Nitriding or something else for surface treatment?

[Burn Pile]

I'm going to be re-barrelling and re-configuring a factory rifle next year. I have plans for the new barrel and new stock. I'm considering sending off my stripped action, stripped bolt, and bolt release off for a surface treatment. I want the appearance to be the same inside and outside of the action and I'm not really interested in going the cerakote or duracoat route.

I'm interested in doing it as another customization to make the rifle my own. And to make the bolt travel more slickery. Its not bad as is but I would enjoy it if it would fly on the action. Ascetics and additional protection/ toughness are nice bonuses. Its a stainless action and bolt.

Looking into the options nitriding and black oxide, PVD, and DLC all seem applicable. Ultraox from ATH also seems good. I don't know if its actually all that different from anyone elses nitriding process and results. I also haven't asked them if they do consumer size orders or manufacturers only. Titanium nitirding is too loud of a color for my hunting rifle.

Anybody have suggestions, experiences, or good places to send the parts off to for treatment?

 

[winmag]

Salt bath nitriding is what you want. Extremely high resistance to corrosion, increase in surface hardness which also increases slickness since it’s so hard, not a “coating” which adds thickness or can ever wear off, and makes every piece jet black in color. The only downside is that the surface is so hard after the process that you can’t really machine it anymore (sometimes you can with carbide tooling, but it’s not at all ideal), so make sure you have all the metalwork done before having it nitrided. I’ve had several rifles done and love it.

 

[GoWyo!]

i read of Birdsong’s Black-T as being one of the best. I don’t know the status of the company with the fairly recent tragedy that occurred.

 

[MikeP]

I have a nitrided defiance action and it is awesome. Smooth and impervious to weather.

 

[Bux_N_Beards]

i read of Birdsong’s Black-T as being one of the best. I don’t know the status of the company with the fairly recent tragedy that occurred.

I was going to post the same. There doesn’t appear to be any updated information on their website.

I’ve had 3 rifles done by them, the oldest having been done in the early 2000’s and it has held up extremely well. There’s some minor wear on the bolt and floor plate, but corrosion has been a non issue. I’ve also had cerakote and Duracoat, and thus far, Black T has been my favorite.

 

[CowboyLeroy]

+1 for nitride. The vortex podcast has an episode where they go in depth on barrel finishes that talks about all of the different metal coatings thats really informative.

 

[elkhuntinfool78]

In the process of a custom build right now and I went with nitride. Everything was just sent off to H&M

 

[Burn Pile]

Salt bath nitriding is what you want. Extremely high resistance to corrosion, increase in surface hardness which also increases slickness since it’s so hard, not a “coating” which adds thickness or can ever wear off, and makes every piece jet black in color. The only downside is that the surface is so hard after the process that you can’t really machine it anymore (sometimes you can with carbide tooling, but it’s not at all ideal), so make sure you have all the metalwork done before having it nitrided. I’ve had several rifles done and love it.

Yep that lines up with what I've come across so far and is my default choice. It's good to hear some folks like it and its working out well.

 

[Burn Pile]

+1 for nitride. The vortex podcast has an episode where they go in depth on barrel finishes that talks about all of the different metal coatings thats really informative.

I'll take a look for that. I don't recall listening to that particular one.

 

[Burn Pile]

In the process of a custom build right now and I went with nitride. Everything was just sent off to H&M

I have come across H&M as a place to send em off to.

I'll take a peek at birdsong BlackT too and see what I can find out.

I won't be making moves until after this hunting season that's thru November in my area. So there's no rush at this point if an outfit needs a bit of time to spin up or do a shuffle on their end.