I have no experience with the Cabelas exclusive, but the process of creating a 'melonite' slide causes it to turn black, AND is a hardening process.

Since the slide on the Cabela model is bare stainless, it can't have been 'melonite'd' and therefore is 'less hard' for whatever that is worth.

It's unlikely they'd melonite the slide making it black, and then strip off the black. I suspect these slides just skip the melonite processing step.
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