hello all. I was having a discussion with a shooting buddy earlier about old beat up barrels. he currently has a in nagant that he spent some serious coin on(for some reason), having the barrel cut and crowned, mild flutes, new iron sights added not to mention other craziness. he tld me he grabbed this gun from a show w/o even taking the time to really inspect the bore. we have checked it out, and it's pretty ridiculous. severe pitting from active rust, which I am helping him to correct at the moment. rifling appears string "enough" for somewhat decent shooting, we did shoot it, no better or worse than most in terms of accuracy. the barrel is extremely difficult to clean, can scrub and scrub and scrub and never get a clean wet patch out of it, always a a greenish rust color. so we have the crown plugged and kroil soaking for a couple weeks. we recently had the barrel removed, so it wouldn't be difficult to do it again.
anyways, he asked me if he could have it chrome-lined....I explained the reasons why not and he began asking about other coatings. I am king of at a loss, it seem TiN is not realy an acceptable treatment as are not some others. I began reading about "salt-bath nitriding" and it seems that on paper, this could be a viable coating for his rifle. I understand nothing is going to "restore" the barrel, but it seems like the nitride process can increase the hardness, maybe slightly "smooth" out some pitting and prevent it's return. this sounds like if it was a good possibility, more people would do it to antiques that would actually be worth the cost of such a process. so, what am I missing? is this an impossibility? will it just do nothing? will it not adhere? or am I on to something? if this is a viable option, I would also be curious about it for my own rifle.
if this is all wrong, are there coatings that will help that wouldn't run over 200-250$?
thanks for any information you have regarding the subject. please no (it's a mosin, just buy another one, or just buy another barrel) he has his reasons and it's his $$ to throw away.
anyways, he asked me if he could have it chrome-lined....I explained the reasons why not and he began asking about other coatings. I am king of at a loss, it seem TiN is not realy an acceptable treatment as are not some others. I began reading about "salt-bath nitriding" and it seems that on paper, this could be a viable coating for his rifle. I understand nothing is going to "restore" the barrel, but it seems like the nitride process can increase the hardness, maybe slightly "smooth" out some pitting and prevent it's return. this sounds like if it was a good possibility, more people would do it to antiques that would actually be worth the cost of such a process. so, what am I missing? is this an impossibility? will it just do nothing? will it not adhere? or am I on to something? if this is a viable option, I would also be curious about it for my own rifle.
if this is all wrong, are there coatings that will help that wouldn't run over 200-250$?
thanks for any information you have regarding the subject. please no (it's a mosin, just buy another one, or just buy another barrel) he has his reasons and it's his $$ to throw away.