New to 6mmBR.com and wondering about the Armoloy process...

[BobfromVegas]

My dad and I just started getting into long range shooting (grew up a sporting clay shooter) and I was doing some reading and came across the 6.5-284 page and read that the biggest drawback to this cartridge was the short barrel life. I've also read about the armoloy process (inspired by the old man's awesome .44mag that is armoloy coated) and wondered why no one uses this coating process for their barrels...
I saw that some stiller actions use this process, and this made me wonder more about its application. Would it extend barrel life? Is the internal temperature of the barrel too high for the process to be effective? Would it cause too great of a change in barrel internal diameter, even though it is a very "thin" coating?
Hope I'm not bringing up a stupid question, but it was one neither me or my dad could figure an answer to, so I figured this was the best place to ask it.
Thanks for the replies in advance!

 

[holstil]

I'll take a stab at this.
I think it's because commitment is involved and, well, men (and some women) are just geared for options. Just kidding, sort of. It is my understanding that these type treatments case harden the steel enough to render it finished as far as re threading and re chambering in case it doesn't perform as desired. I think once the verdict is in that it is proven (as far as proven needs to be for someone), there will be more people doing it. The cost might have something to do with it to. I think these processes (if these are the same type) change the color of the material.
I'll be sending an action off for this in the near future. I felt an action that had this done to it and it was slick as cat poo on linoleum. Joel Kendrick is a rep for a similar thing and I felt his stuff before and after.
Hopefully we'll get some more input on this. I think I searched for this before and found some interesting info.

Welcome, Jim

 

[Steve Blair]

Armoloy is a thin, chrome coating and suitable for wear components. Salt bath nitriding and variants, such as the MMI Trutec process that Joel Kendrick represents, penetrate the metal. Nitriding provides a very hard surface with little dimensional change and is also used for wear components. When a barrel is nitrided, the entire surface, inside and out, is hardened. Military barrels are routinely hard chromed in the chamber and bore but no one would likely do that to a precision target barrel. Salt bath nitriding apparently produces little or no accuracy change. The jury may still be out on the overall benefit.

I have a Colt .45 auto with Armoloy coating from the eighties and MMI Trutec has processed two barrels for me, one of which I shot 349 rounds. I am pleased with both processes in their respective applications.