Chrome moly barrels vs stainless steel

Ganderite, I know you take wonderful notes and do not make any claim lightly. I am just surprised and will enjoy seeing how long my CM barrels last vs SS barrels that local shooters have.

I am sure alloys and batches of steel can and do change over time. A very soft batch of SS hit the US market a few years back and there were some very short lived SS barrels. Definitely not typical... but it did happen.

See how it goes next season. Will be a fun experiment.

Jerry
 
Mystic Precision said:
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
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Do you know if the guy had already broken in the barrels and gotten them shooting well before nitriding them, or had them done before? Nitriding isnt supposed to change the surface dimensions at all so did it just make breaking in the barrels too long of a process?
I have no practical experience with it so I am curious if it would make a difference.
 
Robert Nicholson said:
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.
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The kind of toughness you want in an impact socket is way different than the kind of toughness you want in a barrel. Totally different applications.
 
iain.quayle said:
Do you know if the guy had already broken in the barrels and gotten them shooting well before nitriding them, or had them done before? Nitriding isnt supposed to change the surface dimensions at all so did it just make breaking in the barrels too long of a process?
I have no practical experience with it so I am curious if it would make a difference.
Click to expand...

The process is to break in the rifle to prove that is works... then get it nitrided to 'lock in' the goodness. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. Despite the process being on a molecular level, it does change some barrels for the worst.

There was a fairly credible attempt in the US with a business or two offering these services ... but that came and went too.

I don't know the why... I just know what the shooters report. On paper, if we could make this work, WOW, that would be wonderful as a great shooting barrel could be locked in for years of use.

Maybe someday, a process will get figured out.

Jerry
 
Mystic Precision said:
The process is to break in the rifle to prove that is works... then get it nitrided to 'lock in' the goodness. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. Despite the process being on a molecular level, it does change some barrels for the worst.

There was a fairly credible attempt in the US with a business or two offering these services ... but that came and went too.

I don't know the why... I just know what the shooters report. On paper, if we could make this work, WOW, that would be wonderful as a great shooting barrel could be locked in for years of use.

Maybe someday, a process will get figured out.

Jerry
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From what I understand the nitride has to be done prior to the barrel being shot.
 
Mystic Precision said:
I suspect both routes have been tried....I would break in first cause if there are any rough spots, I want them gone before they get locked in with the nitriding

Jerry
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Yes from what I have read both have been done. With other forums predominantly in the United States having posted about the process a number of year ago and continue to do so. The take aways from all the reading I did were:

1) It should be done before shooting the barrel. The process needs to treat the barrel metal on a microscopic level. If you have been shooting it then there could be contaminants that interfere with the barrel metal being treated.
2) Any wear or throat erosion before nitriding can accentuated if nitrided afterwards
3) If not done by someone who knows what they are doing, the high temps can cause issues with the heat treatment of the barrel. For instance over 900 f with a Krieger barrel and you will wreak the heat treatment.
4) There are a number of different processes with some being short cuts. You don't want gas or black nitriding. From what I've read the standard is SAE standard AMS-2753.
 
Mystic Precision said:
The process is to break in the rifle to prove that is works... then get it nitrided to 'lock in' the goodness. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. Despite the process being on a molecular level, it does change some barrels for the worst.

There was a fairly credible attempt in the US with a business or two offering these services ... but that came and went too.

I don't know the why... I just know what the shooters report. On paper, if we could make this work, WOW, that would be wonderful as a great shooting barrel could be locked in for years of use.

Maybe someday, a process will get figured out.

Jerry
Click to expand...

That's a real shame. I was thinking the same thing, have a competition use barreled that lasted for years would be awesome.
 
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