Stainless barrel on blue action?

[tontotom]

I'm thiniking of putting an aftermarket barrel on an action I have that is blue. Will there be any galvanic corrossion problems with dissimilar metals? I'm sure it's been done before, how long would this last before it rusts?

 

Also, how do ER Shaw barrels compare to other custom barrels for accuracy? Never done this before so I'm full of questions.

[jeffro]

blued action with a SS barrel is not a problem at all.

 

If it were me, and my money I would go with one of the top barrel makers.

[DesertBull]

I'm sending my 7mm to Kevin Cram at Montour County Rifles to have a Brux SS barrel put on a blued action. He told me it is a common thing to do.

[cbryant11]

my weatherby accumark was factory stainless barrel and blue action

[jeffro]

Some actually say that CM is better due to the fact that it is stronger/harder.

[roninflag]

if i was putting the time and money to get a barrel installed i would a get a krieger or equivalent

[.270]

farkiller has a stainless barrel and blue action. well, some of the blue is left on it, but i have a skinny barrel which means i don't know anything, so i guess i don't know if it's ok or not. the gunsmith says it's ok, but he might be a moron too. so i guess i ain't much help. Lark.

[sjvcon]

blued action with a SS barrel is not a problem at all.

 

If it were me, and my money I would go with one of the top barrel makers.

 

+1 on going with a top barrel maker. Krieger would get my vote, but there are tons of others to be sure.

[AntlerObsession]

+1 on the SS Krieger. If you're in the valley, Steve Crooks is a great gunsmith who does his work out of Chandler/Mesa. I've been amazed time and time by what he knows about rifles. A great guy to talk to, also! I'm sure he would love to answer any questions you might have. Try him @ 480.491.1770.

[tontotom]

Thanks to all for the reply, even you Lark.

 

Chrome moly had many good qualities but it doesn't hold up to heat like stainless.

[.270]

who told you that? chrome-moly steel is what the tubes in the highest temperature areas of a powerplant boiler are made of because they can handle extreme heat and pressure better than anything else. there's nothing wrong with stainless, if it's the right kind. but it will still corode, erode, burn out, gall, foul, collect copper, anything bad a steel barrel will do. but chrome-moly will take heat and a lot of it. much more than you can ever induce into one by shooting it. and every bit as much as any stainless steel made. i had a stainless schnieder barrel installed on my .300. i forget the compound tho. they make the barrels in payson and they are without peer in my opinion. they have an excellent reputation and are used exclusively by some pretty discriminating shooters. like david tubb and every military sniper in the country. take a look at them before you decide. stainless is pretty neat because it doesn't get rusty, that you can see, and they stay nice and shiny, but they are susceptable to the same problems as carbon steel, and in some cases more so. some stainless steels get tore plum up by salt. they have these new stainless steels really figured out. used to be stainless had little or no carbon in it, but now they've developed these new high carbon stainless compounds that give it more stiffness, improve the machinability dramatically, and make it more heat resistant. stainless is good stuff, if you take care of it, just like a carbon steel barrel. if you abuse it, it is gonna give you heck, just like carbon steel. there are a lot of really well made barrels. i really like the old douglas premiums and have never had one that i wasn't satisfied with. but they are way down on the scale of barrels these days. most barrels are capable of shooting better than most shooters are capable of making them shoot. if you put it on a rifle with a crummy action or trigger, don't do good a job of chambering and installing it and can't figure out what kind of ammo it likes best, you'll probably have run of the mill success at best. do everything right, and just about any barrel you choose will do very well. Lark.

[tontotom]

Maybe at Salt River the finishing and reheat are 2-1/4 chrome but at TEP I can assure you they are Stainless Steel. This is what prompted my question. We have to weld a dis-similar metal union between the two metals to prevent galvanic corrosion.

 

You must know I would never question your knowlege of your plant but stainless (316) has a much high heat tolerance in high temperature and pressure applications than chromemoly.

 

So what kind of thin barrel does "Farkiller" have?

[billrquimby]

There was a chrome moly barrel on my first .270. It was a J.C. Higgins Model 50 built on an FN Mauser action. Sears was offering it on a special sale that included a Sears 6X scope and two boxes of ammo, all for $89. I still was in college and had to put it on layaway and pay in installments.

 

I used that rifle to take six or seven of Arizona's ten big game animals and also for two summers of competing in a siluetas metalicas league in Sonora in the late 1960s. I probably fired 2,000 to 2,500 rounds through that barrel before I retired the rifle and started fooling with other calibers.

 

If I ever draw another elk tag, I may use that rifle again.

 

Bill Quimby

[.270]

you brand x'ers do things wierd. i've never heard of galvanic corosion in a weld. sometimes you get internal cavitation caused by the turbulence, chemistry and temperature of whatever the pipe is transporting. if you don't have a good smooth internal root weld it can cavitate on the downstream side of the weld along the heat affected area of the weld. i'm not sure if it causes an electric charge, which is what galvanic corrosion is, but i guess it could. galvanic corrosion is what happens when two pieces of metal are connected mechanically, like being bolted or clamped. the metals will cause an electric charge between them and can eventually corrode the area where they touch. it actually makes a simple battery. even like metals will do it, but on a lesser scale. depending on the type of metal and what kind of environment they have between them, like any kind of acid, the amount of reaction you get varies. alluminum and copper tear each other up in a hurry. usually the weaker metal corrodes a lot quicker than the other. even steel on steel will have some galvanic reaction, but it is very, very small and shouldn't ever be a big problem. same with stainless on carbon. they are quite stable together. i've seen a lot of titanium actions with steel and stainless barrels and they seem to be ok together too. i don't think you should ever have to worry about galvanic corrosion between your barrel and action.

 

chrome moly will take 1000 degrees day in and day out, year after year. infinitely more than you'll every do to a rifle barrel. so will a lot of stainless steel. pendants and superheaters are usually some form of stainless more for the external heat and ash erosion they are blasted with, than for the amount of heat and pressure they have internally.

 

read my post again and you'll see what kind of barrel i bought. it's a schnieder, made in payson. i don't know a lot about barrels, so i used the experience of some guys i figgerd did, like david tubb and the marines. they use schneider's exclusivley. and i had it installed by a real good smith. just the barrel and action work cost more than a new sendero. it'll do 3/4 inch at 200 regular as sunup with me shooting it. 1/2 inch sometimes at 200. mu kid shot several 1/2 inch groups at 300, but any good barrel with a good load will do real well too. if the shooter can make it do it. Lark.

[Blade53]

You guys are makin my head hurt, you build it and i'll start it up.....Dan