Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Rifle coatings for Kimber

My wife's 2004 Kimber has picked a decent amount of rust through the years and I'm thinking about coating it.

Birdsong Black T
Cerakote
Black Nitride

Or ?

Any of those would do. It boils down to color availability and her preference.

Thanks,Dinny

I think I've asked this before, but who does the Black Nitride finish?

I think there might be several places that do the process. But when I asked Defiance Machine about doing my new action they said they use H & M Metal Processing for this service. Figure if they use them they must do a good job.

http://blacknitride.com/firearms/

Any of the mentioned coatings are great, the key to a lasting good finish is all in the prep work. Birdsong does an incredible job every time. Heard good things about our own Fosnaugh customs as well.

SPENCE

I think the Nitride finish looks best but any of the coatings mentioned will work fine....Good luck....Hb

I'd pick nitride since it's not a coating but a chemical conversion of the surface. I had a Kimber 1911 salt nitrided by Severns Custom, I have a Valor and V-Bob, both factory nitrided, as well as Bergara AR-15 barrels that are nitrided. I've done a fair amount of Cerakote on rifles, pistols, stocks etc., and it's good for some things but not for a hard use hunting rifle.

There are no dimensional changes with the black nitride finish as there is with the others.

Nitride.

Tagged.

Nitride is far and away the toughest most durable of the finishes you listed. I have limited experience with the others. Except for improving lubricity of a bolt or auto slide which Black-T is good for I would not consider anything other than Nitride.

Does/Can the nitride change the color of stainless?

Yes

I use nothing but black nitrideded stainless steel screws in my Frankenstud Sling Keepers

They are black

Birdsong Black T
Do you realize that Birdsong completely disassembles the action and coats the internal parts also. My son had them coat his Win model 70. Makes a beautiful, tough finish.

Ted...my kimber Montana has a few little surface rust spots here and there and a bunch of scratches and dings..... no way I’m covering up all that hard earned patina 😂

Another vote for nitride. As stated, it's not a coating, and is extremely durable and corrosion resistant.

If you have the barrel and receiver nitrided, make sure you check with the vendor on the process and make sure that it doesn't lower the hardness of the barrel, receiver or bolt. The process is different for stainless compared to CrMo. Here are the Kimber hardness specs.

Stainless barrels: HRC 26-30
Stainless receivers: HRC 40-45
Stainless bots: HRC 40-45

4140 barrels: HRC 26-32
4340 receivers: HRC 45-50
4340 bolts: HRC 48-52

Her rifle is a blued rifle

The processes are slightly different for nitriding, but it's very hard to measure the hardness of the nitrided layer hardness & depth when it's done w/o doing a destructive cross section of the item or one from the same lot.

MM

Does anybody have an estimate on what it costs to do a barreled action on a rifle or shotgun receiver and barrel?