Gunsmith
First off I really don't think you need to worry about the lack of a chrome lined barrel especially in 40 S&W or any other pistol cartridge for that matter. Chrome lining extends barrel life especially wearthroat wear is concerned in the 223 barrels. It really isn't neccesary for the way most of us use ourguns. If you are dumping thousands of rounds per month through your AR, especially if you are really getting it hot, then you probably want a chromelined barrel. If, however, you put a few hundred rounds through it in the course of a days shooting, even if you do this every weekend I Wouldn't bother. For one thing chrome lined barrels aren't as accurate, ussualy.
As for Olympic rifles not being reliable, that is merely some peoples opinion. I have heard the stories, most of them were about their lack of customer service by the way. But I am sure that they have turned out a few bad rifles, every manufacturer has. To put this in perspective, you own a Glock, evr heard the Glock bashers talk Glocks blowing up? Sure it has happened but some people just don't like them and the would have you believe that pulling the trigger on a Glock is the same thing as setting off abomb.
I have two of the Olympic guns, a bull barreled K-16 and their match target gun the K-8. Both of themare incredibly accurate, a little over 1/2MOA with good ammo. As long as I keep them clean they feed reliably. I will say that one ofthe reasons for their accuracy is tight tolerances and that includes the chamber. After about 300 rounds I will start to get jambs. Ijust clean itand I am good to go. I suspect that if I were to feed it all comercial ammo it might golonger without cleaning. Commercial ammo is slightly undersized. One of the other critisizms I have heard is that the mag well are tight. I will say that most of my mags are snug but will drop free. Even the Magpul poly mags work great. The upper for the 40 probably won't be nearly as tight. The lower that accepts the Glock mags will obviously be totaly different than their standard lower so Isuspect their won't be any problems there. As I said, I like their guns and I like the idea of having a carbine that takes the same mags as my 3 Glocks. By the way, I have several aquaintances that are really into AR andfull auto M-16s. They have all been impressed by my rifles, especially by the accuracy.
