Is anyone familiar with Superior Barrels' product (i.e., Lothar Walther barrels with Superior Barrels proprietary processing).
Their website is http://www.superiorbarrels.com and they are featured in the current issue of Small Arms Review.
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Is anyone familiar with Superior Barrels' product (i.e., Lothar Walther barrels with Superior Barrels proprietary processing).
Their website is http://www.superiorbarrels.com and they are featured in the current issue of Small Arms Review.
I can tell you it is so damn hard carbide bits will not touch it, or will a grinding wheel. It is also very corrosion resistant.
I don't think they come up with the process, there are several companies in the midwest that do that treatment. It is a type of Nitro-Carburizing.
is the bore "hard blue?"Quote:
Proprietary Hard Blue treated with an estimated 20+K rounds accurate barrel life.
Yes it is blued inside and out, we tested 2 -6.8 versions in Texas last Aug.
they were part of the 6.8 performance test but they were so hard and slick the pressure trace strain gages would not adhere to the barrel.
The "Blue" is for stainless and I think Superior may be the only ones that use it.
They are both Ferritic Nitro Carburizing processes but different purge, rinse and quench sequences.
The 4150 CM black barrels are used by LWRC, POF, some military contractors and US at the moment, could be others.
The same treatment is used on the minigun barrels and some of the newer VMMGs.
how does hard blue compare to CL for durability?
I'm not sure anyone has enough rounds through one of their barrels to say for sure. John and Matt of Superior Barrels are great guys and John is a former rocket scientist. I think all of their "hard blue" barrels are now chrome moly. They have found that there is no benefit to stainless when using the hard blue treatment. They even say that their testing showed the CM is more corrosion resistant than the SS when both are hard blued. I have one of there 20" barrels but havn't put it together yet. One thing about their barrels is that they're not really designed to be tactical. They're more for accuracy minded individuals like highpower and varmint shooters. They don't offer pinned on FSBs or gasblocks either.
that's actually just fine with me- i've come to the conclusion that i'd rather pin my own FSB anyway, due to recent issues.
the site says they expect they'll do 15-20k before "accuracy loss." if that's true, and you get precision accuracy with that, and it's as corrosion resistant as CL, it'll kind of dodo-bird chrome-lining.
Love ya, constructor! I was having this conversation with a fellow materials guy and I concluded that the "blue" referred to "salts" as in "salt bath" and I BELIEVED the process to be an 'advanced' ferritic nitrocarburization process which probably involved super polishing PRIOR to the process.
You are correct about CM vs. SS. With the SS ferritic nitrocarburization is softer than and less corrosion resistant than a CM sample with the same process.
I noticed that they were out of barrels (that i'd be interested in) at the moment and I do believe I'd like a Rock Creek Barrels bolt gun barrel with their process. I need to phone someone at Superior Barrels to have this discussion.
Thanks for the insight, my friend. I'll keep everyone posted on the progress.
Today is a GOOD day!
I know Superior won't treat customer supplied barrels. Other people have asked about this, including myself, and they stated they won't do it. If your looking for a melonite treatment which is similar, take a look at hefusa.net. They have been treating barrels for benchrest shooters at a cost of $100 a barrel. Look in the bottom left corner of their homepage for info.
Thanks, sniperfrog. I looked on their website and they stated they would not process other barrels. I understand the complexities & potential risks of doing so. I'd love to have a "match" chromoly barrel from them but they are out at the moment.
I just spoke with Mike Rock of Rock Creek Barrels (helluva guy, btw and he's a Metallurgist which I don't think any other barrel makers are). He's familiar with Lothar Walther Barrels and Superior Barrels - he has access to equipment needed to do metallurgical analysis - and the "melonite"/"tuftride"/"tennifer"/ ferritic nitrocarburization process is quietly being done by several companies including your reference. He and I were discussing the different types of nitrocarburization and I had to grab my Metallurgy text and go to LSU to obtain a Molybdenum-Oxygen phase diagram today to follow where he was going. The man's a true walking, talking, barrel making encyclopedia of knowledge! And I'm a practicing engineer who loves metallurgy but his knowledge surpasses mine.
Long story short: Stainless or Cromoly, fully stress relieved, 5R cut rifling, nitrocarburize is his belief which I share, too, though I like cold hammer forging. If the latter isn't properly stress relieved - and most aren't as they are forged very, very close to final geometry - there can be issues. I advocate cryogenic treating ANY cold hammer forged barrel anyway so it's not an issue to me. Since I don't cut on barrels I've no tools to prematurely wear out due to the CHF grain structure. :p
I'll call Superior Barrels tomorrow.