What's Your Favorite Metal

[Hickory]

In the world of rifles, handguns and muzzle loaders
what is your favorite metal, chrome moly or stainless steel?

[white eagle]

mine would be lead [smilie=w::castmine:
no in all seriousness :mrgreen:
really depends on the rifle wood I seem to prefer crome moly blued
and with the plastics s/s seems to fit them well
handguns depends on the gun
both trip my trigger :bigsmyl2:

[Whitworth]

Heavy Metal of course.....:mrgreen:

[longranger]

Love good old fashioned blue to look at,but prefer stainless steel for shooters.It's just easier to clean and put back to pristine condition.

[S.R.Custom]

With half the coefficient of friction of Stainless Steel, Blued Steel makes for vastly superior fit, finish, and smoothness of action.

[Jack Stanley]

I much prefer chrome moly steel , though I have shot nice examples of that silver looking stuff .

Jack

[9.3X62AL]

No stainless long guns (yet), but more than 20% of my handguns are in stainless steel. I think stainless has some potential advantages when carried frequently close to one's body in hot climates.

Some of that is offset by my desert home environment and its lack of high humidity. It isn't difficult to keep a blued gun in good condition with minimal care in this climate, barring perspiration exposure as above.

Aesthetically, I have no issues with stainless firearms. NVCurmudgeon has a stainless Rem 700 variant in 260 Remington that is among the most beautiful rifles I've ever laid eyes on. It's a gorgeous machine.

I think the corrosion-resistant qualities of S/S outweigh the metallurgic disadvantages of the material. That is a trade-off, NOT a win/win. Much of my LEO time and hunting/shooting was and is done in very hot conditions where perspiration is constant, or afield in rain and snow. S/S is less critically in need of maintenence than chrome-moly or carbon steels during such times, though I'm still in the habit of wiping them dry and re-establishing CLP on the metal at the end of the day.

[That'll Do]

It is hard for me to decide. On one hand, a bead blasted stainless gun looks wonderful, but then again, so does the luster of a highly polished, blued gun.

What I *really* like are two tone guns, particularly 1911s. I'm a sucker for a blued slide and hard chromed frame. :mrgreen: I'm drooling at the thought of one!

[Moonie]

I like stainless on my revolvers, bolt guns and semi auto rifle barrels, blue 1911 and shotguns.

[Tom W.]

I like stainless for my handguns, and I have one rifle that's stainless..

[winelover]

Stainless, since I have twice as many than blue.

Winelover

[redgum]

With half the coefficient of friction of Stainless Steel, Blued Steel makes for vastly superior fit, finish, and smoothness of action.
I have heard the same thing many times over. I'm not a metalugist, but My son is a toolmaker by trade. I prefer Blued Steel & timber, but stainless definitely has it's place in today's world. You'd go a long long way to find a gun I didn't like regardless of what it was made of. There are so many more important factors to be considered in my opinion
(my .02)

[Markbo]

What is this either/or thinking.

I like 'em both! :-P

[Heavy lead]

At 44 years old, I still have 3, 4 maybe decades to go on my tests, I'll letcha all know.

[fecmech]

High polish blue like the older Smiths and Colts hands down!

[DeanWinchester]

I have more SS guns than blued. I have more Aluminum than blued for that matter, BUT I like the look of a blued gun far more.

[rugerdude]

Stainless has its place and I do like it in some of my guns.

However, when it comes down to which I like more, blued steel wins every time!

Its just hard to beat that deep, rich blue like S&W and Colt used to turn out.

[44man]

I love them all! Blue is wonderful but I have grown to also love stainless so all my big bore revolvers and one Mark II are stainless.
I am lazy and HATE cleaning so most of my revolvers never get cleaned for a year or more except dirty bearing parts like the cylinder pins, etc, so I can put new lube on.
When stainless guns first came out they had a galling problem because they tried to use the same stainless for all parts. They found changing the alloy for each part cured it.
In the end it is always how the gun shoots, not how it looks.
I think the finest looking gun I ever seen was the Marlin stainless guide gun in 45-70. [smilie=w:

[Thin Man]

For rifles and muzzle loaders, chrome moly, blued. I was in the PA deer woods many years ago and saw something "white color" moving through the woods a great distance away. Through binoculars I saw the light reflection was coming from the stainless steel barrel and action of a hunter's rifle. Since that day I have discounted stainless for any firearm I would carry hunting. I don't want to be mistaken for being "in season" by an anxious hunter.

For handguns, either chrome moly or stainless steel.

Thin Man