[telewinz]

Can you tell just by looking whether an AR15 barrel has a chromed bore or not? If so, what am I looking for? I can't find any marks or stamps on the barrel (FN?).

[QuarterBoreGunner]

Looking at the barrel? I don't think so.

Looking in the barrel? Yup. I can't really describe what to look for but after you've seen a bunch you can tell.

So essentially my information is useless.

:D

[Hkmp5sd]

Colt manufactured barrels have "Chrome Bore" stamped on the top of the barrel. So if it is a Colt AR, yours does not have a chrome bore.

Might check at the manufacturers website and see if they have a description of how their chrome/non-chrome barrels are marked.

[critter]

I thought the dumb AR question was gonna be why Arkansas spawned Bill Clinton!!!!!!

[444]

If you know who made the upper, this link might give you some IDEA. http://groups.msn.com/TheMarylandAR15ShootersSite/ar15brands.msnw

Unfortunately, a lot of uppers arn't maked as to who manufactured them.

[Sludge]

LOLOLOLOLOLOL @ Critter..... thanks I needed a good laugh :)

[Redlg155]

More than likely yours is not a chrome lined barrel. Most if not all of the manufacturers have their chrome lined barrels stamped to indicate a chrome lined barrel.

A Bushy would have something like
"B MP 5.56 NATO 1/9 H BAR"



A bit of history on the rifle would definitely help to narrow down the search.

Good Shooting
Red

[444]

I checked my two Colts and they both say Chrome Bore, however none of my Bushmasters say that they are chrome lined even though they are.

[QuarterBoreGunner]

I would swear to gosh that my Colt's arn't marked 'chrome bore' even though I know they are... now I 'm going to have to go home and open the safe and check.

[Redlg155]

444,

I took a peek over at Bushmaster because your post had me a bit confused. I was thinking all Bushy Chrome lined barrels are marked.

http://www.bushmaster.com/faqnew/content_by_cat.asp?contentid=180&catid=100


This is what Bushy had to say over in the FAQs.

How can I be sure of buying a Bushmaster?

We have seen this happen many times here. We get rifles all the time for warranty service that have our lower receiver, but every other part is a gun show special. Before purchasing, look things over carefully. You are about to lay down a sizeable chunk of money, so take a minute to be sure of what you are buying. Bushmaster's identifying marks are: 1. On the barrel, in front of the front sight, it will be stamped: "B MP 5.56 NATO 1/9 H BAR" (exactly that way). On some barrels, it may be under the handguard, but it will still say that exact thing. The only difference might be a 1/7 instead of a 1/9 . This denotes the rifling twist. 2. Our front sights are held on by two taper pins, one through each of the bands of the front sight. We do not use hollow roll pins, never have - never will. 3. Our handguards have aluminum heat shields in them. 4. Our barrels have the correct gray/green manganese phosphate finish, not black. 5. Our tele-stocks have a small roll pin holding the nut on under the sliding latch. If it's not pinned, it's not ours. 6. Our hammers and triggers have polished contact surfaces. 7. Our bolt carriers have the gas key staked on by 4 V-shaped stamps. 8. We always use aluminum delta rings to retain the handguards. 9. Our buffers have a gold-colored finish on them, which is easy to see inside the stock. 10. Our aluminum parts all have the mil. spec hard anodized flat or matte finish to them, not shiny. This includes the receivers, the charging handle, and the delta ring. However, oil on the surface might make the normally flat or matte finish appear shiny. The best insurance is to always buy from a local dealer, someone you can go back to if you have any problems. Most of them are reputable, and will at least help you contact the factory for service problems.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Quarterbore,

I thought Colts were marked " C MP" or something very close? Perhaps they marked the Civilian barrels different than the Military barrels.

Good Shooting
Red

[blue86buick]

I've got a dumb AR question...when you have a chrome lined barrel/chamber, is it shiny? That's what I think of when I hear chrome...

[444]

My Colt SP1 is stamped on the top of the barrel to the rear of the front sight tower: C MP CHROME BORE
My Colt Lightweight Sporter is stamped in the same place: C MP CHROME BORE 9mm-NATO
My Bushmasters are stamped in the same place: B MP 5.56 NATO 1/9 H BAR
I have two 11" uppers; one was sold to me as a Bushmaster and the other was sold to me as an OLY. Neither one has any markings at all that I can find.

[Hkmp5sd]

My Colt AR-15 SP1 and Colt M16A1 have the markings as 444 described.

My Bushy upper has "B MP 5.56 NATO 1/9".

[telewinz]

Barrel is an A2 H-Bar, NO visible markings on it at all. Do military issue barrels have markings on them? I thought it might be an FN military contract barrel.

[444]

C MP CHROME BORE
B MP 5.56 NATO 1/9 H BAR

Ok, I have to assume that the C stands for Colt, and the B stands for Bushmaster, but what does the MP stand for ?

