After removing a caustic blued barrel last night I got to looking at the chamber, which still had all the bluing intact. I was reminded of something D'arcy Echols said about caustic bluing providing protection in areas that don't normally get covered during rust bluing.

I am wondering if anyone has caustic blued a rifle before rust bluing so that the rifle has weather protection in the hard to reach areas. I would thing this would be a good idea. What do you all think?

Jason

I personally think it's probably An OK Idea, but there are those who believe that any blue whatsoever in the bore is detrimental. Kinda hard to hot-blue the chamber without doing the bore as well but I guess it could be done. Actually there are several hot-blue techniques that come out closely, VERY closely, resembling the finest rust-&-rub jobs. If appearanace is your major criterion then a hot-blue job by an expert may solve your need, but if you insist on the durability and braggin' rights of a genuine rust-&-rub finish then I personally don't see any drawback to having a hot blue job done first. I know a couple of major-name barrel makers and so far as I know they don't recommend against a conventional hot blue for their CM barrels. But OTOH I also know of a few shooters who wouldn't dream of having their bores contaminated with the rust of a hot blue job, so go figure.
Regards, Joe

I've rust-blued several small parts over hot bluing and didn't see any difference. The main plus was I didn't need as many repeat rustings to get the color I wanted.