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Posted: 2/16/2008 11:39:05 PM EDT
| What's the difference between the stainless steel and carbon barrels? Any info would be greatly appreciated, thanks. |
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"What's better...Ford or Chevy?" You'll get various opinions on both sides...everyone's right...everyone's wrong. As I understand it...SS Barrels GENERALLY last longer, are easier to maintain and less susceptible to handling damage from bad cleaning techniques...and cost more to make and buy. BUT Chrome-Moly are believed to be GENERALLY more accurate...except for the MOST EXPENSIVE, designer match SS Barrels. For high-volume shooting go SS if you can afford one of the better SS Brands. For carefull, precision shooting, a moderately priced CM barrel may deliver more affordable accuracy...but you'll have to be more carefull with your cleaning....IMHO. Let the 'Flames begin! |
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I hate to disagree with the previous posts, but there's a reason stainless steel is the barrel of choice for almost all sniper rifles and competition rifles out there, foreign and domestic. Stainless steel is a more uniform blend of steel than chrome-moly, which means it cuts and machines more cleanly and precisely than chrome-moly. This results in smoother rifling and better bore concentricity, but more importantly it means the barrel will wear evenly along its bore length. it will stay usefully accurate longer than chrome-moly will. Chrome-moly barrels generally burn-out in specific spots due to the bullet passing over several different types of metal in the bore: You shoot it until you start noticing key-holing rounds in your target at which point you'll see a specific spot somewhere in the bore where the rifling is gone, though the rifling may still be clean and sharp in an adjacent area. A Stainless steel barrel will not wear out in spots, but along its entire length very evenly. Take a look down the barrel of a well-used SS barrel and you'll notice it's the same throughout. Stainless steel will not withstand heat like a chrome-moly barrel will, which is why some form of chrome-moly is used on most volume-fire weapons like assault rifles and belt-fed MGs. Granted, how the barrel is made makes a huge difference and a good chrome-moly barrel may well be more accurate than a lesser-made SS barrel, but all other things being equal, a SS is more accurate than a chrome-moly one. |
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Very little or no difference in accuracy between the carbon steel and stainless in good barrels. Stainless may have the throat shot ouf faster than a carbon steel barrel, all depending on the powder and cartridges used. Stainless is less apt to rust than a carbon steel barrel but will still rust and pit if abused. The chrome lined carbon steel barrel is probably the best compromise between the two. They say accuracy is hurt with a chrome lining on carbon steel but most shooters never get the full accuracy potential out of a barrel anyway. |
Barrels wear at the throat where heat and pressure are highest by leaps and bounds. You'll see fliers LONG before you'll start keyholing. On an M1/M14, you can't go and re-cut the breech as you would a bolt gun, so you will never get to the point where the barrel wears anyplace but the throat.
http://www.kriegerbarrels.com/FAQ-c1246-wp3352.htm |
Military M14s are not high volume fire weapons and will notice accuracy issues at the throat first as you state, but the M4, M16, M249 and M240 are all chrome-moly barrels of some blend or another and all burn out somewhere in the barrel rifling, not the throat. Lining helps, but not cures. Take a step back and look at how the two types of barrels are used by militaries all over the world. That speaks volumes: Stainless is overwhelmingly used where precision outweighs volume in importance, chrome-moly is used where durability is premium. As for Krieger, they make barrels out of both stainless and chrome-moly and would hardly pick a favorite child publiclly. They also make both types on the same equipment, which is obviously first rate, so they may well not detect a difference between their versions of both barrels anyway. |
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Newbie here... I'm looking at the SA M1A option s now and the SS barrel is a match grade, where the standard barrel is not. So my question is concerning the question of the type of ammo. Aren't match barrels less reliable with non-match ammo? I like the SS accuracy benefit but I'd also like to be able to use cheaper ammo, maybe even decent bulf ammo for blasting/practicing. Thx |
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Some cleaning solvents will leach out copper ions when used on SS and pit them. One needs to follow cleaning directions when you are using some of the strong copper removing cleaners. Don't know if the SS composition is different now and this is not as big a deal but I've seen some wierdly pitted SS BBLs in years past. |
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