Who's chrome lined barrel to pick?

[riffraff]

Thanks again guys - didn't go into a whole lot of details but here are the beginnings, have the upper (RR), stripped lower (Anderson), plans include a binary trigger.. not a follower of either of those brands but out of the lowers I have the Anderson is a good match to the upper and RR was one of very very few places selling an A2 upper w/ feed ramps - more common you see A1's that are more made to be consistent with replicas it seems to me. I'm not sure these A2's are all the rage, actually kinda uncommon but maybe nobody has caught on yet.

Still haven't bought the barrel - just got distracted with other projects but chipping away and will end up pulling the trigger at some point on the barrel and probably a BCG from the same manufacturer, have an LPK minus trigger and tube here too..

I did look at Colt uppers but damn you pay for what I've witnessed, considered just compromising for a 20 inch even but they don't seem to be cheap and I kinda like the idea of building this one regardless.

As far as accuracy - honestly I'd like a quality barrel for occasional use off a rest and so it should hold up to use and abuse without getting destroyed, but the purpose of this rifle - off my shoulder with iron sights - I shoot about 5 MOA regardless of the rifle .

[5whiskey]

I wonder which barrels folks would choose - chrome, nitrate, or other if they knew it was going to be on a dedicated M16 which will see a good amount of full-auto and/or 3-burst fire? I'm not aware of anything better than chrome, but I really haven't researched this in a long time either.

A select fire rifle with full auto or 3 round burst is the only application I would spend the money on a chrome lined barrel for. That type of barrel eating use is what chrome lining was created for.

Lots of almost, but not quite, correct information here. First off, chrome isn’t necessarily “detrimental” to accuracy. Once upon a time this was true, but technology has advanced such that the technique is easier to “get right” these days. That being said, it is still more difficult and expensive to make a chrome lined barrel as accurate as a standard chrome-moly or nitrided barrel. You want an moa capable chrome lined m4 barrel? Completely possible, but will cost a fair bit more (last I checked, which admittedly has been a few years, about double the price) more than a nitrided barrel.

Likewise, I’m convinced that a nitrided barrel barrel is much better than the old chrome moly barrels without nitriding. While not as hard and wear resistant as chrome, it is quite tough and for standard use (a few thousand rounds a year) think you would get a couple of decades of service before accuracy began to suffer greatly. I think melonite treatment has made the expense of a quality chrome lined barrel about pointless for probably 99% of your standard civilian ar15 owners. I’m also convinced that I prefer all of the above to stainless due to cost. If I’m going to drop SS money, I’ll get a chrome lined barrel.

That chrome lining will be worth it if you engage in mag dumps or FA fire. That heat build up will soften even nitrided steel enough to induce throat erosion much quicker than it would with chrome.

[riffraff]

Been watching for the PSA/FN machine gun steel barrels but they dont ever seem to be stocked as just barrels lately. Looks like what I may do is spring for the whole PSA $360 magpul mid length upper and change out the reciever for my own - will be kinda like buying a complete parts kit, everything other than the reciever I need anyway.