Chrome moly barrels vs stainless steel

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saltbait

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So I did a few searches for the in regards to comparing chrome moly and stainless steel barrels. I’ve read mixed reviews saying that stainless steel barrels are more accurate....wondering if this is bollucks or if there are benefits in having one barrel over the other.

Any info is appreciated.

Thanks
Ben
 
Chrome Moly is the metal that impact socket wrenches are made of, right?
It is for toughness, while Stainless Steel is for corrosion resistance and looks.
Would be interesting to know which, if at all, causes better accuracy.
 
I guess we’ll have to wait for somebody like Jerry or Barney to chime in on this, but I do notice that it seems that Precicion barrels seem to be stainless more often.
 
Chrome lining is for long life.
And also help for heat.
Chrome lining is in much harder then any barrle stainless or otherwise.
Chrome lined bbl and made over sized to allow for cthe thickness of the chrome.
Chrome lining is a 1920 tech.
Nitride coating is only 4 microns thick and has the subsurfacr hardness of chrome lining

That said the main types of nitride and Salt bath plasma and gas.
All have there own issues.
While many do it only a few pepole in the world know how to do controlled gas nitried.
We worked with a company that has perfected it.
The issue is it not cheap to do small runs . Also you have to know evey detail abUT the steel you use and any mistakes or miss information and you bbl will be trashed.
 
chrome moly is 41xx series steel. 4130/4140/4150 is normaly used for barrels

And stainless steel barrels are normaly 4xx series, (416 is common) stainless, it has carbon in it, is megnetic and hardenable. Very different from 3xx series stainless

Chrome lined is another thing all together.
 
The Chrome lined vs non chrome lined and stainless vs chromoly is old. The one I'm interested in is Chromoly steel vs Stainless steel but add in nitride.

I mention this because I'm looking at going with another barrel only with the nitride process it negates the benefit of Stainless Steel. The SS is actually softer I believe and makes it easier to be more accurate with the machining/twists/grooves etc. So... add in nitride to the choromolly barrel and you have a tactical black barrel with as good or better corrosion protection than SS and harder. So it should last longer.

I have a SS nitride barrel from Criterion on order. I sent back the SS one they sent me. That being said I think the next barrel will be chromoly nitride and not SS. Especially if looking at a 6.5 CM.
 
Alpheus said:
You'll have to talk to an engineer for a real answer, but yes, effectively. The difference is small, but noticeable.
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I think Chromoly steel is harder then stainless. Im sure someone in that field will be around soon enough to confirm one of our opinions. Either way i think i should have said. "to sum it up with the shortest answer. (in my opinion) chrome barrels last longer. (and sometimes depending on the barrel) stainless barrels are more accurate.
 
223762 said:
I think Chromoly steel is harder then stainless. Im sure someone in that field will be around soon enough to confirm one of our opinions. Either way i think i should have said. "to sum it up with the shortest answer. (in my opinion) chrome barrels last longer. (and sometimes depending on the barrel) stainless barrels are more accurate.
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You really can't generalize. There are so many varieties of each, you'd keep a dozen engineers with a building full of test equipment just to decide which two are comparable.
 
Rule of thumb... for what it is worth.

CM wears better then SS

SS is easier to machine then CM

SS is used more often in the building of precision rifles. For the competition shooter, the rust resistance is nice as it negates the need to add cost of surface finish.

Both SS and CM barrels can be made to be equally accurate... in my experiece to the 1's and 2's, they have been comparable. My last 4 barrels have been CM and blued to see how the current state of manf is... doing very well and no worst then the equivalent SS in a similar application.

Nitriding is a really interesting surface hardening and man, does it make a surface hard. Works very well in actions.... I would not choose it for barrels. A number of shooters have tried in both Benchrest and F class. There has not been consistent results worth the cost and risk.

The last shooter I know that treated 2 FTR barrels... turfed them.

YMMV

Jerry
 
The challenge for both chrome moly and SS is getting a high quality steel without inclusions. The aviation industry has a demand for this steel, but very few makers offer this quality.

Chrome moly is harder. SS machines easier.

I am not aware of any accuracy difference.

The big difference is how they wear. SS lasts about twice as long as chrome moly.

A CM barrel with show gradual throat erosion in the throat. Eventually the rifling will be gone in the first inch or two. The accuracy gradually opens up.

A stainless barrel will look perfect. It develops little cracks that are hard to see without a borescope. They look like the cracks in dried mud.

