Chrome lined barrel vs. non-chrome lined

[Saiga223]

What are the advantages/disadvantages of not having a chrome lined barrel versus having one, if any?

 

[marine4life]

Chrome lined barrels will hold up longer as long as you clean them on a regular basis. Military purchases all chrome lined. Longevity is the key. They will take thousands of rounds through them and hold up to the abuse. Plus it is really nice to see what your cleaning. You can see all the debris you are missing. But you must keep them clean.

 

[GreenfieldGunny]

Well, for starters. The Chrome Lining is much harder than the material the barrel is made out of. So that makes cleaning the barrel much easier, it make also makes is much more durable. You wont go wrong with a chrome lined upper, my best advice is to go chrome lined and dont look back. If your looking for barrels I highly recommend BCM barrels and uppers. I ordered mine and received it and have zero complaints. All of there barrels are complete military specs, including chrome lining. Just my

 

[machete]

no advantage to chrome unless youre in vietnam -- it hurts your groups

putting foreign substance in barrels is never a good idea

 

[Hoosier8]

I cannot verify this but I have read that unlined barrels will give you better accuracy but chrome lined barrels will be good for those times you cannot keep up on cleaning.

For my use, it makes no sense to spend extra for a chrome lined barrel since I clean my regularly anyway.

 

[Saiga223]

So from what I can gather a non-chromed barrel tends to be more accurate, but you have to keep it cleaner because it is not as durable, right? The reason I am asking is because I am new to the AR-15 platform and the upper receiver I got at the 1500 from the Double Star table has a non-chromed barrel. I clean my guns after every range trip so that should not be an issue for me, but I can see how the military would want that feature. Thanks for the replies, very helpful indeed!

 

[Dwight D]

My background is I am a former USMC marksmanship instructor and competition shooter. I personally took the first 300 M16A2's from the crate for the 1985 Eastern Division matches at Camp Lejeune. I have heard the chrome lined barrels wont shoot myth for years and it simply is not true. I have fired and seen fired scores over 95 percentile fired at the 200, 300 and 600 yard lines on both USMC qual courses and NRA High Power courses with STOCK M16A2's and ball ammo. No match barrels or triggers, no Sierra match bullets, just straight stock. Personally I think that is pretty accurate. All our guns had chrome lined barrels. This was back in the day when we as the norm fired the M16 during qualification and entry level matches and match M14's in all the bigger matches. I requested and was granted permission to fire my newly issued M16A2 with 55gr ball ( the SS109 round was not yet available) at a NRA match at Lejeune prior to the 85 eastern div. match. I did not expect to do well against all the match guns, but was willing to sacrifice that small match for more range time with the A2 prior to the Eastern Division. To my knowledge I was the first person to ever fire a M16A2 in a sanctioned NRA high power match. I won the Expert category that day, winning the 200 and 300 yd line, 2nd place to a M14 at the 600, and match overall in the Expert category. I was at that time a "TYRO" in most matches, as I was a 1st year competition shooter. We at the time never thought the M16A2 would come to rule NRA High Power like it does now. However I personally believed with the reduced recoil it was a major advantage during the rapid fire stages. No one had even thought about modifications like free floated barrels and stuff like that. With the 3 shot burst trigger pack you got 2 heavy pulls and 1 light pull and we hand cycled the action between shots during the standing to get the lighter pull for the off hand shots. We still managed pretty well and did manage to post some Master scores, still with non modified guns and ball ammo. I seriously believe there are only 2 types of barrels acceptable on a AR platform. Either a top of the line match barrel for competition or a chrome lined barrel for combat/self defense. On a dual use rifle, I would opt for chrome lined every time.
Non chromed lined barrels will jam when they get hot. I mean really hot. Extraction from a non- chromed lined barrel that is hot and dirty is sometimes just to difficult for the mechanism to compensate. By the book,the max sustained rate of fire for an M16 is only 12-15 rounds per minute. Ask any Combat infantryman how realistic that is, not very. It is nothing to run 60-90 rounds through a gun in a minute in semi auto mode. Every non chromed lined barrel gun that I have put the heat to jams up at around the 2-300 round mark when I am pouring the coals on. Anyway just my 2 cents, but IMO the only reason non chromed lined barrels are on the market today is that some makers figured out they could make them cheaper, increase profit margin, advertise them as Chrome-Moly, and the average shooter would not know the difference or get the gun hot enough to figure out there was a problem. In a 16 inch, M4 platform the problems are even worse. If self defense or combat is ever a possibility for the rifle, chrome lined is the only way to go. But that is just the opinion of one old Marine, your mileage may differ.

