Question on Barrel Material

[bsekf]

I bought a used barrel....... always a crap shoot....... I rolled snake eyes and have an expensive tomato stake.

It is a moly barrel and, although shiney, very badly pitted. Really looked good to the naked eye, but was a mess with the bore scope. Even had some of the edges of the land eaten away. It must have been put away dirty in a damp place, however, the exterior is in excellent condition, no sign of surface rust or repair of such.

My question, Would a stainless steel barrel have survived the same treatment? Is stainless more resistant to pitting and/or corrosion than moly?

Right now, I am soured on used barrels. They are going to have to be cheap and have an inspection period.

Bill

 

[Bindi2]

They are second hand for a very good reason. Shot out worn out wont shoot a group the list goes on . Go and buy a new one and leave the tomato stacks in some elses safe.

 

[Stan Taylor]

Properly stored chrome moly will stay safe for year's if oiled good stainless is more forgiving to conditions I still oil the bores on stainless also.

 

[Shawnba67]

Improperly stored stainless will rust over the weekend! Barrel stainless is different than kitchen stainless.(I assume that this is repeatable and not Gods way of pointing out my stupidity.)

 

[velocette]

Improperly stored stainless will rust over the weekend! Barrel stainless is different than kitchen stainless.(I assume that this is repeatable and not Gods way of pointing out my stupidity.)

Stainless steel is not stainless, nor is it corrosion free. Depending upon the type / alloy, it has widely varying degrees of resistance to corrosion. It is more resistant to corrosion than carbon steel but still will corrode.
Austinitic (with varying percentages of chromium and nickel and almost non magnetic) is usually more corrosion resistant than Ferritic (with Chromium only or very small percentages of nickel and somewhat magnetic). Austinitic is not usually used for barrels but is common as noted above in kitchen ware.

 

[rogn]

My limited non technical opinion is that the more like rubber a SS is the less likely it is to show signs of corrosion- think back to the big box store cutlery- you cant sharpen it but it wont rust. Hardly ever!. Very little demonstartion of magnetism. The SS that has more of the character of higher strength steel will show corrosion or rusting fairly readily. Good example being some marine/ OB propellers. Hard tough steel but given a damp environ will show rapid discoloration and corrosion especially in scratches or other "crevices". These items show magnetism similar to carbon steels.

 

[ebb]

Yes stainless steel is stain-less not stain proof.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

How does it shoot? Forget the borescope.

 

[hoz53]

I bought a used barrel....... always a crap shoot....... I rolled snake eyes and have an expensive tomato stake.

It is a moly barrel and, although shiney, very badly pitted. Really looked good to the naked eye, but was a mess with the bore scope. Even had some of the edges of the land eaten away. It must have been put away dirty in a damp place, however, the exterior is in excellent condition, no sign of surface rust or repair of such.

My question, Would a stainless steel barrel have survived the same treatment? Is stainless more resistant to pitting and/or corrosion than moly?

Right now, I am soured on used barrels. They are going to have to be cheap and have an inspection period.

Bill

sorry about the bad experience. i never buy used barrels unless they are really cheap (50 or under) for this reason. if im going to spend the time effort and money to chamber one its worth it to me to buy a new barrel to give me the best chances. i do make some barrels into ar 15 blaster barrels after there not good for much else. wat dis the seller tell you about the barrel?

 

[Ray B]

I recall when S&W came out with stainless revolvers, there was a big push to cashier the M19 and get 66s with the idea that they were carefree. a few of the officers learned that while 66s were care-less, they weren't care-free. Instead of "rusting" they "corroded". Likely same sort of thing with a barrel.

 

[joshb]

Like Dusty said. How does it shoot?
I treat all my guns the same. Stainless or moly. Better safe than sorry.
I bought my last "lightly used" barrel last year. I'm a slow learner. I figured I was safe buying a 30br barrel. Nobody's EVER burned up a 30br, right? Well, it's chambered with a long freebore and useless to me. Lesson learned. Now, I won't even buy a new barrel if it's been chambered.

 

[22DASHER]

One of my best shooting rifles has one of the worst looking bores that I have ever seen. I was absolutely shocked when I looked through it and I just about ordered a new barrel. But I stuck with it and it still shoots great! On a side note I sell all barrels with an inspection period because I will no longer buy one myself without it.

 

[bsekf]

Dusty, Not worth a darn! That's why I borrowed the bore scope.

It's a 6 PPC and I've got it shooting MOA. But expected .5MOA from that chambering and after all the testing I did. The bore scope showed me why I was having trouble.

I got to wondering if barrel material might be a substitute for poor care, hence the question.

It is on a night coyote rifle, so 2 inches at 200 is marginable. I just like to know that I missed, not the rifle.

Bill

 

[riflewoman]

I bought a used barrel....... always a crap shoot....... I rolled snake eyes and have an expensive tomato stake.

It is a moly barrel and, although shiney, very badly pitted. Really looked good to the naked eye, but was a mess with the bore scope. Even had some of the edges of the land eaten away. It must have been put away dirty in a damp place, however, the exterior is in excellent condition, no sign of surface rust or repair of such.

My question, Would a stainless steel barrel have survived the same treatment? Is stainless more resistant to pitting and/or corrosion than moly?

Right now, I am soured on used barrels. They are going to have to be cheap and have an inspection period.

Bill

Rather than using it to hold up vegetables, have you considered reboring it?

It might make a nice 6.5 Creedmoor.

 

[msalm]

I’ve used a lot of take off high power barrels to build shorter hunting and AR barrels. Shot out 6.5x284’s were pretty ugly for the first few inches of bore, but cut 3-4” off and a new chamber in 6.5 Grendel on an AR they shot incredibly well...1/2MOA was expected.

 

[msinc]

I'm not saying you don't have reason to be upset, I want my bores to be and look as close to perfect if at all possible too. I have an old {like from 1905 or so} 1893 Marlin 30-30 Takedown Deluxe. The bore is not good to look at with a borescope. In fact, even with the naked eye it looks polygonal. It's what a gun jockey or "broker" would call "dark". It has so many little fine pits that it looks like some idiot parkerized it and the chemical was a little on the strong side. In spite of all that, it will shoot just fine, to the point that I wont change the barrel unless I luck onto one that is just like new. It's perfect on the outside and the rifle is pretty for it's age. To kick me in the tail just one more time, I swear to god it does not copper up at all, ya' get that??? No copper!!!!
What's sad is that in the last 4 or 5 years I have had some brand new factory hunting rifles that wont shoot. In fact, they shoot like I would expect this old Marlin to and they have a perfect looking bore!!!! Go figure.
I remember when I first got this old Marlin...the outside looked so mint I just couldn't wait to get it in the shop and take a look at that 100 year old cut rifling and see 'how it was done back in the day"....imagine my surprise!!!!