Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Barrel Life....Stainless or Blued????

You're right, I have no clue about game management. I prefer to hunt my game fair chase.

You win the game management (AKA high fance baited hunting) argument going away.

I'll just take my amateur ass and go chase deer the way I think is best, by hunting them on their turf, on their terms, where they are in charge of "management".




I've never even fired a rifle.





This is my favorite part of your last post. You wax eloquent (allegedly) about the moral decrepidness of high fence hunting, yet hunt behind a fence.

At least the signs are pretty and shiney!

We still don't know which one lasts longer, do we? Does resale value make a barrel wear faster or slower? Barrel makers have a vested interest, are they giving us an unbiased opinion? Benchrest shooters are like sheep, they follow the leader. If the leader wins with a stripe painted on his barrel they will all have stripes next week.

Now does anyone have a valid answer to the original question?

What was the question? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Bring on the imperical data! I mean empirical data.

I say CAS wins by a TKO the Ref needs to stop this it is too one sided

My imperical data is that I shot my SS Model 70 just over 3500 times before the barrel was throwing bullets at random. I keep a reloading journal for every shooting session and the total is scary accurate here.

3500 rounds in about 10 years is not all that much(for me)

Same rifle make in 300 weatherby, just over 2500 rounds with a Blued steel barrel, same problem throwing bullets every which way. After a rebarrel with a SS barrel I shot it 2500 times and sold it. The new owner had it for a few years and shot it an Estimated 1000 times, he does not keep records but made a "guesstimate" at this.

It would seem based only on this personal experience that the SS barrel shot about 27% more then the Blued Barrel. It may mean nothing at all but from what I have read so far it's the only factual presentation betwen the two so far.

Rust.....I suppose that is the benefit to living in Colorado....also, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, Utah...et....

Arid and Dry....gotta love it.

mowzer,

I don't have my notes in front of me, but just going from memory of a few 22-250 barrels I burned out, I found that stainless gave better accuracy, longer, but when it fell off it completely went to hell.

Chrome moly seemed to lose it's best accuracy quicker, but held decent accuracy after the stainless barrels had completely puked.

The last stainless one I nuked went from shooting under MOA to over 5 MOA in the span of one short range session.

I've had chrome moly barrels just hang in there, gradually opening up until I replaced them.

Nothing rusts here in Western Oregon. . . . . .

At least, I don't ever see any . . . . . . . .

Though there might be rust underneath the moss . . . . <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

BMT

Western Oregon has only two colors - EVERYTHING is GREEN and/or RUST.
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This is my favorite part of your last post. You wax eloquent (allegedly) about the moral decrepidness of high fence hunting, yet hunt behind a fence.

At least the signs are pretty and shiney! [/quote]


The fences are 5 to 7 strand depending on age barbed wire for cattle --- please tell me you are kidding and knew what that was even in Libatard Land you have fences. Well I think I know what your problem being a city slicker who thinks roughing it is no Starbucks. We will put you in the head gate and give you some worming medicine as you are acting a little wormy <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />!

When you are hunting high fence this is not an issue but make sure when you are in Texas you do not cross a fence that has a post with a purple stripe at least 1 inch wide and at least 8 inches long that is no lower than 3 feet and no higher than 5 feet. Also, do not shoot across property boundaries as the bullet is technically trespassing and you will be cited. If you do shoot an animal and it crosses the fence and you pursue without getting the landowners permission you will be cited and he can deny you access BTW. If you pursue the animal across the fence and take your weapon with you then it elevates to a Class C Misdemeanor which means likely jail time among other things. I have had to turn in people for this stuff before so make sure you are aware of "fences" and what they mean. I do love catching the people that poach---I have literally many times watched (I have an area on a large hill located on the power line easement that I can see for thousands of yards in some cases) a nice young 6,8 or even a 10 point walk or run buy with his nose to the ground where a doe had run by earlier only to hear the crack of a rifle a few minutes later.

Our ranch is ringed on 2 sides by lease hunters (guys like you) who put their stands up right along the fence but I usually let them listen to the diesel rattle by a coupe of times in the morning and the afternoon--it helps them to understand we are there. That�s the way it goes but it is fair chase after all.

I love Barnett Shale.

BossHoss,

You would not last 10 minutes in CAS's hunting grounds. (insert scene of bent over heavyset loudmouth Texan heaving and puffing on steep side of mountain here).

