The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Hunting African Big Game Hunting Stainless vs BlueGo | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
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One of Us |
I can actually buy a (same make/model) stainless/synthetic rifle in the caliber I'm interested in for less than the blue/wood. Do any of you think that the synthetic barrel is a disadvantage in spot and stalk hunting? I mean, is there much danger of the game spotting the shine of the rifle? | ||
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If I am hunting in exposed bright sunlight, I wrap my stainless barrel with bow tape. | |||
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That would be sort of an inconvenience! | |||
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I think highly polished buled steel would shine more than matte finished stainless. I personally just dont like the look of stainless, but thats of course my opinion. | |||
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| one of us |
Tape would work fine but looks are another thing. I love the ease of carre of synthetic and stainless particularly in a marine environmment. That said I I love the look of classic blue and a good piece of wood. Happiness is a warm gun | |||
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ON MY RUGER #1 375 H&H STAINLESS I RUBBED DOWN THE BARREL AND ACTION WITH A GREEN SCOTCH BRITE PAD. IT GIVES THE METAL A NICE MATT FINISH. A LOT LESS BRIGHT THAN THE SHINY FINISH. | |||
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My M70 was rebarelled srainless and I had it parkerized | |||
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It really depends on what you want and how you are going to treat your rifle. If you want all go and no show, get the plastic and stainless.It will function fine and be like any other tool. If you want something special like my Lab---all go w/ plenty of show, get a gorgeous piece of walnut w/ cold blue steel and treat it like I treat my Lab! Use it and give it TLC. It will make you glow! | |||
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I've never had any problems with stainless/syn stock (black) but I had a Vaal Rhebok spot the shine of by blue/wood stock at 500 yards. I was in full leafy camo hidden within some rocks above him, watching the herd with bino's. I've since bought a black syn stock for my 700 VS and will tape the scope and barrel. I have an M-77 with full camo tape. Had Whitetails within feet of my position many times. They never saw anything and never knew what hit 'em. LDK Gray Ghost Hunting Safaris http://grayghostsafaris.com Phone: 615-860-4333 Email: hunts@grayghostsafaris.com NRA Benefactor DSC Professional Member SCI Member RMEF Life Member NWTF Guardian Life Sponsor NAHC Life Member Rowland Ward - SCI Scorer Took the wife the Eastern Cape for her first hunt: http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/6881000262 Hunting in the Stormberg, Winterberg and Hankey Mountains of the Eastern Cape 2018 http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/4801073142 Hunting the Eastern Cape, RSA May 22nd - June 15th 2007 http://forums.accuratereloadin...=810104007#810104007 16 Days in Zimbabwe: Leopard, plains game, fowl and more: http://forums.accuratereloadin...=212108409#212108409 Natal: Rhino, Croc, Nyala, Bushbuck and more http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/6341092311 Recent hunt in the Eastern Cape, August 2010: Pics added http://forums.accuratereloadin...261039941#9261039941 10 days in the Stormberg Mountains http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/7781081322 Back in the Stormberg Mountains with friends: May-June 2017 http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/6001078232 "Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading" - Thomas Jefferson Every morning the Zebra wakes up knowing it must outrun the fastest Lion if it wants to stay alive. Every morning the Lion wakes up knowing it must outrun the slowest Zebra or it will starve. It makes no difference if you are a Zebra or a Lion; when the Sun comes up in Africa, you must wake up running...... "If you're being chased by a Lion, you don't have to be faster than the Lion, you just have to be faster than the person next to you." | |||
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| Administrator |
I will pick a stainless synthetic for hunting any day over blue and wood. | |||
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| One of Us |
Do you find a need to wrap the barrel? | |||
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| One of Us |
Unless the synthetic stock has an adjuatble cheek piece to acheive a good fit might be difficult. A gunsmith can alter a wood stock for length, cast, comb height etc much as they would for a shotgun. | |||
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| One of Us |
If it's not a matte stainless and you think it's too shinny take some cheap spray paint and spray it down and remove it when you get home with some paint thinner. That said, I have stainless/synthetic rifles and blue/wood rifles I like the looks of the blue/wood rifles but they don't kill any better than my stainless/synthetic rifles. The one thing that wood has over the synthetic is that it's more quiet when brush hits it. "An individual with experience is never at the mercies of an individual with an argument" | |||
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To me the choice of whether I buy wood/blue steel vs. Synthetic/stainless is basically what I want to use it for. I have a Sako 7 ultra mag that drives tacks that is stainless/synthetic combination that is my go to rifle here in Texas.... It tolerates the heat -cold changes well, sometimes it is a wet environement,[our floods are ended by droughts and our droughts are ended by floods!]the gun racks of jeeps and 4-wheelers,crawling through the rocks and brush,, not worried about the bumps and bruises so to speak and it gets rough treatment..... My 416 Rigby has beautiful wood stock and I hunt with it,,, but it doesn't ride carelessly in a gun rack,,,,, Buy what best suits how you are going to use it and for what you need it for! you can make more money, you can not make more time | |||
