melonite a barrel?

go to the gunsmith forum..
my answer is only your wallet will hurt
mine shots as well and fouls less
slight vel increase, easier to clean.
 
I've done one barrel. I won a yardage and grand at the super shoot with it. Screwed it off to have it "immortalized" aka melonited! It never shot again. You couldn't hit a pie plate with it. Several other shooters did the same thing. None of them shot!
 
bart, and all,
it had too many rounds thru it at that point. too late to melonite.
it needs to be a very fresh bbl.
mine had 50 and it was considered marginal.
25 or less maybe.
10-15 by some sources.

Bart said:
I've done one barrel. I won a yardage and grand at the super shoot with it. Screwed it off to have it "immortalized" aka melonited! It never shot again. You couldn't hit a pie plate with it. Several other shooters did the same thing. None of them shot!
Click to expand...
 
I guess that could be! The barrel had only shot the SS. I can promise you I won't stick my head back in that trap.

Bart
 
come on bart you can afford it.
take a good shooter, that maybe you do not think is
match quality low round count..LOW.
document the group size, send it out,
and then see it it shoot the same
when it comes back.
how about a 30 br that shoots well ?
 
did you run out of powder room ?
i 'THINK" they come back a little slicker.
up or down on the tune ?
hell you are the shooter, not me.
Bart said:
I've done one barrel. I won a yardage and grand at the super shoot with it. Screwed it off to have it "immortalized" aka melonited! It never shot again. You couldn't hit a pie plate with it. Several other shooters did the same thing. None of them shot!
Click to expand...
 
Bart was that SS 2012?
2 other guys, we know did the same. Barrels were junk after. Could not get 2 bullet holes to touch, let alone 5.....
 
lets get my limited experience straight.
i had one bbl done after a bit of searching
for data.
it is not a benchrest rifle, it is a long
range "sniper" rifle.

the two big qualifiers i ran into, was the
bbl needed to be Clean. no copper, no carbon
no residue of any kind, and limited throat wear.
one source said 12 shots others up to 40.

so for the br crowd we need a sacrificial bbl with
low round count and a known record on paper.
tuff but is it impossible ??
 
zippy06 said:
Bart was that SS 2012?
2 other guys, we know did the same. Barrels were junk after. Could not get 2 bullet holes to touch, let alone 5.....
Click to expand...

That sounds about right. Probably 15 to 20 of the best barrels in the country went in to get melonited. Not a single one shot after that.

Bart
 
CMaier said:
lets get my limited experience straight.
i had one bbl done after a bit of searching
for data.
it is not a benchrest rifle, it is a long
range "sniper" rifle.

the two big qualifiers i ran into, was the
bbl needed to be Clean. no copper, no carbon
no residue of any kind, and limited throat wear.
one source said 12 shots others up to 40.

so for the br crowd we need a sacrificial bbl with
low round count and a known record on paper.
tuff but is it impossible ??
Click to expand...

No it's not impossible but it's a big gamble. We had a shooting buddy who worked at the place doing the coating. He was certain the barrels would shoot afterwards. We all fell for the banana up the tail pipe!

Why would shots matter if the barrel is clean?
 
Bart said:
No it's not impossible but it's a big gamble. We had a shooting buddy who worked at the place doing the coating. He was certain the barrels would shoot afterwards. We all fell for the banana up the tail pipe!

Why would shots matter if the barrel is clean?
Click to expand...

The thing is Bart that melonite is not a coating.
 
In the case of a rimfire, the black scale in the bore must be removed before shooting. This colored surface layer will absolutely destroy a new bronze brush in 2 strokes if it is not removed by an abrasive first. This is a hardening process that is several thousandths deep into the steel so don't worry about removing that black surface in the bore. In the case of a used barrel, any surface irregularities will be hardened as well and it will be difficult to deal with afterward. A cut rifled barrel will start fire cracking much sooner than a buttoned barrel so you really should do it from the start before any damage is done. The throat must be well finished prior to processing or you will have a tough time with break in from the reamer finish. Since I don't shoot CF anymore, I would wonder what the higher pressure of a BR PPC would do to the dissimilar hardness depth of the steel. It doesn't seem to be an issue with normal pressures seen in regular CF chamberings.
 
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i agree bart.
i will not know for a long time how long this bbl will last.
the load was suppose to eat it up
in 1000 rounds or less, but my new load has less pressure
or i can go with more vel and up the pressure. but 1000 rounds is several years,
maybe four. contest is 60 or so rounds, 3 a year, and some practice.
you have a ton more exp than me. probably a bunch more money,
i think you guys got burned on limited knowledge on a new product.
more is known today.
up to you.
the surface is so hard after it is amazing.
go do some reading online from the source.

Bart said:
No it's not impossible but it's a big gamble. We had a shooting buddy who worked at the place doing the coating. He was certain the barrels would shoot afterwards. We all fell for the banana up the tail pipe!

Why would shots matter if the barrel is clean?
Click to expand...
 
I would not do Melonite, we use blacknitride hard coating by H&M as it does not get as hot as Melonite in the process. We have done personal barrels for Ian and they shoot lights out and you do not have to relap or clean out barrel after process. We also use Blacknitride on our Atlas Tactical actions and it sure makes them smoother. With Melonite, we notice and others have too that when doing a action it can warp them, with Blacknitride we do not see this. So the 100 degrees difference is a big deal. We also had a Atlas Tactical done in the first ever gold blacknitride, check it out at kelbly.com under the Golden Girl awesome rifle with cool paint job. A real showstopper at gun shows.

BLACKNITRIDE™, or Ferritic Nitrocarburizing, is the thermochemical that simultaneously diffuses nitrogen and carbon into the surface of ferrous metals. During the process, a two-part surface layer is formed, an outer iron nitride layer with a nitrogen diffusion layer below it. Takes surface rockwell to 85C.

Jim
 
so to be clear,
i was using "melonite" as a generic term.
maybe that was an error.
i had "salt bath nitriting" done to my bbl
by MMI handled by rock creek bbls.
(russel 608-962-2357)
THEIR PROCESS IS
ISONITE (Salt Bath Nitriding)

see their site for more details,
contact russel for work.

thanks jim
 
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I too was using melonite as the general term (much like we use moly to refer to any bullet coating). I appreciate everyone responding. The question was raised here and I know Dave brought it up early on as well, does the increased hardness lead to more/faster firecracking?
 
When Blacknitriding barrel same as any process similar, do not shoot the barrel before you get process done to your barrel. Firecracking we have not noticed, but we are not checking for this either, the barrels we have done about a dozen have all shot very well and are so much easier to clean. Our customers that are using blacknitride barrels are reordering them. Barrel accuracy seems to last longer, but in reality we have not done enough to get a good report on barrel life over standard barrel.

H&M is about 20 miles from our door and they do many barrels for many different manufacturers of pistols, rifles and AR's

Jim
 
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