Eventually (after twice as many shots as a CM barrel) two of the cracks will intersect and a piece of steel will flake off. The accuracy will go from very good to very bad in one shot.

I prefer to buy SS barrels because they last longer. They also tend to foul less and are easier to clean.
 
Ganderite said:
The challenge for both chrome moly and SS is getting a high quality steel without inclusions. The aviation industry has a demand for this steel, but very few makers offer this quality.

Chrome moly is harder. SS machines easier.

I am not aware of any accuracy difference.

The big difference is how they wear. SS lasts about twice as long as chrome moly.

A CM barrel with show gradual throat erosion in the throat. Eventually the rifling will be gone in the first inch or two. The accuracy gradually opens up.

A stainless barrel will look perfect. It develops little cracks that are hard to see without a borescope. They look like the cracks in dried mud.

Eventually (after twice as many shots as a CM barrel) two of the cracks will intersect and a piece of steel will flake off. The accuracy will go from very good to very bad in one shot.

I prefer to buy SS barrels because they last longer. They also tend to foul less and are easier to clean.
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You are correct; stainless work-hardens and becomes brittle. The repeated pressure and heat of shooting does this.

I have not had a stainless barrel for years, and the reason why was my experience with the one and only one I ever owned (on a mini14 in the early 80's) was that it was about twice as prone to fouling than any of the steel barreled rifles that I owned; it was also the very worst rifle I ever owned for accuracy.

It may be that the barrel finish was not up to snuff, but from working with stainless fasteners and plumbing fittings, it clearly does have a higher coefficient of friction (which is why they use various alloys of Stainless for hard surface on construction and mining equipment; the high coefficient of friction comes from it's toughness.

BTW, easier to machine than Chrome Moly; but difficult to keep it from work hardening when doing fine work; then it's a bastard.
 
Ganderite said:
The challenge for both chrome moly and SS is getting a high quality steel without inclusions. The aviation industry has a demand for this steel, but very few makers offer this quality.

Chrome moly is harder. SS machines easier.

I am not aware of any accuracy difference.

The big difference is how they wear. SS lasts about twice as long as chrome moly.

A CM barrel with show gradual throat erosion in the throat. Eventually the rifling will be gone in the first inch or two. The accuracy gradually opens up.

A stainless barrel will look perfect. It develops little cracks that are hard to see without a borescope. They look like the cracks in dried mud.

Eventually (after twice as many shots as a CM barrel) two of the cracks will intersect and a piece of steel will flake off. The accuracy will go from very good to very bad in one shot.

I prefer to buy SS barrels because they last longer. They also tend to foul less and are easier to clean.
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Quite surprised at your observations regarding wear of CM vs SS. Of the CM barrels I have used and currently using, I don't see that type of difference in bore life. Of the 6.5 Creedmoor barrels I am using in CM, they have exceeded 1/2 way for what is considered typical bore life in a SS barrel and showing little to no wear.

Certainly, no worst then an equivalent SS barrel.

The goal of my current testing is to see if CM actually has an advantage to wear. Will know in another 1000 or so rds

Jerry
 
There is no question that SS, almost always 416R, is used in over 99% of target rifle barrels, perhaps a higher % than this.
The reason, as mentioned, is machineability which favours SS, so barrels using this steel are more uniform.
No one that we are aware of in BR, FClass or TR use CM barrels.

Regards,

Peter
 
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Mystic Precision said:
Quite surprised at your observations regarding wear of CM vs SS. Of the CM barrels I have used and currently using, I don't see that type of difference in bore life. Of the 6.5 Creedmoor barrels I am using in CM, they have exceeded 1/2 way for what is considered typical bore life in a SS barrel and showing little to no wear.

Certainly, no worst then an equivalent SS barrel.

The goal of my current testing is to see if CM actually has an advantage to wear. Will know in another 1000 or so rds

Jerry
Click to expand...

My experience in comparing the two steels is based on 308 target rifle barrels. On average, about 2500 for CM and about 5,000 for SS.

We keep a log for barrel life and I found the SS lasted longer. Using a borescope, one could see how different they were in the way they wore.

My 22-250Ackley lasted only 1000 rounds (in a SS). Took me 4 barrels to realize that it just did not last long. My 6.5x55 lasted 5,000 rounds (SS). I assume the 6.5Creed would last a bit longer.

There might be another variable here- cleaning techniques.
 
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