stainless barrel and nitrocarburizing

[retrorichard]

Does anyplace nitrocarburize stainless barrels? Is it worth it? Any cons?

 

[armed ferret]

might as well go CM if you're gonna nitride it. it lowers the corrosion resistance of stainless, but increases it for CM (to beyond the levels of stainless itself). kinda pointless to spend extra cash on stainless and then make it....less so.

truth be told, FNC is more a case color hardening effect (heat treating process); as such it doesn't work as well on stainless. yes, it will work, but not nearly as well as on CM.

seriously...if you want stainless, go stainless. if you want nitrided so you can use a big word to impress people, go CM.

 

[retrorichard]

Im more interested in nitriding a stainlsss barrel to help its longevity.

 

[armed ferret]

well, by decreasing its corrosion resistance, you're not necessarily increasing its longevity. again, look to CM for a better barrel than a nitrided SS when the work is done.

i'll try to put it more succinctly.

bare stainless > bare CM

nitrided CM > nitrided stainless

unless you have a stainless barrel and read about a whiz-bang process you think would be nifty to add a bell and/or whistle. what is this barrel going to be for?

 

[retrorichard]

A 308 ar build. I origionally wanted to get a cm barrel; but it was backordered like crazy. So when a stainless came on sale i bought it.

I origionally wanted to nitride the cm barrel and was thinking of doing the same for this one. I had heard about possible rust issues on stainless; but i didnt know if those issues have bee resolved or are still current issues.

 

[TheBulge]

$75 plus shipping.
http://www.wmdguns.com/upgrades.php

 

[armed ferret]

A 308 ar build. I origionally wanted to get a cm barrel; but it was backordered like crazy. So when a stainless came on sale i bought it.

I origionally wanted to nitride the cm barrel and was thinking of doing the same for this one. I had heard about possible rust issues on stainless; but i didnt know if those issues have bee resolved or are still current issues.

there's no resolution. it isn't a spray-on coating. unless you plan on shooting INSANELY hot loads (gas gun, REALLY bad idea) or shooting thousands of rounds a year, there's no reason for nitriding a stainless barrel.

 

[retrorichard]

Thanks for the advice, ill probably pass on the nitriding then.