Like anything else, you get what you pay for. There is the chrome plating done on the bumpers on toy plastic cars and also the chrome plating done on aerospace components. They are not the same. Additionally, the metallurgical processes of today are not the same as they were in the 1960s.


I know of no instance where the chrome in a carrier, chamber or barrel has "flaked off."
Does anyone out there know of such an event? If chrome were prone to flaking in this application, it certainly would not continue to be used inside the carrier, chamber and barrel.

Smith Enterprises, Les Baer, Panther Arms/DPMS and Bob Cogan/Accurate Plating & Weaponry all report no such problems. With the volume of chromed bolts/carriers that they have procduced, can no one point to a defective one?Would you produce a chromed bolt, which if defective could ruin a very expensive rifle?  

The military probably doesn't use chrome because the additional process is expensive and the silver flash of color is sniper bait. and Black chrome is not the same as chrome.