Interesting stuff, thanks guys. I'd always assumed since the FT guns were originally uprated 10M match guns that the barrels would be the same.
I wonder why they go to the trouble to plate the Hunter and FT guns. There could be only two high-level reasons to my mind; either it's due to the higher velocity, or it is to protect the barrels from the elements somehow, as match rifles are used inside and FT and Hunter rifles outside. If the former why use a soft metal, it makes no sense. So my guess is the latter and the inside gets plated as a side effect.
RobinC wrote:My interest is only in match guns so I was incorrect and stand corrected on the FT and Hunters which are totaly plated, this would explain why if any one uses extensive cleaning on them they get out black, its the barrel they are wearing out as nickel is a soft metal!
Good shooting
Robin
That last has certainly been the case with the recent Steyr FT barrels since the newer long action guns came out. Initially, by all accounts, accuracy was superb and then within a few hundred shots the groups opened up dramatically. For some time after that the barrels needed cleaning every couple of hundred pellets to get rid of the plating, after which accuracy returned. It seems the plating started coming off before cleaning.
AFAIK only Steyr do this however and some other barrels which are not internally plated do seem to get as dirty. One would expect that with nickel being a soft metal; the plating would be long gone after many tens of thousands of rounds, with or without the occasional clean.
My Steyr LG100 is an early model, with a hammer forged barrel (formed by steel being hammered around a mandrel which has the rifling grooves in relief. These barrels are quite sought after because they are alleged to be less pellet fussy. Whether this is actually true or not is moot. Either way the rifle must have fired 50k pellets and the chances of there being any soft nickel plating left are minimal, and it's still capable of thumbnails at 50m.