Hello Huntnut,
You can usually put a blued barrel on a stainless frame and vice-versa, although I know of a couple of folks that have had to do some fitting here and there when mixing and matching blue and stainless. Generally, it should work fine.
You can find as many viewpoints as there are people on which is better, chrome moly or stainless. I personally prefer stainless because I'm lazy and don't like to have to deal with any cleaning chores that aren't absolutely necessary. Stainless DOES need care, but less than blued guns, and I live in a fairly dry part of the country so moisture isn't a problem for me. I only buy and use stainless guns - period.
Another issue for me is moly-coating. If you use moly-coating in chrome moly (blue) barrels, be aware that if you don't clean the moly out properly and reasonably quickly, and you're in a moist environment (even if it's not all that humid), it's possible you could end up with some barrel pitting because moly attracts moisture. I was able to personally examine an extreme example of that situation in a chrome moly rifle barrel that was only used for shooting moly-coated bullets and NEVER was properly cleaned (the bore became horribly pitted) but the fact remains. . .if you're going to spend good money for a nice gun, why take any risk of ruining the bore? Clean out the moly diligently and correctly and your barrel should have a long lifetime.
I hope this is helpful. Safe and good shooting to you!
Javelina
