As far as Barrel life goes, I think caliber selection dictates that more than barrel material. In my mind, unless you require a high luster bluing or just prefer the look of blue, I would go SS. SS can be blasted, coated, and nitrided (CM can be nitrided also) and all of those options still give you corrosion resistance in the bore and chamber with the SS. The other benift of the SS is since the price is ussually close to the same, and a majority of people go SS over CM because it doesn't need to be finished further, which means most barrel suppliers have more SS in stock ready to ship.
Yes the two tone is kinda nice. I have built 3 that way so far.
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