I'd like to know your opinions, experience, and any advice you can give regarding this specific barrel comparison: Noveske stainless steel 16" Recon with an aftermarket nitride treatment vs Noveske 16" Light Recce. (Yes, I know the Recce is M249 barrel steel with double the chrome lining thickness, not standard chrome lined 4150.)
Lets compare the two on the following points:
Durability - Which will wear faster than the other? This sort of rehashes the "Nitride vs Chrome Lining" debate, but I'd like to specifically compare the M249 barrel steel and lining to the wear reduction benefits of Nitriding when applied to 416 stainless steel. I've already looked into this to a certain extent, and I've found that both offer good corrosion resistance (with nitride being slightly superior to hard chrome) and relatively equal hardness (65-70RC for nitrided 416 and 70-75RC for hard chrome). The hardened layer gained by the nitriding is thicker than the thickness of standard hard chrome plating, with the typical thickness of nitriding being 0.01-0.02" (0.25-0.5mm) and hard chrome barrel lining being around 0.0005" (0.0127mm) IIRC. I would assume that the M249 lining, being double thickness would be approximately 0.001" thick, which is still 1/10th the thickness of nitriding. This, when considered in conjunction with the hardness similarities, would lead me to believe that nitriding would be at least as good if not better than hard chrome for resisting simple erosion. What I couldn't find is how the two compare in terms of heat resistance, or erosion resistance when heated - the factors that actually wear out a barrel. I'm really not interested in "Well my barrel has X,000 rounds through it and still shoots fine." That's great and all, but its an uncontrolled environment and really doesn't prove anything one way or the other. What I would like is someone with an engineering/metallurgy background to share their knowledge or if anyone has a link to any articles that could shed some light on this.
Reliablitity - Chrome lined CMV is pretty tried and true, no argument there. What I am concerned about is 1) the use of stainless steel in a pressure vessel (what a barrel actually is) and 2) the effect of the 900-1000 degree Fahrenheit nitriding process on the temper of the stainless steel. If you don't understand what this has to do with anything, you probably won't understand any explanation I try to give either, so I'm not going to try. Again, it's probably a engineering/metallurgy type thing.
Accuracy - Of course many of you wonder (and will likely make comments about) why I'm concerned with any of this at all and why don't I just buy a barrel and be happy? Well, the balance of accuracy to durability is the key. I'm attempting to build an "all purpose" type of rifle that can effectively fill both a traditional combat rifle role as well as an SPR role. I'm looking for better ability to withstand rapid fire and high volume fire than naked stainless while maintaining at least 1MOA accuracy in a standard weight barrel. I'm not convinced I'm going to get that kind of accuracy out of a chrome lined barrel, but maybe someone can prove me wrong. Just going with the Light Recce would definitely be the less expensive option.
And here... we......... go. Discuss.


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