Originally Posted By: LocoseamonkeyOriginally Posted By: arlaunchI wonder if chrome lined barrels would handle the stress a little better?
I would like to think that it does. After all, isn't that the purpose to chrome line a barrel? To make it harder and last longer.
It would increase life, but at a cost. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Chroming the barrel decreases accuracy because the barrel has to be over bored because the chrome will take up some space.
Apples to apples, a lined barrel generally will not shoot as well as an unlined, properly bored barrel because the chrome will not lay in uniformly.
The reality about barrel life, is that most guys are not running their rifles hard enough to ever wear out a barrel. Chrome lined barrels might be a necessity for military applications that involve full automatic rates of fire without cooldown time. That doesn't happen in the average shooters world. In our world, accuracy matters more than rate of fire. In full auto applications accuracy by volume is the rule of thumb so accuracy takes a back seat to rate of fire.
So UNLESS you plan on raking predators, paper or trash with full auto fire, or you are going to be punishing your barrel with high rates of fire without cooling it down, like we did during 3 gun matches, then chrome lined barrels are not a necessity and you may not be satisfied with the lack of accuracy.
Being a competitive pistol and rifle shooter I have seen barrels subjected to some very extreme punishment. My first factory Glock barrel in my 17 lasted more than 50,000 rounds. I replaced it with a stainless barrel that lasted over 75,000 rounds. I am on barrel #3 for my Glock and am now approaching the 200,000 round mark and the gun is going strong. Barrels wear out on my Glock because of my rate of fire during a stage without cooldown, not just round count. If I slowed down and allowed a little bit more time between shots my barrels would last a lot longer. So in my case, a chrome lined barrel could be justified because at the ranges that I shoot, accuracy isn't as critical. But with my rifle, accuracy is critical. I ran a stainless, unlined barrel for years and never shot it out during competition, so I don't think that most predator hunters will shoot out a barrel even with a suppressor. There are exceptions of course, such as guys running calibers like the .243 that tend to be harder on barrel life than other calibers.