Hi
The majority of gun makers are using this crap 416R steel but,are there anyone out there using better steel like17-4 pch or 15-4 in barrel or action? i know black star said to use cr ni alloy in their barrels, but who else?
glad to hear from you.
cheers
danny

Crucible Steel [www.crucibleservice.com] is making a stainless barrel steel called 174SXR along with the typical 416R. You might contact them to find who uses it.As I have mentioned in the Sako thread, since 416 has long been used for barrels I don't think it's the 416 itself but a problem of an individual batch of steel and that's how they can track it to certain serial numbers .I wish I still had access to a laboratory , I'd find out why. SHAME on Beretta for handling this so poorly !!!

hi mete
average 416 R is not more than a 12-14 cr srteel which is poluated by a great amount of sulpur and fosfor(normally causing failur in average steel) only for make it easy to the tool and machining. it was waited sooner or later oyher makers are going to have problem. at least those cr mo steels like 4140 was rather free from these inpurities at some extent. usually swedish famous steel is known for containing as less as possible sulphur anf phosfor to enhance the strenght. a gun is a tool exposed to high pressure and shoke. it is why the old guns are made of the best quality tool steel with high purity not machining grade steel for using in cheap high volum products

regards
danny

Lothar Walter is. Give them a call & talk to Woody.

hi
sadly they(LW) don't make actions too .other wise a barreld action (MAUSER 98) made of high qualiy stainless steel is an ideal. anyway the price of lw barrels are rather high in sweden and gunsmithsttake as much as price the barrel for rebarreling
regards
danny

As far as I know (and some will jump in here and say that's not very far), the steel used by Lothar Walther is essentially a 416 with little or no sulphur. While I'm sure it must have some effect on the strength of the material, I can't quantify it since I've not seen a spec sheet on this steel. It does appear to be longer lived and this is at the expense of machinability. Not that these barrels are especially difficult to machine but they certainly don't machine as nicely as most 416 as used by the other makers.
Barrel life may or may not be a real consideration depending upon the intended use of the rifle and the cartridge for which it is chambered.
There is considerable variation in the 4140 steels as well. Some lots having significantly more sulphur than others.
I have no great concerns about the strength of 416 stainless since I've never seen any failures which could be traced to the use of this material. The Sako blowup has not been explained authoritively at this time so has no bearing on this.
For what it's worth (probably very little)I kind of prefer Chromoly barrels for reasons which are my own.
For those who like to latch on to a single aspect of rifle manufacture to obsess about, I guess the SS question is as good as any! Regards, Bill.

The long standing reputation of 'swedish steel' was in part due to the low amounts of phosphorus and sulphur in the swedish iron ore....Steels are sometimes made to be more easily machined and to do that various elements are added, they include sulphur, phosphorus, lead ,selenium depending on the alloy. If we want a free machining grade of 410 steel we use 416 which is very similar except the addition of sulphur.There is also a free machining grade of 4140 [Cr-Moly]also containing sulphur.The sulphur combines with manganese and this manganese sulphide and in machining it creates small chips instead of long strings.But again don't obsess about it it's not the problem !!

Krieger sells barrels of 410 stainless steel in the lighter tapers. They still recommend chrome moly for use in cold weather.
JCN

I'm brand new here and still finding my way around.
In Australia, a few years ago we had two I think s.s failures with our top barrel maker. Only with cut rifleing.
Just recently we have had more s.s failures with another
maker of cheaper priced barrels. Again only cut rifleing I
believe. A badly maintained cutter tool didn't help, but
the steel was found to be faulty. From what I can gather,
if the barrel makers specify, check, and pay for quality,
they will get it. Anyway, chrome will do me also.
John L.

JAL, "still finding my way around" well you are lost if you are in Australia. Welcome to the forum."specify, check and pay for quality" yes and that's been true for thousands of years .The steel industry has changed considerably over the years and certainly structural steel can have almost anything in it since steel now starts out mostly with scrap.

Interesting comment on the grade of ore making for part of the reputation for good Scandahoovian steel. I had not read that before. The older texts I had read attributed the better steel quality to the almost total use of hydro-electric powered furnaces instead of coke-fired furnaces, in the Swedish smelters.



Guess a guy learns something every day, if he is lucky.



Alberta Canuck