Question regarding blued (or blackened) stainless 700 barrel

[Reprobait]

Hello folks, this is my first post though I've been lurking around gleaning info from all the wonderful posts. I have a question to lead off with - I'm a devotee of 7-MMs and today I bought an older 700 ADL in 7Mag that's blued but the barrel is marked "stainless steel" in small letters. Can anybody fill me in on when these were produced.

[remington600]

The belted magnum barrels were rolled stamped Stainless Steel starting in 1963. The magnums were equipped with stainless steel barrels through 1970. The barrels were were plated with copper and then with iron so they would take a blue finish. There are some 1962 model 700s that are stainless steel but not marked. Check out the manufacture dating section on the homepage to find out the exact date yours was made.

[John Gyde]

I bought one in 1964. After quite a bit of use in the field (actually Michigan deer hunting) little flecks came off on the barrel down to the bright metal. Normal bluing would not darken them.

[remington600]

The undercoating would most likely of flacked off with the top layer. I have seen quite a few of these barrels that people have completely stripped down to the stainless finish.

[Rem725]

I had one of these stainless barrels on a 264 magnum 721. It shot great but had a galled ring in the chamber just ahead of the belt. How it got past inspection is a mystery. I took the barrel out and made up a Douglas barrel in 338. It shot great also but would not feed. The case rear popped out too soon.

[Reprobait]

Thanx, guys, for all the info. Stainless plated with copper and coated with iron - man, who thought of that process!! Turns out this gun was made in 1968.

At that time I was in the gun retail business and, as I recall you couldn't have given away a silver gun of any kind - except maybe a nickle plated revolver. No wonder they jumped through hoops to blue the barrels.

Today it would be be quite common to have a silver colored stainless gun or mixed blued receiver and stainless barrel. I even broke down and bought a 5 pound Kimber in stainless and black plastic 7mm-08 'cause I'm an old man. And my Cooper is a stainless barrel and blued receiver, come to think of it.

John - The barrel on this 7-Mag is exhibiting those identical flecks of missing blueing. I have yet to look at them under a magnifying glass but I'll bet your diagnosis is spot on.

[Recoil Rob]

I had been wondering about this too, thank you for the explanation.

A few years back I bought a 700 in 7mm Mag, it's in excellent condition and I saw the STAINLESS stamped on the barre;, I wondered how they did it.

Those old 700 sure were nice, really solid guns, good furniture, not stamped.