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| one of us |
I've spray painted stainless rifes in the past with satisfactory results. Now I prefer a baked on matt teflon finish like Nylite. Costs around $200 and looks great to me. Can't say for swure that the fglare from stainless ever spooked any game but the finish on a Ruger all weather is too bright for my taste. | |||
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I don't think stainless or blued barrels matter. It's a misnomer out there that animals respond to glare and shiny objects. I've hunted with mirrored sunglasses, and a shiny watch walking into the sun, with a stainless barrel...plopped my gun into the fork of the shooting sticks, looked at the herd for several seconds, picked one out and fired the rifle. If the stainless barrels were so counter productive to hunting, why would Remington and Sako make such rifles? A successful stalk has far more to do with the movement of limbs/arms, torso, body and one's head, than glare or color. Now of course there are certain properties of wood versus synthetic stocks in relation to bullet accuracy, but that's a whole different topic. | |||
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Ditto!-------like wood --- like the shine of a nice firearm --- but for getting r' done give me a synthetic and SS every time -- G OMG!-- my bow is "pull-push feed" - how dreadfully embarrasing!!!!! | |||
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one of us |
Have a black teflon finish put on that stainless barrel and you'll have the best of both. | |||
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| One of Us |
Okay, thanks. I just ordered a stainless. | |||
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I've also had several blue steel Parkerized. Gray Ghost Hunting Safaris http://grayghostsafaris.com Phone: 615-860-4333 Email: hunts@grayghostsafaris.com NRA Benefactor DSC Professional Member SCI Member RMEF Life Member NWTF Guardian Life Sponsor NAHC Life Member Rowland Ward - SCI Scorer Took the wife the Eastern Cape for her first hunt: http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/6881000262 Hunting in the Stormberg, Winterberg and Hankey Mountains of the Eastern Cape 2018 http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/4801073142 Hunting the Eastern Cape, RSA May 22nd - June 15th 2007 http://forums.accuratereloadin...=810104007#810104007 16 Days in Zimbabwe: Leopard, plains game, fowl and more: http://forums.accuratereloadin...=212108409#212108409 Natal: Rhino, Croc, Nyala, Bushbuck and more http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/6341092311 Recent hunt in the Eastern Cape, August 2010: Pics added http://forums.accuratereloadin...261039941#9261039941 10 days in the Stormberg Mountains http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/7781081322 Back in the Stormberg Mountains with friends: May-June 2017 http://forums.accuratereloadin...6321043/m/6001078232 "Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading" - Thomas Jefferson Every morning the Zebra wakes up knowing it must outrun the fastest Lion if it wants to stay alive. Every morning the Lion wakes up knowing it must outrun the slowest Zebra or it will starve. It makes no difference if you are a Zebra or a Lion; when the Sun comes up in Africa, you must wake up running...... "If you're being chased by a Lion, you don't have to be faster than the Lion, you just have to be faster than the person next to you." | |||
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One of Us |
Hi i like stainless steel blued  .yes indeed even stainless can be bleued. there are some gunsmiths which can do that and then you have the best of both worlds. regards yes Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy; its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. | |||
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| One of Us |
I just bought a stainless model. Thanks for the input. | |||
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You can get either one coated to a nice non reflective matte black, I used Spradlins in CO for one rifle with a polished blue and love how it came out with black Tef Coat. They also do scopes and are recommended by Leupold and do not void the warranty.The scope was originally glossy.  | |||
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i have 3 stainless barreled rifles. I made a sock out of a piece of camo cloth which I slide over the barrel up to the action which works great and it is useable on all 3 of the rifles. I hold it in place with elastic. I did this after seeing the sun glint off the matt finish on my 30-06 while PWN375 from this forum was trying to sneak up on a Vaal Rhebuck a few years ago. He was 600 to 700m away at the time! In another instance we were hunting springbuck last year, and I could see where some of the guns were sitting over 2 kms away from the sun glinting off their blued barrels. Harris Safaris PO Box 853 Gillitts RSA 3603 www.southernafricansafaris.co.za https://www.facebook.com/pages...=aymt_homepage_panel "There is something about safari life that makes you forget all your sorrows and feel as if you had drunk half a bottle of champagne." - Karen Blixen, | |||
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Zero. These rifles work great but do not rate highly as status symbols! Johan | |||
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I have both, and the only thing I see as a game spooker with the stainless, is not as much the shine, as it is the fact that it is WHITE. White is almost never seen in the field except in winter snow, and movement is what animals notice more then anything but white is doubley noticable when moveing. I feel the same way about stainless or nicol plated defense handguns, I don't want them seen till it's too late! Personally I like synthetic & blued or parkerized stainless, in a bolt rifle! With doubles it is wood and rust blued. ....Mac >>>===(x)===> MacD37, ...and DUGABOY1 DRSS Charter member "If I die today, I've had a life well spent, for I've been to see the Elephant, and smelled the smoke of Africa!"~ME 1982 Hands of Old Elmer Keith  | |||
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