question: is it possible to put a finish on an existing stainless steel barrel which will color it darker? i have a model 70 which is stainless and i would like it to be dark versus the white satin stainless. is there anything i can do to the existing barrel to accomplish this? i'm not talking about making the barrel satin. it is already satin. i want it dark. any ideas?

Cheapest and easiest would be to coat it in MolyResin, that way you can have any color you want (black, gray, silver, OD green). Not terribly difficult for the do-it-yourselfer.

If you want more info, hit my website at http://www.fireflyarms.com . It has the full specs on the coating (60+ hours saltwater immersion, etc.) and pricing.

Good luck!

Sam B.
http://www.fireflyarms.com

bill smith,
Since your rifle is a model 70, the barrel and receiver are 416 stainless. You can have this blued, pretty much like you would a steel rifle. It just requires the use of stainless salts. You should be able to find a gunsmith who can take care of this for you. There is another little trick that I came up with a few years ago by accident that might be just the ticket for your problem. First, you have the barrel and receiver passivated. This is a nitric acid solution that will eat the free iron off of the surface of the stainless. It is this free iron that is more prone to rust. After it is passivated, blue it in normal steel salts. What it does is, it first eats all the free iron off, but whatever is left is then blued. The result is a finish that is the most impervious to the elements I've ever seen, plus it gives it a dark grey finish, almost like a parkerized, if you will. I tested this finish on a triggerguard in western Oregon during the heat of the summer, soaking it in salt water with heavy exposure to sun. It sat in a dish outside my shop for 3 months and never once did it ever aquire a spot of rust.

thanks guys. i appreciate the advice.