Opinions on SS rifles overall

25 years ago or so I tried a few stainless steel firearms and I didn't much care for them. They always felt crunchy in the action. I have owned and carried stainless handguns due to sweat/rust issues, but I never enjoyed shooting them. There is a feel to a nicely blued rifle that I like and I love maintaining them- cleaning a gun is like a tranquilizer to me. (Weird, huh) Recently, it crossed my mind that I haven't tried a stainless rifle in decades. Have they gotten better? Aside from easier maintenance, do you like the way they feel and operate? I am assuming they shoot as well as blued rifles do. Feel free to recommend one if I am missing something.

Some are for sure. I like my model 16 6.5 creedmoor. But recently acquired a model 12 22-250 built on a single shot action and that puppy is smooth! It may have been trued because this thing is sweet.

I like the old wood stock blue barrel until I'm deer hunting in the front of a major storm and getting snowed or rained on. Sure enough sooner or later you get rust. But you also get better barrel life too.

I have a couple older stainless rifles and cant understand what you mean by crunchy? I am very satisfied with the ones I have including my stainless pistols etc. Could you explain what real problem you had? Any gun that has roughness in it can be polished or lapped smooth as glass. Look at almost all the bench guns out there with stainless actions and barrels plus ss triggers.

If any of my actions could be described as feeling "crunchy", it would be the non-stainless ones with the black rough coating on them. They take a while to smooth out. My stainless actions have been pretty smooth from the start. Mine are four years old and two years old, and neither appeared to be bead blasted.

The "slickest" action I have right now is a single shot SS Model 12 varmint (not PTA) action that I just moved my 6WSM barrel over too. hoping to get tot he range tomorrow and try her out with some new loads.

I can't see any reason why blued or stainless would have anything to do with the way the action feels? likely they are both machined on the exact same tooling. I have never notice any difference handling like rifles on the rack. I have a 116 stainless, I concede it is not the smoothest action designed, but this one is as smooth as your typical 110/10, blued or SS.

Crunchy wasn't a good choice of words. They all felt like they had a metallic stickiness, a hesitation to move smoothly. It was more noticeable in the handguns than the 2-3 rifles that I shot. It appears that my attitude may have been shaped by a few guns that weren't of the best workmanship, so I applied my experience to the metal rather than the factories. I remember a S&W Model 66 as the most obvious case. I'll go try some stainless again with an open mind.

I know SS materials in general have improved quality in the last half century. From what I have read, back in the 60s and earlier they just had too many problems working the SS to make a reliable firearm and as materials improved you started seeing their use in firearms more often. I would say in 3 decades the material grade options and quality have improved overall and that has transferred over to the gun world.

As for pistols I had a Taurus Model 44 in polished SS with an 8-3/8" barrel in 44 Mag that was smooth and crisp and shot great.

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Originally Posted by bootsmcguire

I know SS materials in general have improved quality in the last half century. From what I have read, back in the 60s and earlier they just had too many problems working the SS to make a reliable firearm and as materials improved you started seeing their use in firearms more often. I would say in 3 decades the material grade options and quality have improved overall and that has transferred over to the gun world.

As for pistols I had a Taurus Model 44 in polished SS with an 8-3/8" barrel in 44 Mag that was smooth and crisp and shot great.

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^ this.
My '80's vintage stainless S&W model 657 .41 Mag. is smooth as glass. Very accurate too.

There is a very real diference between a traditional blued metal surface and a SS factory finish surface. In the process of blueing, the 'pores' of the metal, and any imperfections or machining marks are filled and a glass like surface is created on top of the metal itself. A Stainless surface can be polished to achieve just such a surface but it is different in that the 'pores' and imperfections are reduced by removing metal during the polish process itself in addition to the compound filling in microscopic aberations. As to how they feel, pick up a barrel that has been bead blasted, one that is factory finished SS and one that has a good quality gloss blue finish. Thinking out loud again, pay no attention to man behind the curtain. kb

I'm real happy with my 2013 Savage 12 F-Class. It has a bead-blasted SS heavy barrel and SS action. Also had a ~ 1988 Ruger 44 Redhawk, a ~ 1991 Ruger 22 pistol and a ~ 2006 Springfield Armory 1911 all in stainless steel, and not a single complaint on the metallurgy of any of them.

SS should be more resistant to flame erosion, they say.

I got a Savage 220 slug gun (20 ga rifled barrel bolt action) and it was stainless steel. The dorks at the factory bead blasted the outside of the barrel and the inside and outside of the action and the outside of the bolt body !!!!!!!! Holy moly, it was rougher than any AK that I had handled and being a long action it was really quite difficult to cycle the bolt hard enough to properly eject the empty shell and pick up the next one. The factory also "forgot" to install my ejector, which is a blade type that is held in with the sear pin. Had to get them to send me one after we exchanged photographs and fit it myself. These totally unnecersary quality issues tells one how out of touch management is with what goes on at the factory floor at Savage.

I ended up having to lap the bolt rails in the action with 800 grit wet/dry paper on a wooden holder sized to be a snug fit, then the rear cylindrical guide with a dremel and a polishing wheel and some compound and finally had to "knock off" the high spots from the media blast on the bolt body with 800 grit wet/dry, followed by some more polishing with the dremel and compound.

It was never as smooth as a blued example that I tried (that was before they went to the "matt" finish on the blueing, I imagine they were all equally bad after that), but with the judicious use of some grease in the reciever and on the bolt, at least it was functional. I used it 1 season and decided the ammo for it was so obscenely expensive for just 2 weeks a year, it made no sense so I traded it. There is no practical way to reload that kind of slug ammo either. I looked into it and again it made no sense for 2 weeks a year. I now use my ML during the 2 week season, and also have a TC Contender pistol in 44 magnum that I am learning to use.

Back when Ruger began making stainless M77s, a friend who also had a blued one bought a stainless and reported to me he felt the stainless action was a bit rougher. I never could feel a difference, and I'd bet that with a blindfold and gloves on no one else could, either.

I prefer blued and wood guns myself...a couple years ago I was in the market for a 270 WSM...being a lefty they were hard to come by. I came across a Tikka T3 Stainless Lite in left hands and bought it on the spot....it was the only stainless gun I owned at the time. The action on that thing is smooth as butter (actually one of the nicest actions I own)....other than that, I don't own any rifles with stainless actions...do have a stainless barrel on my 257 Roberts AI (but it's on a Rem 700 action).

Most SS barrels and actions these days are made with 416 or higher stainless which is much higher quality than anything 20 years ago. Almost all Match grade barrels are Stainless these days as they are more accurate, especially with cut rifling. As far as the action goes I can't tell the difference in smoothness between SS or carbon steel but then again Savages are not known for their "smooth" actions.

Being a machinist (at one point in life) I know for a fact that SS is "stickier" and more prone to galling than is carbon steel, blued or not.

I love the look of high grade walnut and rust blued carbon steel but the rifles I hunt with are SS.

A Emt pointed out, SS actions can be made to operate very smoothly but a receiver cut with a pull broach isn't likely to have surface finish required to allow this.