Chrome Moly or Stainless?

cjg_beef

cjg_beef

New member
I'm looking at getting an AR kit from Model 1 Sales and want to know the differences between a chrome moly and stainless steel barrel. Are there advantages to either?
 
The first advantage SS has is no need for a barrel finish. Some say SS has longer life. I always bead blast the SS barrels on hunting rifles to reduce possible flash.
 
No real world advantages when you are talking run of the mill barrels, either will provide you with good accuracy and long life. I have a few barrels in stainless, I have a few in CM, both do an excellent job. One of my uppers came from Model One and it happens to be a stainless 8 twist 20 incher, it seems to be very accurate and I'm quite satisfied with their products. My nieghbor has a 16 inch 8 twist Model One kit with a Chome Moly barrel, it shoots every bit as good as mine.
 
About the only difference I can tell between the two is that the SST barrels seem to copper-foul a little less, and clean up a bit easier. OTOH, a rough SST bore will foul more quickly than will a smooth CM bore, so even that benefit is kind of luck of the draw.

And, from a cleaning standpoint, copper-fouling is almost a moot point nowadays with the advent of brushless foaming bore cleaners like WipeOut.

Mike
 
If/when you get a rough SS barrel, you are dealing with the WRONG company!

All of the Stainless barrels that I have owned have fouled MUCH less than the chome moly barrels that I have had...no comparrison (Hart, Shilen, Lilja, H&S, Atkinson, Pac Nor, Krieger, and Broughton).

Stainless also takes the heat much better than Chrome Moly.
 
For foul weather use the stainless is preferable. I really can not tell the difference in fouling between the two. It is also a definite fact that chrome moly conducts heat better than stainless steel.
John
 
Stainless Steels have a lower thermal conductivity than chrome molly steels at normal firearm temperatures. This means that the heat will be conducted throughout the metal more efficiently and thus quickly in a CM steel barrel. The rate of cooling is a little more complicated because of the variety of surface treatments available in gun barrels.
 
"If/when you get a rough SS barrel, you are dealing with the WRONG company!"

Amen!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
I personally like SS the best but mostly for their Weather resistance to rust. If both CM and SS are of the same quality i don't think the accuracy difference is hardly worth arguing over. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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