[QuarterBoreGunner]

If I remember right, 'MP' stands for 'magnetic particle' or some such; I believe it's a method of examining the barrels during manufacturing, sorta like magnafluxing.

Or I may be so way off base that the light from the base won't reach me for a million years.

[Kharn]

Telewinz:
There are *no* FN Ar15/M16 barrels or parts that you could acquire outside of the military supply chain (or that were stolen from the same). FN's contract with the US military stipulates no sales to civilians.

Quarterboregunner:
You're on the right track, thats what MP stands for.

Kharn

[444]

I thought the magnetic particle thing was only done to bolts, but I will take your word for it.

[owen]

telewinz,

I'm confirming what Kharn said. There are no FNMI AR/M16 parts on the market. FNMI's contract stipulates NO commercial sales of weapons or parts.

The parts that do pop up with FNMI markings are either stolen, or they were put on the market by FNMI vendors from a rejected lot.

An example of this is bolts and bolt carriers. Both the bolt and the bolt carrier for the M16 are made by a sub contractor. FNMI uses lot acceptance. That means that the vendor sends us, say, 1000 bolts. FNMI then inspects a certain sample size. If any dimension on any of the parts is out of tolerance, than the entire lot is returned to the vendor. The vendor is generally not allowed to send any of those parts back to us. Now the vendor has a pile of parts they can' sell to us, so to recoup their cost, they may try to sell the parts on the open market. There is a potential that 999 of those 1000 parts were perfectly fine, and we happened to find the one bad part. It is more likely that a significant fraction of those parts are not acceptable to FNMI and the USG.

In the case of a Barrel: a FNMI barrel on the commercial market is stolen. FNMI makes our own barrels.

Back to the topic of the chroming. Phospate doesn't stick to chrome. Remove the flash hider and look at the muzzle. If the bore is chromed, there will be a transition from black to chrome about halfway between the bore and the OD of the barrel.

Owen Cramer
Product Design Engineer
FNMI

[QuarterBoreGunner]

There's nothing like having a guy on the inside.

Thanks Owen.

[Hkmp5sd]

they may try to sell the parts on the open market.
Doesn't that mean the vendor is selling "machinegun" parts to civilians for use in semi-automatic ARs and thus creating what ATF considers an unregistered machinegun (even if it doesn't shoot full auto)?

[444]

The story I heard, and I think it was on here is that FN uses subcontractors for some of their parts. These same subcontractors sell other parts on the open market and call them FN parts justifying it because they also make parts for FN. If that is true, I guess the difference is only the fact that FN never had the parts to begin with, but they are the same parts. It is a lie certainly, but in the end it doesn't matter. Again, IF this is true, it also could be that these were FN rejects, or it could be that the same company makes parts of lessor matterials than the ones they sell to FN.
I just buy Bushmaster parts and skip all the speculation.

[Kharn]

hkmp5sd:
The only part of the AR15/M16 that is controlled as a machine gun is the lower reciever, everything else can be sold over-the-counter (most dealers will ask to see your NFA paperwork to cover their ???es); but the ATF might take a sudden interest in you for having bought full auto parts if you dont have a tax stamp to accompany your AR15.

Kharn

[QuarterBoreGunner]

Hold on now; I thought that machine gun parts were just that 'machine gun parts'- what I mean is I've seen the full-auto fire control parts for sale all over the place and always thought that it was a little shady because even if the parts arn't in your lower or even if your lower isn't even capable of accepting the parts, you were still in violation.

so is this legal:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3621153510&category=36258

[444]

The thing is that if you legally own an M16, there is no reason why you can't buy the parts. Just because someone is selling M16 parts doesn't make it shady.
I bought 50 Sten magazines, and a bunch of Sten parts on-line. Why ? Because I legally own a Sten. Nothing shady about it.

[Hkmp5sd]

444,

I agree, but there can't be a demand for that many M16 bolt carriers in the civilian market.


Kharn,

The hammer, trigger, disconnector, selector and bolt carrier are different for M16s and AR-15s. ATF has ruled that having any of these M16 components in an AR can be considered as an illegal machinegun conversion, even if the gun will not fire full-auto.

[QuarterBoreGunner]

'if you legally own an M16'

Ah- there's the rub. What if you don't own a M16? Without proper documentation, does the possesion of machine gun parts constitute a violation?

edit- Ok so what Hkmp5sd is saying agree's with what I've always believed.

moot point. What am I going to do with select fire weapons in Kali anyway? Form my own militia. Become a well trained highly skilled unit and then over throw the government in Sacramento, installing in it's place a truly constitutional one?


Nah. Who has the time?

[Hkmp5sd]

QuarterBoreGunner,

You can have the full auto parts or the semi-auto firearm. If you are in possession of both, even if not installed, you are in possession of an unregistered machinegun.

Example. I own a Colt M16A1 and a Colt AR-15 SP1. Per ATF, I cannot possess any spare parts for my M16 or they will consider my AR an unregistered machinegun even with no M16 parts installed.