salt bath nitride and velocity

[Rich Coyle]

Thanks for all the answers.

I guess I didn't ask the question correctly. So I will try again.

Has anyone who never fired the barrel prior to nitride noticed the barrel brake in after nitride?

The barrel I have was going for nitride, but it's not now. It's stainless.

 

[Oldcappj7]

On mine, Lowest round count was 20 fireforming rounds prior to nitriding on a 338S Bartlien SS. So no.

Jace

 

[Buck Buster]

Pardon me for my ignorance, but could someone tell me what a salt bath nitride barrel is? I have never heard of this till now. Thank you. Hope 2018 will be a good year for all.

 

[elkaholic]

It's a surface hardening process. It was used on crankshaft journals for race engines etc. to resist wear.

 

[Prieto9000]

Thanks for all the answers.

I guess I didn't ask the question correctly. So I will try again.

Has anyone who never fired the barrel prior to nitride noticed the barrel brake in after nitride?

The barrel I have was going for nitride, but it's not now. It's stainless.

I did. I never shot any of my rifles prior to treatment. I saw better performance as I shot them (increased MV and better accuracy). MV was a little higher lets say 25-30 fps, but accuracy improved substantially.

Pardon me for my ignorance, but could someone tell me what a salt bath nitride barrel is? I have never heard of this till now. Thank you. Hope 2018 will be a good year for all.

It´s a heat treatment that hardens the surface of the steel, reduces wear and friction and is very corrosion resistant. It also makes it matte Black.

 

[desertcj]

How many shots did it take for the break in period with nitride?

 

[Prieto9000]

On my 6.5 CM around 100
338 LM around 50
7 mag around 50

accuracy on the 7 mag and the 338 was ok and got great. On the 6.5 accuracy was a little over 1 MOA at the beginning which had me a little concerned, but after 50 rounds it started improving and settled around .3-.5 MOA depending on the bullet after 100 rounds.

Groups shot @ 100m out of my 6.5 CM

 

[L.Sherm]

Typically a non treated barrel takes around 100 rounds to settle down also.

 

[Pdvdh]

I was told early on when this first became popular to be SURE you knew the reputation/ record of the treating company. The temperature needed for a successful treat was only a few degrees short of losing the temper of the barrel.

Rich,
I was going to post that I doubted the temps for nitriding rise to the temps applied to heat stress relieve barrels after button rifling. But further research indicates they are about the same temp.

I know salt bath nitriding temps can exceed brazing temps, because brazed on bolt handles can fall off if the bolt is salt bath nitrided.

But 1,100F is the minimum temp considered necessary for heat stress relieving a barrel. The more important question would be, what elevated temp could be damaging to the steel in a barrel. That, I don't know...

 

[Smokinghole]

Has anyone used H&M for nitriding? I have a quote from them for action and barrel.

 

[desertcj]

Rich,
I was going to post that I doubted the temps for nitriding rise to the temps applied to heat stress relieve barrels after button rifling. But further research indicates they are about the same temp.

I know salt bath nitriding temps can exceed brazing temps, because brazed on bolt handles can fall off if the bolt is salt bath nitrided.

But 1,100F is the minimum temp considered necessary for heat stress relieving a barrel. The more important question would be, what temp would damaging to the steel in a barrel. That, I don't know...

Or an action for that matter. I'm pretty sure that 1,100 degrees is affecting the heat treating of the steel in a barrel or action to some degree.

 

[elkaholic]

I know little about that area, but that was what I was told by more than one source. Another thing that I think is missed is complete cleaning of the bore after nitriding. There is some very persistent rust like crud remaning that took me considerable effort to remove!

 

[Rich Coyle]

Has anyone used H&M for nitriding? I have a quote from them for action and barrel.

I used them a couple times. But since I excel at ignorance I can't say anything except I really like the color.

 

[L.Sherm]

One thing you have to consider is basically on a good hand lapped barrel is your just breaking in the throat so if you nitride before you do that you got what you got.