I've got an older Rem. 700 that is black in color but on the barrel it's marked "stainless steel". I would like to rebarrel this gun with a stainless barrel and also remove the black finish on the action. My question, is the action also stainless?? This is a stock gun that hasn't been altered in any way. My grandfather was the original owner so I'm sure this gun is 100% stock. I've tried the magnet trick on stainless barrels before, obviously gun stainless is different than 316 or 416 stainless since the magnet sticks to any stainless barrel i've ever tried it on. Is there another way to tell if the action is stainless??

The barrel is stainless, but the action is chrome-molybdenum.

Remington produced some of their rifles with stainless steel barrels (I've seen them in 7mmRem.Mag.) back in the 60's.

George

quote:

Originally posted by cl5man:
I've got an older Rem. 700 that is black in color but on the barrel it's marked "stainless steel". I would like to rebarrel this gun with a stainless barrel and also remove the black finish on the action. My question, is the action also stainless?? This is a stock gun that hasn't been altered in any way. My grandfather was the original owner so I'm sure this gun is 100% stock. I've tried the magnet trick on stainless barrels before, obviously gun stainless is different than 316 or 416 stainless since the magnet sticks to any stainless barrel i've ever tried it on. Is there another way to tell if the action is stainless??

If is say's stainless, then it is stainless. If that doesn't convince you, and you wish to test it further, you can sand off some of the black finish and hit it with some cold blue. Guns us both 416 and 916 stainless. Both are magnetic.

To us none physicist types, that simply means a magnet will stick to it. Actually it's quite deeper than that but to simply say it is magnetic will suffice.

...and, not all stainless Remington barrels are marked as such. I can also tell you that if you bead blast the barrel and action you won't be able to tell the unmarked barrel is stainless until after you take it out of the bluing tank in which it didn't blue. Thus concludes this episode of the "Voice of Experience".

I've seen and worked on a handfull of early Remingtons with the iron plated and blued stainless barrels. All 7mm Mags. And all had cm recievers, not stainless. If in doubt do like Westpac said and hit the bottom of the reciever with a file and some cold blue, if it takes it cm for sure. But I would be 99.9% sure the reciever is cm anyways, but there's always a first.

the rem. 700 with stainless bbl's, iron plated and blued date back to the 1970's or late 60's. they all had actions of the same steel as other 700's. not stainless.

ps. fyi when these rifles were produced mike walker was the chief design engineer for rem. mike was a world record holding bench rest shooter. at the time rem. owned the most accurate deep hole drilling machine in the world. these bbls were all drilled, button rifled and inspected before being shipped. very few didn't shoot extremely well. today they are known as walker generation rems. and have some collector value.

They're not all stamped 'stainless'

Ask me how I know.

just a thought I know some stainless has enough carbon content that will allow a magnet to stick to it, not sure in this case, but could you not check it with a magnet.

quote:

Originally posted by Robe763:
just a thought I know some stainless has enough carbon content that will allow a magnet to stick to it, not sure in this case, but could you not check it with a magnet.

magnets don't stick to carbon, they stick to iron

Somw stainless steels are magnetic, and some
will rust. The small patch cold blue should
tell you.
Good luck!

It's the crystal structure that determines if it's magnetic. Ferritic and martensitic stainless is magnetic, austenitic stainless is not ! Of course magnetism is a physics thing not a metallurgical one !!

I should clarify my post above. The barrels would be stainless and the receivers would be Chrome Moly like others above had said. If you are going to do the "cold blue" test on these, do it on the barrel and not the receiver. The recoil lug is Chrome Moly as well.

FTWGASAST, it is said that in the early 1900's, a British Metallurgist, while working on a project to improve rifle barrels of all things, accidentally discovered that adding chromium to low carbon steel gives it stain resistance. Among other things, the increased chromium content produces a protective coating called Chromium Oxide, which is what gives it it's stain resistance.

In order to blue stainless, you have to disguise the Chromium Oxide, and the way they do that without changing the properties of the steel, is to give the stainless a coat of Iron Oxide which then can be blued. Soooo what does this all mean, long story short, Remington went to a lot of trouble to blue that barrel so becareful how much you scrape off.