google search and will find lots of info on the subject.

This topic has been discussed here before, and now, as then, it is a fact that martensitic stainless steels exhibit reduced ductility at lower temperatures.

HunterJim and Journeyman,

What you all and Krieger are saying is when it's below zero degree's Fahrenheit stainless steel barrels become more brittle than they would be at 75 degrees and that certain contours could be unsafe because of the change in the physical characteristics of the barrel?

I'll use the search function and try not to rehash old arguments.

Scott

I work in a plant where we make liquified natural gas, all the piping for cryogenics is stainless. This ranges from -230 degrees F to -250 degrees F. Pressures are nowhere near what a gun barrel sees but I also know that we cannot use regular iron pipe for cryogenics because it will crack. So I am a little confused by these statements. I am not an engineer either so maybe there is more to this.

Stainless is a pretty broad term that covers many formulations of steel having different physical characteristics.

x2 what RickF said. All my rifles are eiher factory Sako / Tikka ss barrels or 2 PacNor ss barrels. No problems here in northern Alberta hunting big game. Took my cow elk last year @ -33 degree Celcius with my Tikka T3 LS 270WSM with factory barrel.

All I know is that Remington, Ruger, and also Shilen make barrels from stainless steels which work really well when cooled way down. That includes the skinny Model Sevens from Rem as well as deep and squarely fluted Shilens. And I suspect 90 grains of propellant in the 340 ought to get the pressures "up there" as enough of a test.

Agreed, but I wanted to know about rifle barrels. I'll let someone with more metallurgy knowledge worry about nuclear reactors and high pressure tanks!

i think kreiger is OVERLY cautios.

they will not make a bbl in ss smaller than a #5,
just about every other major mfg does.

i have never seen that warning anywhere else either...have you?

What I'm saying is that martensitic stainless steels show decreased ductiliy at lower temperatures. Krieger is saying THEIR barrels shouldn't be used below zero.

And no - this is due to mechanical properties, not physical...

Yes, I have - in every mechanics of materials text I've ever perused, on Boots Obermeyer's (the "Dean of Barrel Makers") site, as well as Krieger's, and on Crucible Metals (who provide the majority of 416 barrel steel) site...