Why are shotguns made the way they are?

Most good guns come with chrome lined barrels.

I don't get the problem here. I've never seen a gun instantly rust...

I've had my Sx3 way back submerged with waves rolling up to my chest... Never saw it rust away...

A good blued gun doesn't just rust away.

Plenty of bolts are nickel coated or jewelled. None of my bolts have ever rusted...

Other than the cheapest Chinese junk guns or cheap rem express guns I've never seen any major rust and even then it's a touch of surface rust that can be taken off with oil and steel wool.
 
You get what you pay for. Many shotguns of the day in the non-US made medium and up price range are Chrome-moli or chrome nickel steel receivers and barrels. Look at a Garcia imported Beretta from the 70's. Chrome nickel stamped on the barrels. Albeit in Italian.
 
Stainless also doesn't always play nice with stainless...tends to gall up against other stainless parts. So for moving parts it's not necessarily the best course of action.
 
BigUglyMan said:
Stainless also doesn't always play nice with stainless...tends to gall up against other stainless parts. So for moving parts it's not necessarily the best course of action.
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I was thinking the same thing, but, ive only ever seen or heard of that with fasteners - and there's ways to deal with it (we used to use liquid teflon on the bolts that were so large they couldnt simply be torqued apart (and im talking 3/4" up to 3" diameter bolts that we used to hold high pressure pipe flanges together, not the same application as a fastener in a blind threaded hole on a precision assembly).

I dont think shotguns have the t ype of tight tolerances that would cause galling.

This is an interesting thread though. Im curious as well about it - since I would expect shotguns get subjected to some rather nasty conditions and are expected to work with minimal fuss.

Interestingly, my benelli nova, which is what id call a low end shotgun (which, for the record, im also very very happy with and because i picked it up in the dying days of wholesale sports, i also got a tremendous deal on it), doesn't have any unfinished steel. Mind you, there's an absence of steel in some places which probably helps. But, where there is steel, its protected. I think if i had discovered raw mild steel inside it, id have been pretty disappointed.
 
Grouse Man said:
Stainless steel is very shiny. Waterfowl hunters might not want that.
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Yup....I wouldn't touch a stainless gun. They are fugly for one and not practical in the type of hunting I do. I do recall seeing chrome plated guns that were brought in by Corwin Arms and I didnt like the look of them at all. The blued models were much nicer
 
BigUglyMan said:
Stainless also doesn't always play nice with stainless...tends to gall up against other stainless parts. So for moving parts it's not necessarily the best course of action.
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A learning curve. AMT was one of the very first gunmaker built a 1911 with slide and frame of same grade of stainless steel. Galling was typical and only just slowed down with lubrication. When Colt got into the stainless 1911 game, AMTs failures noted. Hence both slide and frame were differing grades of stainless steel.
The galling issue pretty much went away.
Lessons learned.
Cheers
 
Ol' Flinter said:
There was an all-stainless steel O/U made in Sweden and marketed in North America back in the 70s or 80s, They were quite expensive and looked unconventional at the time so did not last long. At least some were aimed at the Olympic-style shooters. I think there was one posted for sale a couple years ago here on CGN.
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I think you may be thinking of Flodman. Stainless and titanium. A Skeet shooter from Edmonton had one.
 
kodiakjack said:
I don’t really buy the price issue. There seems to be no end to the price people will pay for this feature or that gizmo.

All I can figure is that stainless is too hard/brittle when made in the typical thickness (or less due to weight) of a shotgun barrel.
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This. It is not as versatile as steel when it comes to hardening and such. Many bolts are case hardened to keep the outer surface from wearing, but the core soft enough to keep the strength and reduce the brittleness. Stainless tends to be more brittle than steel...
 
I swear I saw some stainless aftermarket 870 barrels advertised about 15 years ago.

They were of an extremely heavy profile, Vang Comped and quite expensive.
 
As an historical note, Winchester once made a shotgun with a fibreglass barrel, the M59 semi-auto. The fibreglass was wound around a steel liner, and was apparently much stronger and lighter than a conventional all-steel barrel. Shooters weren't buying it, literally and figuratively, so they weren't made for long.
 
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