Good Nitrided barrel?

[Grendelshooter]

It seems that AR Performance is getting out of the Grendel game.
Sucks, because the one 264lbc barrel of theirs that I have is great. I went looking for an 18?-20? barrel and they are all sold out, not to be restocked.

So who else makes a good quality, mid weight, 18-20 inch, melonite/nitride/qpq whatever barrel capable 1 MOA or better?

I have not had good luck with the group buy barrels so what else is out there that?s a good, reliable performer in the $300-ish region?

[lazyengineer]

I have not had good luck with the group buy barrels so what else is out there that?s a good, reliable performer in the $300-ish region?

In terms of availability? Or in terms of performance?

[Grendelshooter]

In terms of availability? Or in terms of performance?

Performance.
I mean don’t get me wrong it’s a functional blaster but my ARP barrel shoots everything better. I got my money’s worth from it but I don’t think I’ll buy another.

[grayfox]

I've been saying/feeling for quite a while that Arp will be getting out of business lines...
He's heading into retirement, so I don't fault him at all for that.
That being said, the thing about a "good" nitrided barrel is how smooth is the barrel underneath, BEFORE the nitriding is applied. For that you need to know that the mfr is serious about that aspect. So need to do homework on their process before you drop your dimes.
I've had some Faxon Gunner barrels that held their own as nitrided, they are mid-price range. 16-18-20"
No real experience with any other mfrs however.

OTOH I would ask you how hard you're shooting these, as in would you really shoot one out any time soon? If you're a more or less normal shooter you can do well with a good or top quality SS barrel.
Like Precision firearms, Mark, he has Criterion's for ~300 and they're a good one.
For a bit less like ~250-275 look at Ballistic Advantage barrels, they have both mid-weight and fluted. I have some of their fluted ones and they are good ones.
There are some Lilja's out there for a bit more but they are definitely excellent...
Like I said for a Grrr you'd be shooting these a long time before wearing out to a point where nitriding would come into play as an extender.

[Grendelshooter]

Ideally, if I get to shoot as much as I like, I go through about 4000 rounds a year.
Sometimes I shoot less, sometimes more, and sometimes I even shoot wolf ammo lol.

I’ll check out precision firearms. I like the criterion barrels well enough, I have one of the chrome lined hybrids in 223 Wylde, but I would like them even more with some nitride.

The biggest thing for me is that I do not take for granted that barrels will be available in the future, because who knows if they will be or not.

[FLshooter]

As gray fox mentioned Criterion makes a good barrel. They have an 18 inch Criterion hybrid nitride barrel for around $270 delivered from Optics Planet or Brownells.I’ve got the 22 inch H bar criterion and it’s easily a three-quarter inch moa rifle all day. And you can have that delivered within a week.
If you’re willing to wait a couple months you can get a custom criterion from Mark at Precision Firearms or from Paul at Craddock Firearms. The custom ones will run you around $360 delivered.
The choice is up to you I have both and both consistently do three quarter-inch groups or better.

[Grendelshooter]

Link? Criterion Grendel barrels are all stainless that I can find. I’d have bought a nitrided/chrome lined one already if I had seen it.

[grayfox]

A word on the Chemistry here. I hope you're not looking for a chrome lined nitride barrel, I doubt seriously you would find one. The chrome process is a chromium-alloy overlay onto the inner surface of the barrel. Nitriding is a salt-bath/heat treat of diffusing the nitride into the entire barrel surface (except for extension in most cases), it's a merge into the surface a very tiny but super hard additive, it goes IIRC about 50 microns deep into the barrel steel. No dimensional change to the steel.

Any chemists or metallurgists on here could correct me if I have it wrong.
But you wouldn't or shouldn't be looking for both.

Edit to add: I've read (but can't put my finger on it) that you really don't want to nitride SS, best thing is a quality, hand-lapped smooth Chrom moly barrel. The nitriding works better on that metallic-wise, if I recall the article.

[grayfox]

...
The biggest thing for me is that I do not take for granted that barrels will be available in the future, because who knows if they will be or not.

IMO the barrels from the big guys will be around. Small shops may come and go, but there are at least 8-10 million AR's out there, so there will always be a demand. The only way barrels would dry up is if AR's get killed off, then you won't be able to shoot them anyway. We had a brush with death on them here in Va.

[Grendelshooter]

A word on the Chemistry here. I hope you're not looking for a chrome lined nitride barrel, I doubt seriously you would find one. The chrome process is a chromium-alloy overlay onto the inner surface of the barrel. Nitriding is a salt-bath/heat treat of diffusing the nitride into the entire barrel surface (except for extension in most cases), it's a merge into the surface a very tiny but super hard additive, it goes IIRC about 50 microns deep into the barrel steel. No dimensional change to the steel.

Any chemists or metallurgists on here could correct me if I have it wrong.
But you wouldn't or shouldn't be looking for both.

Edit to add: I've read (but can't put my finger on it) that you really don't want to nitride SS, best thing is a quality, hand-lapped smooth Chrom moly barrel. The nitriding works better on that metallic-wise, if I recall the article.

Oh good lord no lol! I meant nitride or chrome, since Criterion offers both in their hybrid line-just not for Grendel that I can find.

And to availability, I’m not certain that our civilization, let alone our country will be around that much longer to be honest.