Quoted: I wish an expert would step in here. I think the problem is that stainless steel isn't as hard as moly steel. I know it's much tougher to sharpen a stainless blade than a good carbon steel blade. Stainless steel is tougher, and is slightly more corrosion resistant than other steels. For any real technical answers we need someone who knows more than me. I know a chrome-moly barrel is usually more accurate than a stainless barrel. I assume it is because it is stiffer but I don't know.
Jim
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The reason a Stainless blade is harder to sharpen is because it's usually harder than carbon steel, hence once it's sharpened it stays sharp longer.]
As far accuracy I have two stainless barrels that I'll put up against a carbon steel barrel any day, one is on a Winchester Heavy Varmint in .308, and the other is a J&T heavy varmint upper in 1 X 8. Both are sub-moa.
Quoted:
They are really shiny in bright sunlight unless they are coated black.
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Stainless can be had in any color, look at the slides on Sig pistols.
Quoted: The biggest problem is when you use an aggressive copper solvent it can leach out the copper Ions from the SS resulting in pitting. Stuff like sweets and the like should not be left in the BBL if used but cleaned immediately. I tried it several years ago with an old SS BBL I had given to me. I used sweets 7.62 and left it in overnight for 2 nights swabbing it out the next day and reapplying more sweets. I did notice pitting that I had not seen before tho it was very small. I had cleaned the bore before I did this so it was not pitting that had been covered. [I think]
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Ammonia will do that to most steel, it's called "Crazing", the ammonia attacks the steel, after an extended period of time, leaving microscopic pits. Which leads to increased leading, copper fouling.
Special-K, I'm not sure if Chrome lining is more resistant to heat than SS is. My thinking on the subject would be, maybe. The advantage would lie in the throat area of the barrel. Perhaps since Chromium is harder than SS, you might gain a miniscule amount in reduced throat erosion. Though that may have to do with hardness rather than heat. But I would think the advantage would be hard to notice. Just my .02, YMMV.