Daryl,
This rifle looks very much like the first black powder rifle that I ever built, it was a .58 caliber Hawken that weighed 13.5 pounds! It was also the the first gun that I rust blued and that was accidental. I had several coats of rust browning on it and had carded carded between coats. I decided to rinse the barrel off in order to stop any rusting before I put a final sealer coat on it. The only water source I had was for hot water in the basement where I was working and was the water heater outlet at the bottom of the water heater.

I rigged up a hose to it and started washing it down, and to my horror, it turned in black. I looked it over and the longer I considered it, the better it looked to me. I decided to keep it black, and that was the most durable finish I ever did on a gun barrel. I hunted with that gun for many years and the barrel finish looked as good as ever when I finally decided to sell it because of the weight. It lasted many years and looked as good as when it was first put on. Bob