My barrel is a Spikes Tactical barrel with a phosphate finish. It has become more and more grey in color after each range day. It almost appears chalky. Normal?

Apply a thin coat of oil.  

When my little brother first got his BFI M4gery, he brought it to me to show him how to maintain it.  I told him, "This here Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber cleans real good.  Only problem is, if you get it on the finish it'll strip it to the white metal".  As I finished the sentence, I let loose with the BCGS on his receiver.  When the oil is removed, it looks whitish.  He nearly fell over.  I laughed while wiping the metal down with an oily rag.  He didn't find it funny.

Ahh, that makes sense. I probably burned off the oil from getting the barrel hot. Do you have any recommendation for what kind of oil? Are we talkin' hoppes or motor oil?

The most heat-tolerant oil I have found is FireClean. Since you';re concerned about color, use that. It will stay wet (black) the longest. Is it cheap? No. but I have used mine to free up all sorts of carboned shit from a Noveske Switchblock, to the gummed up threads on a used SWR .22 rimfire suppressor barrel-nut-adapter. It absolutely slaughters carbon. I have not used it enough for other things to speak honestly about it, but FireClean is what I would put on something that was destined for heat.

Cerakote it?

I suppose that's an option too. From my understanding of cerakote, it is something better left to a shop/professional to do. Is that your understanding as well?

Is your muzzle device pinned? If not, parkerizing with magnesium phosphate is super, super easy to do.

It is not pinned. What info do you have?

Light coat of regular old gun oil will do the trick.

After range session and cleaning, I pull off the hand

guards and lightly coat all the barrel I can reach,

front sight, gas tube, just about every surface I can

get to.

Yes, it burns off at next session, but it's cheap and works.

My personal opinion: If you want it a different color, make it a different color.





I have a few rifles that I admit are safe queens and I care what they look like.  The rest... I really don't care what color the barrel or muzzle device is, so long as it's not a bright, loud color.





Of course, they are all black anyway.

 

Parkerizing Supplies

Sorry, I made a typo; I meant to say Manganese Phosphate which produces a dark grey to black parkerizing. The Zinc Phosphate is supposed to produce a light grey parkerizkng. I used Manganese Phosphate, so I do not have personal experience with the zinc. You can order a 16oz bottle of Manganese Phosphate for $19 from Brownell's; and 14oz of managanese phosphate in 114oz of distilled water makes a gallon of solution. Use two rifle bore plugs to plug your muzzle and chamber, then have the barrel sand blasted to produce the best finish. I'd also sand blast inside the barrel extension.

You need a propane burner or propane grill to heat up the manganese phospahte and distilled water solution to around 190-195*F. You'll need a stainless steel pan to lay your barrel in, and a stainless steel thermometer to monitor your solutions temp. Also, need a fine steel wool pad that you place in the solution before the barrel. The initial information I found on the net that is more detailed then my explanation, and there are some Youtube Videos. I notice you have put out videos, and maybe a parkerizing video may be in your future..hint, hint. Once your solution reaches the temp. listed in the instructions, you lay your barrel in the solution; and let the magic begin. I think it took 10-20 minutes to parkerize the muzzle of my 41V50 chromoly vanadium barrel. I only had to parkerize the threaded end of my barrel that I had cut and rethreaded, but the process is the same.

Also, get a pan that is just wide enough and long enough to place the barrel in to use the least amount of solution that still covers the barrel. After the parkerizing is finished doing its chemical reaction; I just ran my barrel under tap water for several minutes to stop the chemical reaction.

how does the water get to 400 degrees without evaporating away?

ok, the minimum is 120 degrees, the max is 160 degrees and the target temp is 140 degrees (F)

Thanks for the correction in temps; I was trying to remember the numbers when I used my neighbor's parkerizing solution to do my muzzle 6 months ago. I did some digging online after seeing your post, and found the directions for Brownell's Product. It seems the temp range you had given (120-160) is when aging the solution before the parkerizing begins. When parkerizkng; it is instructing to maintain the solution at 190-195*F, but not to reach 210*F due to this is the boiling point.

Brownell's Manganese and Zinc Parkerizing Instructions

You can discolor park finish with your skin given enough heat.  I was more concerned about my arm at the time.  But  yes, indeed, the flashhider was slightly stained.  

Took almost a decade for the impression to fade......uh.......from my arm.  Oil and another thousand rounds or so took care of the stain on the FH.  Sam

Not normal, that looks like shit. I have two spikes barrels and their as black as your other two rifle barrels in the pics.

High-temp black grill paint.