Cleaning up the safe. No matter how much I hit them with corrosion-x, the blued guns I hunt with a lot end up with some rust patches every year.

Thinking on having a few barreled actions black nitrided. I've owned plenty of black nitrided AR barrels (and Glocks obis) but has anyone send a barreled action off to be done? Where to?

That’s wierd, do you have a golden rod, and descant in there with them?

Once you have rust you really have to neutralize it or it will come back

Just did a full 458 win mag that will be exposed to salt environment. Took it to a plating place in Chappel Hill TX to get it done.

Can't report until I've guided a few hunts around the salt though, but SS tends to deal with that kind of ok so I suspect the salt bath will do as well or better.

Mine was done through SAC as part of the build. Not sure who they use, but whoever it is will be good:

https://www.shortactioncustoms.com/melonite-treatment-on-barrels/

This rifle is nitrided. The receiver is SS steel and the barrel is CM steel. The other metal (ie bottom metal) is CM steel. Got snow/rained on in Idaho and no rust issues at all.

In Wyoming:


In Idaho:


In Utah:


Shoots well, this is a 5-shot group. This is about as well as I ever shoot, the rifle is probably capable of better but I'm not! And looks like I air mailed a flyer at the top. Group was still less than 1 inch for 5 shots, plenty good for me. It's 160-grain Accubonds.

Looks great Joel.

Based on my experience, I would much rather have a rifle nitrided than cerakoted.

Thanks!

I agree. I have one rifle that’s cerakoted and it got scratched on it’s first hunting trip in the mountains. Not super impressed.

Ain't no scratching the nitride. Even with a file

Nice rifle.

So what does it cost to have a barreled action done?

I had a Jarrett rifle nitrided (they had it done for me during the build) . My gosh....that was one tough finish. Toughest I’ve ever seen.

My invoice for the above rifle says $450 for the nitriding, but I'm not sure that's the cost of just the nitriding. H&M Blacknitride did the above.

What I mean by I'm not sure if that's the cost is there's more work to nitride to do it right. You should shoot the rifle a bit to get it shooting/make sure it's doing what you want it to do (because after the nitride the barrel won't break in). Then clean, then you have to take everything apart, even the firing pin out, barrel off the receiver, etc. Otherwise there's a risk that salt water will get trapped in the threads and leach out over time. Then there's the shipping cost, return shipping, reassembly, re-firing to make sure the barrel is still doing what you want (not that you could do anything about it then). So my invoice probably reflects cost for the entire process.

I know there's a long debate about barrel break-in and I normally just shoot a barrel and clean it occasionally but if my gunsmith (Kevin Weaver for that one) recommends to do it that way I'm not going to argue with him.

Cerakote, bluing, Black T are much simpler. For the cost of a custom I like the nitride because of how tough it is.

I’ve got a Weatherby custom shop outfitter that has titanium nitrate that’s like a woodpeckers beak, good stuff the paint on the stock is wearing off but all the metal look 100% new. No idea who they used but might be worth a call.

Alright based on everyone's feedback I just called H&M. They said you can just send them a barreled action but if you include the bolt, as mentioned, everything has to be taken apart, firing pin out etc. Even iron sights have to be removed from the barrel. They said they drop it in a heated ultrasonic cleaner after the nitride treatment to get all the salt gunk out so they claim there is no need to unscrew the barrel from the action (though I can see if you were doing a custom build, you might want to). They said it was $100 for a barreled action, which seems very cheap and makes me think I misheard them. Spoke to a guy named Bear.

I am going to send them my 20" Whelen and see what comes of it.

H&M does a great job.

Wow. That is cheap.

I have a couple of questions.
Do they nitride the inside of the barrel as well when they do a barreled action?

Second question is for those who have had it done on a barreled action, did it affect the accuracy you had prior to having the nitriding done?

Lastly, I’m considering doing this to a light barreled Kimber rifle, and was wondering if the heat and temperature used in this method would change the tempered properties of the steel and induce or exaggerate stress in the barrel causing accuracy/wandering issues?

I’d like to have it done on a rifle to make it weatherproof, but would rather not have them take the barrel off the action when doing this, and don’t want to kill the accuracy on a now very accurate rifle.

Thanks.

I emailed and asked about a barreled action with a disassembled bolt and this was the response

Before I send a Kreiger barreled 270 off (that shoots in the .2's)...anyone have a before/after accuracy report?

I'm sending a 35W as a test case, but it doesn't get shot much past 300 yards.

I had my first done about 18yrs ago. It was a Krieger. Best BR barrel that I ever owned. On a regular BR barrel I will set them back about a 1/4" every 1000 rounds or rep[lace it. My Krieger had 5000 rounds on it and it was still strong. It disappeared, but that is a long story. Joel Kendrick, a friend and very good long range shooter, worked for a company in North Carolina that did air struts for car hoods and other apps. Joel was the engineer there and they were melonite treating the shafts. He started doing his own personal barrels and did a few for me. Yes it does the bore. It is a type of case hardening and is approx. .003" deep and is about 60RC. Joel was hired by Parker-Trutek in Paragould, Arkansas. He led them into the barrel business and they are doing 1000s of military barrels now. We had a few done, but they got so busy with the military work and quit taking one at a time. Another friend of mine has my very few done for me when he sends a lot to be treated. Tons of AR barrels are being done for protection from rough weather and handling than for other reasons.

Tag

Might have to contact them for one of my rifles.

Does the nitride coating just protect the outside metal? Any thing protecting the bore? I see the bore as needing the greatest protection. Have never had a speck of rust on my stainless rifles after many years of wet cold snowy hunts.

It protects/hardens the bore too.

Not a coating, it is a case hardening as others have mentioned.

It results in a blue/black color on stainless too (that matches other CM components).

How does it affect accuracy from before and after the process?

Sorry, can't say. Mine was a new Bartlein.

Make sure you have shot your barrel in and it has settled down BEFORE you nitride it...

Once done they don’t wear in like a stock barrel does.

Tag

They do take longer to break in, but last much longer too.

If you start with a premium barrel, no worries.

But I have read where others had bad luck nitriding used barrels.