Chrome lining was the lowest bid method to reducing bore corrosion for a mass produced gun sold to government. It requires overboring and plating back, which is a difficult method in guaranteeing it will be the same dimension the entire length. It can vary up to about .0025" for inspection purposes, and .gov standards are just 2MOA. That's good enough to hit a ten inch circle at 500 yards, which is half the size of the hit zone center of mass on a 150 pound live target.
If you are shooting prairie dogs, tho, it's way too big. That would need a precision target barrel, most of those are stainless, and likely a heavy weight profile to reduce the barrel bending from inclusions in the steel. It makes them stiffer, too, but the resonant frequency changes with the barrel diameter, and the low node point of vibration moves. So either a muzzle weight is used, or the barrel is cut at whatever length it takes to get the muzzle in it's lowest point of vibration.
Fluting on top of that requires back to back testing to determine if any improvement exists at all. If someone claims they have shot tens of thousands of rounds at the range with hundreds of barrel profiles and a particular combination works, fine. So far, it's been rare, and documentation of the trials is even rarer.
CAN it work, yes. DOES it work for that specific barrel, show me the targets before and after. Otherwise, it's the same marketing hype that claims a heavy target profile can increase accuracy. I would prefer a high precision bore job first, with very little out of round or deviation and cut to the lowest node point.
Sometimes we place too much emphasis on what we can see and not on what we need.
If you are shooting prairie dogs, tho, it's way too big. That would need a precision target barrel, most of those are stainless, and likely a heavy weight profile to reduce the barrel bending from inclusions in the steel. It makes them stiffer, too, but the resonant frequency changes with the barrel diameter, and the low node point of vibration moves. So either a muzzle weight is used, or the barrel is cut at whatever length it takes to get the muzzle in it's lowest point of vibration.
Fluting on top of that requires back to back testing to determine if any improvement exists at all. If someone claims they have shot tens of thousands of rounds at the range with hundreds of barrel profiles and a particular combination works, fine. So far, it's been rare, and documentation of the trials is even rarer.
CAN it work, yes. DOES it work for that specific barrel, show me the targets before and after. Otherwise, it's the same marketing hype that claims a heavy target profile can increase accuracy. I would prefer a high precision bore job first, with very little out of round or deviation and cut to the lowest node point.
Sometimes we place too much emphasis on what we can see and not on what we need.
