Chrome-plating bore?

[Florey55]

Does anyone know where I can get the bores of 4 of my 303 rifles chrome plated.

I have a large stock of 303 military ammunition, 7200+ rounds, mostly corrosive I believe. Chroming would reduce/negate the risk of corroded bores.

My 3 AIA rifles have chromed bores so there must be someone skilled in doing this.. Lithgow did this many years ago when the made the Black Mountain target barrels.

[bladeracer]

Does anyone know where I can get the bores of 4 of my 303 rifles chrome plated.

I have a large stock of 303 military ammunition, 7200+ rounds, mostly corrosive I believe. Chroming would reduce/negate the risk of corroded bores.

My 3 AIA rifles have chromed bores so there must be someone skilled in doing this.. Lithgow did this many years ago when the made the Black Mountain target barrels.

Interesting idea.
Does it add enough chrome to be able to use .308" bullets?

You can buy chrome plating kits so you could always try it yourself.

Did the AIA's come with chrome-plated bores or was it done later on?

I know a guy in Perth that does pretty amazing chrome plating, mainly for bikes and cars.

[jwai86]

You can buy chrome plating kits so you could always try it yourself.

Just as long as he doesn't forget to yell "WITNESS ME!" before doing the chroming

[rc42]

Corrosion is a slow process, I would expect even basic bore cleaning after use to be more than enough to prolong the life of any barrel, no matter what unpleasant combustion by-products have been deposited.

It's heat and pressure that shorten barrel life and cause pitting by causing micro damage with every shot, I wouldn't expect any after market plated coating to be able to deal with that either. Some calibers have a relatively short barrel life and there's little that can be done about it.

[Bugman]

Not being a gunsmith etc, I would have thought that applying chrome to a bore, may well change the characteristics of that barrel, and change the performance of that rifle, and please, those with better info, please correct me.

[Florey55]

Does anyone know where I can get the bores of 4 of my 303 rifles chrome plated.

I have a large stock of 303 military ammunition, 7200+ rounds, mostly corrosive I believe. Chroming would reduce/negate the risk of corroded bores.

My 3 AIA rifles have chromed bores so there must be someone skilled in doing this.. Lithgow did this many years ago when the made the Black Mountain target barrels.

Interesting idea.
Does it add enough chrome to be able to use .308" bullets?

You can buy chrome plating kits so you could always try it yourself.

Did the AIA's come with chrome-plated bores or was it done later on?

I know a guy in Perth that does pretty amazing chrome plating, mainly for bikes and cars.

All AIA have chrome-plated bores as standard, except the B3 model which I also have. The B3 barrel has a NOS barrel from a General Electric Model 134 mini-gun and, in addition to having a tapered bore, is also lined with stellite. Stellite is a super hard cobalt & chromium mix, and this gives the barrel a service life of >100,000 rounds.

[No1Mk3]

There is chrome, and then there is chrome, and neither the twain shall meet! What is on your vehicle shiny bits is not the same as what is on a motorbike fork leg due to difference in wear characteristics, so the fork leg is hard chromed then ground. Rifle bores are also hard chromed then finished so if you want a barrel for a 303 it would be much cheaper to have one made from scratch than to try to chrome line an existing barrel. Just shoot the MkVII and clean with hot water then your normal bore clean regimen.

[Larry]

There is chrome, and then there is chrome, and neither the twain shall meet! What is on your vehicle shiny bits is not the same as what is on a motorbike fork leg due to difference in wear characteristics, so the fork leg is hard chromed then ground. Rifle bores are also hard chromed then finished so if you want a barrel for a 303 it would be much cheaper to have one made from scratch than to try to chrome line an existing barrel. Just shoot the MkVII and clean with hot water then your normal bore clean regimen.

Exactly it is not an Electroplating thing like the shiny chrome on cars it is the hard metal combined with the steel in the manufacturing process.

[dnedative]

Just cleaning it would be easier, its not even close to difficult, push a few wet patches through, a few dry ones and then a few with some solvent/oil/clp.

[disco stu]

Somewhat related question. I was looking at getting a Russian (there's a dirty word currently) 22, from memory it was a Toz 17 maybe, second hand. These things came with an "anodized bore". Steel barrel of course

Could never work it out, but is that a translation error for chromed bore?

[bladeracer]

Somewhat related question. I was looking at getting a Russian (there's a dirty word currently) 22, from memory it was a Toz 17 maybe, second hand. These things came with an "anodized bore". Steel barrel of course

Could never work it out, but is that a translation error for chromed bore?

Could be anodized, could even be Ti-Ni if it has a gold appearance.
I don't think Ti adds any thickness as it impregnates the steel to make it much harder.

[No1Mk3]

Somewhat related question. I was looking at getting a Russian (there's a dirty word currently) 22, from memory it was a Toz 17 maybe, second hand. These things came with an "anodized bore". Steel barrel of course

Could never work it out, but is that a translation error for chromed bore?

Could be anodized, could even be Ti-Ni if it has a gold appearance.
I don't think Ti adds any thickness as it impregnates the steel to make it much harder.

Nitriding barrels, also called Melonite (trademark) coating in the US, is becoming very popular with High Power shooters, it does alter bore sizes and so is only applied to barrels that have already been "shot in" or to barrels oversized during production. It is considered to have better accuracy potential than chrome plate but is a little less durable. If a bore is to hard chromed it must first be re-machined, ie: overbored and rifling re-cut, before plating and finishing. The US offered chrome bores in the 1920's but it never really caught on then Russia and Japan were first to commercially chrome bores, the Jap Type 99 Arisaka for example has a chrome bore, The anodized bore of the TOZ 17 is achieved via electrolysis in a sulphuric acid solution, again applied to an oversized bore until correct thickness of coating is achieved then the bore is lapped to gauge. Even with all these coatings mercuric primed ammo needs to be cleaned afterwards, Cheers.

[disco stu]

Thanks. More info than I've been able to find in all my searching.

So anodizing steel would give an iron oxide surface, but I wasn't aware that any of the iron oxides were any harder or more resilient than the steel. I'm still puzzled by how it works.

Unless they're electroplating aluminum in a thin layer and anodizing that?