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Posted: 5/9/2014 11:35:14 PM EDT
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I hope I am in the right section. Moderators, please excuse me if I'm not.
Surely this has been asked before, but I wanted to include pics and hopefully get an answer from someone who has first hand experience with this. The pic below is of my old faithful. Over the years it has seen many changes. One of those changes was a new muzzle brake which I had installed and pinned on to make the length legal by a well known gunsmith who has since passed away. It has been a while but I believe it is a YHM that is set up for a Surefire suppressor. The barrel is a 14.5" Bushmaster 1/9 twist bought new about 12 years ago At the time of install, a suppressor was on the list of future upgrades. Due to reasons beyond my control, I had to put that off for a while. 
After my last trip to the range I broke the rifle down and cleaned/inspected it more than usual. I was getting ready to move and wanted to make sure it was ready. I was using a barrel light and found what you see below. I had a hard time getting pics of it. this pic is looking down from the top of the brake down into the barrel. I blew the picture up and cropped it so you could see what I'm dealing with. 
At first I thought it was lint/carbon. I cleaned it more and it didn't change. I got out a brass tool that has a soft point and ran it over the area. I couldn't feel anything. the only way I knew it was a fault was by using a sharp curved pick. Now I know it is a crack in the chrome. The pic is a little deceiving as to where the fault is located. It sits at the TOP of the barrel a little over 1/8 of an inch from the crown where the brake and the crown meet. Blown up it looks pretty big, but to the naked eye it's actually pretty hard to see. May have been a dumb move, but I had to shoot it again to see if this was a new problem or one I had overlooked for a while. I took it back to the range and put around 200 rounds of all types of ammo through it. It worked perfectly as usual. When I returned home and re-inspected it. there was no change. So the question is, Is this bad enough to warrant changing the barrel? Has anyone run into this before? If so I can and will change it out. I have four other AR's built. one with an identical barrel, the only difference is the brake. it has a pinned YHM Phantom. I don't mind cannibalizing that rifle. It's not one that see's much action. Really just a safe queen. Thanks for looking. EDITED: changed where the fault lies. had posted it sitting at the bottom of the barrel. It is at the top. Capitalized top and gave some specifics on where it sits. |
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So, it shoots fine but has a defect in the barrel surface?
Shoot it until you decide you want to change the barrel. If it bothers you now, then change it out. It is not hard, as others have posted. If you do not want to spend the money right now, you do not have to until accuracy drops. There are probably a lot of barrels with minor manufacturing defects that go un noticed unless match accuracy is the objective. If you do pull it you can save it for a spare. |
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Thanks for the replies. I was more on the track of what Rick_Lind said. Chrome lining isn't a perfect process. I'm not too worried about a barrel failure. Considering there is a hole drilled straight through one side of the barrel to operate the gas system. I just was curious as to whether anyone had run into the same situation.
Thanks again! |
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