I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker today about cutting chrome line barrel and I would like to see if anybody here can confirm or deny this.

I was telling this guy that I may cut a new profile and cut the length of one of my AR carbine barrel down to 15” and weld on a FH to save a little weight. According to this guy a chrome lined barrel should not be cut as you can not get a good clean crown on the barrel. He said the chrome lining will chip when you cut the crown because it is brittle and will result in mediocre accuracy at best.
He said that at factory all chrome lining is applied after the barrel is cut and chamber is reamed.

Anybody know there is any truth to this guy’s statement?

They can be cut and crowned.

Quoted: They can be cut and crowned.

+1

+ 2 I have done it

It was recently suggested to me by someone in the industry that the safest way to do it was to plug the bore with a lead slug at the point of cutting to hold the chrome in place and prevent chipping.  Some people seem to not do this and get good results.  In the past few years posting on ARF I have never seen any accuracy reports on any ARs so maybe the results have not been carefully considered.

Quoted: + 2 I have done it

+3 i have had it done to mine

Quoted: It was recently suggested to me by someone in the industry that the safest way to do it was to plug the bore with a lead slug at the point of cutting to hold the chrome in place and prevent chipping.  Some people seem to not do this and get good results.  In the past few years posting on ARF I have never seen any accuracy reports on any ARs so maybe the results have not been carefully considered.

FWIW, I think the modern day chroming process is better than alot of people give it credit for.