barrel is dark but shootable , and this was the rifle version- 260 rem specs are good but so were 6.5 rem mag and 350 rem mag spec's- as for me I'll stick to rifle pill's that have been around at least as long as I have- only paid twenty bucks for the smokepole some 15 yrs ago and just put it into a piece of light maple I've had for 25 yrs- I'll have to open the bolt face up bye .004 and maybe the feed rails a tad- hoping the magazine will handle 160 gr slugs- guess I'd better load some up and test that