MtnHtr

I hunt Elk and Mule Deer in New Mexico (Cloudcroft) in-laws live there and in Colorado in a National Wilderness Area GMU 85 if you know what it means to hunt in that environment. Now speak to me again oh toothless one---your breath is the same but your voice has changed!
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Boss Hoss you may have some valid points in your argument,but you come off as a major A-hole!Just some constructive critizim from someone that's watching unbiased from the wings.

CAS, my ss factory barrel after those 3500 shots went very quickly as well. Unfortunately for me I was unaware of what had gone wrong because it occurred so fast. Nothing gradual about it.

I first swapped scopes, shot again no luck, checked stock screws, no luck shot again, checked rings and bases AGAIN! no luck, ran out of all ammo in stock at my place so I bought new brass, powder, primers bullets, checks everything under the sun and shot again, still no luck. I very likely put an additional 100 rounds through this thing trying to figure out what had happend. Finally off to Jong Ricks to fix it. He looked it over and said...... the barrel is "gone".

I would say my rifle went from perfect to horrible inside 25 shots. I suppose I prefer this to a gradual mess I would just put off. With this situation you have no option but rebarrel. If I only would have realized this before all the work I put in trying to figure it out. Who would have ever thought it would go that quickly? It was the first SS barrel I ever shot out though. The blued barrels seemed to just get worse over time and drag out. It was easier for me to realize the barrel was bad because of the gradual progression of poor accuracy.

This is what I truly love about the Internet, the ease with which we can obtain factual information in a flash, without the delays and slanted opinions so common in print media.

I have talked to a great many custom gunmakers and barrel makers, who universally recommend 416-series stainless for longer barrel life. How much longer the average stainless barrel will last depends very much on how hot it is shot, and the original quality of the barrel itself.

There's no doubt stainless is easier to care for in the field, but recently some new steel coatings have appeared on the scene that may make any barrel essentially care-free, both outside and inside. (I am fooling with one such barrel right now, and haven't made up my mind yet.)

The conditions under which stainless is much weaker than chrome-moly are VERY extreme, so many degrees below zero that most of us will never see them.

Whether the longer accuracy life of stainless this has anything to do with hunting rifles is another question. Most hunters can be considered lucky to shoot enough to ever wear out a barrel.

MD

Wow, it's been a LOOOOOOOOOOONG time since I have been acused of being a city slicker. Hell, I hate Starbucks, don't even really like coffee.

Here's the "high fence" operation that I hunt. This is just one small part fo the 16,000 acre ranch that I call my stomping grounds:




More of the "high fence" operation that I hunt out of state:





Since you seem to want people to think that you're a cowboy, you are probably familiar with the term, "All Hat, No Cattle". I think it applies well in your situation.

Have fun hunting those penned animals. If you really want to have some fun, I'll invite you to our slaughter this year. You can chase all the penned animlas you want and give them one behind the ear. Won't even break much of a sweat doing it. To make you feel at home, I will even pour a pile of corn in the middle of the pen so that they you can "set up" over it.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

MD
Good luck interjecting a voice of reason in the middle of this .
T

Let's get this back on track:



That is an asinine comment, posted by a mental midget who has only the benefit of his pathetically small frame of refernce.

You're wrong, you got called out. You then tried to buy your way out of the bet, and got bitch slapped. Since you're a stubborn sort, you then tried to reframe the argument by accusing me of something you yourself do (and clearly have a guilty conscience from it). Once again you were wrong.

Hey, just relax. Perhaps looking at your pretty, shiney signs will help.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Okay, trying to ask a question here without getting any of this piss flying around all over me.

Only have two stainless barrels which I haven't shot enough to worry about, but have had 5 custom C-M barrels from Pac-Nor as well as bunches of factory barrels. Currently I have an early 90's vintage .243 M700 with a throat so eroded I can't hardly reach the lands with a 100 grain bullet and still be in the case. Velocity is 150-200 fps lower than where it should be (2800-2850 instead of 3000) but accuracy is still superb, even with 85 and 75 grain bullets that have to take a long commute to get to the throat.

Anyway - on to the question. If stainless barrels go from good to bad in a relative instant, like over 25 rounds or one range session, what is the mechanism behind that? What is it that makes the barrel "bad"? Does the throat suddenly give way and chunks of throat flake? That doesn't make sense but again I've never worn out a stainless barrel so far.

BTW - no need to go through Barrels 101 here, I'm certainly familiar with the basics of accuracy. My main concern here is why the stainless barrels go from good to bad so fast when a c-m barrel apparently just slowly dies out.