I wanted stainless but didnt get it because I got everything else I wanted on the rifle.

Should I just cerakote it and then I am all "weatherized"?

Yes

I actually got a stainless barrel just for the fact of weatherization on om last build but durocoated it anyways. Stainless looked good but was just too shinny.

Cerakote yes

Yup

Stainless doesn't mean rustless. BIG misconception, go look at some stainless hardware on Bay boats. If you're a diehard shooter and it's not coated, it will weather badly.

I prefer bead-blasted or brushed stainless over any 'coating'.

Coating just looks cheap, like they are ashamed of what they've got and had to try and cover it up.

thanks for the input looks like I need to get it done before the summer is up.

So a stainless barrel screwed to a blued action doesn't look cheap?

Stainless isn't real helpful hiding from coyotes either.

Deep down I think these two really love each other....

I think we should pay for them to have dinner together and include a random topic generator

One day, many years ago, my uncle on my mothers side came to visit. He and several of my cousins were enthusiastic deer hunters, going so far as to buy some land in north Texas for that single purpose.

Knowing of my interest in firearms, he asked to see what kind of hunting rig I had been using. At the time, almost all of my resources were tied up in WW I and WW II military rifles that I had been collecting. I did have a sporting rifle, though, bought for a mule deer hunt in the mountains of New Mexico. - A Browning stainless stalker in .300 Winchester magnum, with a silver Burris 3-9x40 to match.

He held the beautiful satin stainless and black composite rifle, turning it in his hands and frowning.

"But this isn't a hunting rifle!" he said at last.

I reached into the safe, pulling out a roll of camouflage bow tape from the top shelf, and holding it up for him to view.

He looked back at me and smiled, understanding immediately. My uncle was no fool.

In heavy cover, bead-blasted (satin) stainless tends to pick up the colors of its surroundings. Brushed stainless does too, but not nearly so well. I never actually had to use the bow tape, but I always keep a roll on hand in case it might be needed.

I just love story time. Tell us another?

Sure.

When I turned eighteen, I celebrated by purchasing my first center-fire rifle, a Marlin 1895G. This was the model with a straight grip, square finger lever, and a plastic butt-plate. I learned what a flinch was with this light 45-70, and how to overcome one with it. - A lesson that served me well later on, when I developed an interest in medium and big-bore magnum rifles.

Not long after I got it, I was walking some family land in hopes of a target of opportunity, and ran across a cotton-tail rabbit that was perhaps fifty yards away. At the shot, there was a pink mist and I saw the rabbit carcass flying. It landed five or six feet away from where it had been when I fired.

My cousin ran forward to inspect the rabbit and exclaimed, "It's heart is still beating!"

Sure enough, the rabbit had been turned inside-out and its internal organs vaporized by the 400 grain slug, but the heart was still intact and in plain view - still beating. The entire thing was blood-shot so there was not much point in bringing the rabbit home.

I learned an important lesson that day, and thereafter I stuck with head-shots when shooting rabbits with anything bigger than a twenty-two rim-fire. In fact, I once got a squirrel for the pot with a 30-06 without putting a mark on it by 'barking' the squirrel, shooting the branch it was sitting on, instead of shooting the squirrel itself. A squirrel doesn't sound like much, but we had been hunting whitetails for days with no success, and were very low on grub at that point.

This of course has nothing to do with rifle barrels, but you asked for a story.

Best story's ever