Nitride/meloniting a new barrel

[JJMoody]

Maybe this subject has been vetted in the past, but it's a new idea for me. What are your experiences (good and/or bad) with the nitride or melonie process for a newly chambered barrel? It seems from the little I've read, it could be a good business decision to have some components receive this treatment ( double++? barrel life for a couple hundred bucks). There were a few threads on here from a few years ago but not much in the way of definitive answers currently. Don't see many posts on here about it.

 

[JJMoody]

Anybody?

 

[Mikecr]

Plenty over here:
Set Search Parameters
Enter 'MELONIT'

 

[Dgd6mm]

JJ, over on 6br pay attention to what Butch Lambert post on the melonited barrels. Also research Joel Kendricks. We sent six barrels out to MMI Trutec some years back. I have not shot them enough to know, both barrels are off the actions right now. One is a 7 rsaum and the other is a 6mm wildcat. The 6mm will be going on soon and I am going to run it hard with faster powder and in Tactical matches. As far as my buddies barrels are doing, I understand the .243's are holding up pretty good, they are being ran hard in Tactical.

 

[JJMoody]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm slowly planning out a 300NM build and think I'd like to have something that'll go and go for quite some time, as I plan on really spending some time behind the trigger hunting and practicing at extended ranges. What I'm seeing is that brass will have about 3-4 firings and barrel life 1000-1500 without the meloniting. I'm trying to find out if it makes sense to do this in the larger calibers as well. Again I really appreciate the info and I will be combing through the reccomended posts as well. Keep em comin

 

[Rockfish Dave]

Had all of mine done.

Zero issues with accuracy when comparing before vs. after.

Cleaning is noticeably easier.

By doing batches, I cut the cost down a little. It adds around 7% to the total cost of the barrel (depending on the options such as fluting, gain twist rifling, and what not since those add to the cost). It will not take much of an increase in useful life to break even.

I had noticed a lack of copper fouling in the barrels. I'm not sure if it is because I broke my barrels in before hand or not, but I didn't get any noticeable copper traces when doing a deep clean.

For the ease of maintenance, corrosion resistance, and super tough black mat finish (it can be worn off, for example glock slides are treated and those can wear off with repeated holstering. The case hardness remains though.) it seems worth while to me.

I had never worn out one of my treated barrels so I cannot testify as to actual increase in life or not.

Now most of my stuff is sold off, but if I were to do it all over again, I'd do it again for what it's worth.