Serbu Firearms, Inc., Tampa, Florida

[David@TNT]

Not necessarly 50bmg, but what are the pros/cons of this process??

[Rich Dimond]

Okay, I'm no expert, but here goes:
A chromed barrel will last longer because the plating is tougher than the chrome-molly or stainless steel the barrel is made from. From what I understand (and I have no personal experience with) on a machine gun the chamber will tend to not "torch-out" as quick too. That's why some M2 barrels have a Stellite (super-duper nuclear grade hard stainless-steel) liner for the first few inches. The drawbacks to all this is a Stellite liner is harder to machine -and thus harder to machine as accurately- as softer steel, so accuracy suffers some (not a big deal on a machine gun). A chrome plated barrel is only as accurate as the underlying barrel was made -and then the chrome finish causes the features to be slightly "shifted" from the optimum- effecting accuracy.

I hope this helps,
Rich D.