Blued frame or case coloured

[Barbarossa]

My new 76 carbine has the blued receiver with he case coloured lever compared to my other crossfire carbine that had the case coloured receiver which do you prefer

[Boone May]

On original rifles, case hardening was an "extra" not included on standard guns.  It tends to fade when exposed to sunlight so few original case hardened rifles show much finish now.  Blued receivers wear better.
I did some number crunching from the Herbert G. Houze "The Winchester Model 1876 Centennial Rifle" book and came up with 4,141 Model 1876 rifles and carbines that had case hardening.  Since 63,871 Model 1876 rifles, carbines and muskets were made, that means about 6% of them had case hardening. 
Here is a case hardened receiver on an 1884 vintage Model 1876 special order rifle.  Note the finish.

[ATCDoktor]

As it pertains to late model reproductions, I don’t have a preference.

That said, the chemical process of coloring these reproductions can be quite striking but I have no clue as to how durable it is:






The blued reproductions are attractive as well but nowadays (I believe) the inverse is true with respect to blued over case colored in that most of the repros have the “colors” vice being blued and that “scarcity” makes them “neat” in my book.





As previously stated, I have no preference and what I have found is that I (personally) can’t see too much of their finish while I’m shooting them.

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