S&W Melonite coated barrel vs Noveske chrome lined barrel.

[wolf_walker]

If you can still see rifleing and it still cycles, it ain't worn out.

Wait, this is AR not AK.

[danish]

http://www.rainierarms.com/?page=sho...roduct_id=2267

Rainier Select barrels (see link) are nitrided. I have the matte stainless and find it to be an excellent barrel and with the nitriding would only make it better.

[Boss Hogg]

30-50% quoted is a heck of a difference IF we mean reducing 2" groups to 1-1.4" at 100 yards. Nothing to sneeze at for longer distances, although in combat shooting likely not a big deal. I'm from Missouri on this one.

So if you wanted accuracy, would you get a stainless or chrome Noveske barrel?
Are we talking about the civilian/LE market or mass GI use?

Seems that most serious 3 gunners shoot stainless barrels. If I shoot the MGM Ironman next year, it will be with my BCM 18" stainless.

Look on defensereview.com at the accuracy Mike Pannone is getting with his Spike's 5.45 Lothar upper.

[wolf_walker]

I haven't heard anything but good anywhere about that upper in 5.45.
Wish I had the budget to support another round in the house. If I did I'd have to buy another AK though too. Hm..

[jbsmwd]

http://www.rainierarms.com/?page=sho...roduct_id=2267

Rainier Select barrels (see link) are nitrided. I have the matte stainless and find it to be an excellent barrel and with the nitriding would only make it better.

When I talked with them, awhile ago, it sounded like it was a one time run for the nitride barrel. Maybe they will offer it agian.

[Dirtyboy333]

That could very well be true but if my memory serves my correctly Filthy-14 lasted well into the 30,000's or beyond perhaps.

Take what Sweeney says with a grain of salt. He's part of the "just-as-good-as" crowd.

I dont even know who Sweeney is, so i"m not backing him up. The big difference is that Fabius's quote says "match grade accuracy" and Filthy-14 was just "still shooting". If i remember correctly i think it was shooting around 2" at 50 yards. (i'll check on that and edit if needed)

I think SomeOtherGuy's post is spot on and pretty much sums it all up in regards to barrels being "worn out". It's a highly subjective aspect.


ETA: That barrel looks very nice and for a good price Danish. I wish they still offered the nitrided version. Ive heard nitriding can hurt stainless properties (in this thread and elsewhere) but maybe they figured out a good process or, maybe thats why they don't offer them anymore. haha

[Mr blasty]

So how would a Noveske SS barrel do with nitrideing? Will it lose corrosion resistance? There made from 416R SS.

[Fabius]

So how would a Noveske SS barrel do with nitrideing? Will it lose corrosion resistance? There made from 416R SS.

Here's a link indicating that the last part of the QPQ meloniting process should be skipped for stainless steel. http://www.burlingtoneng.com/melonite.html

As for wearing barrels out, I've seen different standards. An old Army study of the barrel life of chrome lining compared to nitro-carburizing and bare steel used a standard of more than 15 degrees of yaw in 20% of the rounds fired from a barrel. They also used a velocity loss criteria, but all of the barrels failed the yaw criteria before reaching the velocity loss threshold.

In that study, the Army compared stellite lined, chromium plated barrels to nitride treated barrels and untreated barrels. The test involved shooting strings fully auto at the rate of 200 rounds per minute. The stellite lined, chrome plated barrels lasted the longest, the nitride treated barrels were a close second and the untreated barrels a distant third. The nitride treated barrels lasted 26,000+ rounds. The chrome barrels lasted 33,000+ rounds. The untreated barrels started failing as early as 2,500 rounds.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate barrel treatment for machine gun barrels, hence the stellite lining of the chambers. I suspect that for an AR 15 barrel that is not stellite lined, the barrel life would be less and probably comparable to a nitride treated barrel. The performance of the nitride treated barrels in that study is pretty impressive, considering that very few civilian shooters will achieve a rate of fire of 200 rounds per minute. It suggests to me that at semi-auto rates of fire, there will be no practical difference in the barrel life of nitride treated barrels and chrome lined barrels.

[BAC]

God dammit, Spikes Tactical!


-B

[Fabius]

for the increased hardness and smoothness of Melonite processing.

So Spikes Tactical is now advertising melonite processing as providing increased hardness and smoothness over chrome lining. Wonder if they'll start offering melonite treated barrels on all their models?