Does anyone have any firsthand experience with barrel nitriding? Before I send off a barrel to MMI TruTec (in Arkansas), I'd like a little more confidence the accuracy of my .300 RUM (and later .270 Wby Mag and .338 RUM) won't deteriorate. And, I'd like to double the barrel life of my Lilja 416R ss and LW-50 ss overbore barrels. Here's the best of my research on this topic to date. Can anyone add firsthand experience? -- C. Smock
“Salt Bath Nitriding doesn't degrade accuracy one iota, unlike chrome lining. This was the first thing that I verified when I began using the process. I broke in a bunch of barrels and then machine rest tested them for group. I recorded and kept the targets, cleaned up the barrels, and sent them to MMi TruTec for the Isonite process. When they came back I reassembled them on the same receivers with the same torque settings, same bolt carrier assemblies, same flash suppressors, etc. Then they were retested with the same ammo lots. NO degradation in accuracy and about a 1% increase in muzzle velocity.” -- butchlambert (the Armorer for the Army Reserve Shooting Team for over a decade), Sep 29, 2012
MMI TruTec calls their salt bath nitriding process “Isonite.”