So I am want to pick up another upper for a truck gun. PSA has some great prices on their .223 Wylde. How, none of them have chrome lined barrels. How important is the chrome lining?
How important are chrome lined barrels??
- Thread starter Firemedic54
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Unless you’re going to do massive mag dumps or not clean your firearm fairly decently chrome lining is not really needed. For SHTF carbine it would be nice but for the average guy not a deal breaker and in fact chrome lined barrels tend to not have the accuracy as non-lined.
Ikarus1
Avtomat Krishna-kov
for a semi-auto shooting modern US made ammo? exactly zero. Last I checked my most accurate firearms didn't have any chrome lining. But my 2 stroke cylinder does. Just don't burn dirty corrosive ammo at high rates of fire without cleaning and you'll be fine.
I would imagine they serve the same purpose in rifles as shotguns. A Chrome lined barrel is much easier to clean since it's smoother and adds an amount of corrosion protection. But it could be two different worlds that we're looking at. The rifle has direct contact with the projectile whereas the shotgun only contacts the plastic wad of the shot shell. Worth the cost?? In a shotgun, definitely. In a rifle, maybe, maybe not.....
Stainless barrels and melonite barrels are better than chrome lined IMO. The rifling is more crisp and accurate because it does not have a plating applied to it after it is cut. Melonite is supposed to be very wear resistant without the downside to accuracy. I think at this point, chrome lined is old technology for the semiautomatic AR.
I believe consensus is that until you get to 10k+ rounds and those being pretty heavy use, the chrome lining doesn't matter. After that, I believe it just means you've likely worn out the chrome lining and then still have a barrel with good life left that is still accurate. Compared to a non-CL barrel, which would then be worn out, or in other words less accurate and with poorer performance.
Ikarus1
Avtomat Krishna-kov
Yep. My last 2 AR's have had Nitride (Melonite) and Stainless barrels, respectively.
Like @NCFubar says I've read several times that chrome lining is less accurate. My AR has chrome lining and will sport quarter size groups at 50 yards from a bench, and that'll open up to lemon size offhanded. Carbine using cheap ammo.
Plus, I can't see s**t.
I'm happy with that. It's not a precision rig but it works good. Chrome lining wouldn't be my deciding factor on the rifle I really wanted anyway, good or bad. If it had it, ok. If it didn't, ok.
Plus, I can't see s**t.
I'm happy with that. It's not a precision rig but it works good. Chrome lining wouldn't be my deciding factor on the rifle I really wanted anyway, good or bad. If it had it, ok. If it didn't, ok.
It is not needed unless you shoot corrosive ammo and don't clean afterwards, but that is unlikly with a AR.
A bunch of PSA’s barrels are nitride now. I’ve got 2 of their 7.62x39 nitride barrels, and they’re very accurate. I believe PSA is producing their own nitride barrels now.