What causes bluing to turn plum?

I just received a new rifle that has a proper black color on the all the metal except the bolt handle, claw extractor and barrel.

On the barrel, the 1/4 rib, bbl band sling swivel and banded front sight are all black, but the bbl itself has a slight bronze hue to it. It is not very noticeable until you examine it in bright light.

I bought the rifle unseen and I am going to contact the manufacturer and see what they want to do. But will a simple re-bluing of the gun fix the problem?

Thanks,
Tony

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I suspect it would.

I'm not nearly the expert on bluing that some here in this forum are, but of all the variables to cause an off color blue (faulty preparation and/or technique, contaminated/weak chemicals, corrosion resistant alloys in the barrel metal) only the metal alloys in the barrel would prevent a re-blue from evening things out, and I suspect that those metallurgical sort of errors are pretty rare nowadays.

No, it won't.

I can't remember which trace metal is in there that causes it, but it was a common problem on some Rugers years ago.

I understand there is a process by which it might be fixable, but cannot at this remove recall who did it. It is a real problem that was also evident on some Colt frames. Best advice is to live with it, or trade it. I traded mine, hated the way it looked.

Try dabbing a Q-Tip of cold blue on an out of the way place and see if it darkens it acceptably. If so I'd venture to say a hot blue would most likely work too.

I'm going to send the gun back to Dakota for re-finish. Talked to them yesterday and they were a little bit embarrased. :O Asked me to return it for re-blue. Should have it back in about two weeks.

I've seen the purple finish on many a handgun, but never before on a rifle. I once had a Belgium Hi-Power customized by Novaks that started out black, but over a period of about 10 years, the slide slowly turned a plum color.

I was just curious as to what caused that.

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www.miltsparks.com
holster@ix.netcom.com