I built a rifle on a VZ-24 action and put a stainless barrel on that I got fairly cheap. I took it to a local, so called, gunsmith who put a baked on teflon finish from Brownell's on it. The finish looked like a cheap spray paint job (and may be), it scratched easily and with the stainless underneath looked terrible. I removed the finish from the barrel with paint remover but left it on the receiver.
What finish would you recomend and who does it? I'm not crazy about stainless colered guns as in electroless nickle but may consider it depending on price.

Stainless can be black oxided but you'll need to find a gunsmith in your area to do this. I know in my neck of the woods we have a commercial black oxide service and he will black oxide anything solong as you know the metal, carbon or stainless, he even has an anodizing shop for aluminum.
I do know that Cabela's has a teflon style coating but it seems a little pricey. check with their gunsmith shop or give Wilson combat a call
Kerry

Are you sure it was a baked on finish? Sounds like he used Aluma- Hyde by Brownells. I recommend KG Gun Kote for a baked on finish. The trick is to match your barrel finish to your receiver finish - two different metals. KG Gun Kote does not look like a sprayed on paint if done correctly, the matte black looks like a rich blued matte. All of the sprayed-on finishes will scratch, some easier than others but so will bare metal. sure-shot

ParryJ,

You might want to look into Powder Coating. We have several places out here that provide this process. It works by electrically charging the part and "spraying" an extremely fine powder at the part to which the powder is attracted. It is then baked for the final finish. When I found a local supplier, he agreed to do a test for us. So we made up a dummy barrel and let him go to work. When I came back to pick it up, the owner proceeded to put it in a vise and smash it with a 4 lb maul, not once but several times. It was dented but the powder coat did not release or flake off. Great stuff and comes in dozens of colors and full matte to high gloss. Just another thought.

Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Tompkins (edited 12-16-2001).]