 

[billt]

One plus for Chrome lined barrels is they are a bit more resistant to heat checking in the throat area over Chrome Moly. If you don't shoot your gun rapid fire, and keep barrel temperatures low enough so you can always touch your barrel, and clean it regularly, you will gain little to nothing with Chrome lining. I agree with the above post in that Chrome lined barrels are not less accurate. The big advantage is rust and heat check prevention. Bill T.

 

[bcbz71]

Ask yourself this question: Are any of my other guns (rifles, shotguns, pistols) chrome lined?

 

[trnsplntfrmohio]

I say go for chrome lined. In a SHTF scenario the difference in accuracy is not going to be significant enough to endanger your life or the life of the ones you are protecting. It will hold up better and needs less cleaning and makes it a lot easier to clean.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Weird, the FN SPR rifles have chrome-lined barrels and they come with an out of the box MOA guarantee. How could a company guarantee the accuracy to be equal or better than most, if not all, precision rifles in the industry on their chrome-lined barrel if chrome-lined wasn't as accurate?

Just food for thought.... I don't have an FN SPR so I can't really say much for actual accuracy, but from what I've heard they're spectacular shooters.

 

[SnoopLoggyDog]

Ask yourself this question: Are any of my other guns (rifles, shotguns, pistols) chrome lined?

Why yes, both my SAR-1 and SKS are chrome lined, as are my AR-15s. When compared to American ammo, new manufactured Russian ammo is mildly corrosive. Chrome lining offers longer barrel life, easier extraction, better corrosion resistance, and easier cleaning for a semi-automatic rifle. Pistols and Shotguns have much lower ammo capacities, cyclic rates and chamber pressures.

 

[ATM]

Lots of threads here with most people saying pretty much the same things.

It always comes back to the supposed loss of accuracy vs. all the other advantages of chrome lining.

Maybe that was the case years ago but doesn't seem to be much of a factor these days.

Here's a few threads, starting with a fairly recent one:

https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/long_guns/101250-chromed_barrel_accuracy.html

https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/long_guns/31653-chrome_or_no_chrome_on_ar_barrel.html

https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/long_guns/24539-ar15_barrel_chrome_lined_or_not.html

 

[Yeah]

Weird, the FN SPR rifles have chrome-lined barrels and they come with an out of the box MOA guarantee. How could a company guarantee the accuracy to be equal or better than most, if not all, precision rifles in the industry on their chrome-lined barrel if chrome-lined wasn't as accurate?

Just food for thought.... I don't have an FN SPR so I can't really say much for actual accuracy, but from what I've heard they're spectacular shooters.

I have 2, and they shoot all right. They can't agg like something I can build for a similar cost. Like most all others, the accuracy 'guarantee' is worth exactly as much as the paper it is printed on.

The accuracy drop off that comes with chrome lining is beyond what most shooters can hold but it is still there. You don't see the benchrest crowd using chrome, and if it could make barrels last longer and still compete, they certainly would.

I'm sure there are applications where chrome is worth the cost but I hunt and shoot in some pretty ugly weather and never felt I needed more than stainless + moly to keep the bore in shape.

Skip the cleaning regardless.

 

[sloughfoot]

I have an AR service rifle with a stock Colt chromed 1X7 barrel. It shoots clean (100 points) out to 300 yards in NRA Highpower.

My other service rifle has a 1X8 Wilson barrel. It also shoots clean (100 points) out to 300 yards. It usually gives me more X's though...

How much accuracy do you need? This recurring argument over chromed vs plain can never be resolved it seems.

I am perfectly happy with either.

 

[451_Detonics]

Most people will not wear out a non chromed barrel. You would have to shoot hundreds of cases of ammo to do so. The biggest reason for the chrome lined was easier to clean and yes...it does decrease accuracy.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Most people will not wear out a non chromed barrel. You would have to shoot hundreds of cases of ammo to do so. The biggest reason for the chrome lined was easier to clean and yes...it does decrease accuracy.

Hundreds of cases? Are we assuming that a case = 1,000 rounds like most normal cases?

Are you saying a non-chromed barrel will last hundreds of thousands of rounds?

I have to disagree with that.

Word from a close friend that is working in Afghanistan says they're burning through their barrels in about 20k-30k rounds. That should be a chrome-lined bore. So at 20k rounds their chrome-lined barrels are hitting the point where accuracy diminishes, I'm sure a non-chromed bore will hit that in a lot less. I think it would be easy for a person to burn out a barrel. Heck, .308 barrels start to hit their limits around 6-10k. Many people burn through barrels multiple times in their life.