Titanium Nitride (problem or solution?)

[coloradokevin]

So, is this whole TiN bolt carrier coating (on AR-15's) just some new gimmick I hadn't yet heard about? Or does this actually do anything positive? How about the negatives?

I ask, because I saw one of these fancy-schmancy ("very expensive") gold-colored bolt groups in an AR-15 for the first time today...

One of the guys in my department added one to his personal rifle, and was shooting it in qualifications this afternoon. Too many other variables to know for sure, but his rifle ran like a dead dog... Damn thing short-stroked nearly every fourth or fifth shot, while my department-issued base model Colt AR-15 cycled flawlessly (and, I'm not even a huge Colt fan).

There are a number of other variables that could effect this equation, namely the fact that this officer was also shooting a brand new rifle (S&W M&P 15T). I've shot these rifles before, and I like them (though I've heard of occasional gas leak problems around the gas block on brand new rifles)... The gas block seemed tight, and I checked the bolt key staking for him as well. The rifle was well-lubed, and otherwise clean.

No one could really diagnose his problem in the time we had available.

But I couldn't help but wonder if his problems were being caused by the new-fangled solution that he evidently found for a problem I never knew existed?

 

[HankB]

TiN is a hard, slick coating, so it ought to work very well . . . assuming the bolt group was high quality to begin with.

Where did he get the bolt group - a gun show?

 

[coloradokevin]

Hank,

I haven't the foggiest idea where he got that thing. I just kind of had to laugh at the fact that his tricked-out toy wasn't operating nearly as well as a "stock" model!

Wondered if the bolt group might have been to blame (though, obviously on a new weapon, it could be darn near anything).

 

[BBBBill]

I seem to recall reading about some QC problems on some of the early S&W MP15s. I think it was Pat Rogers writing in a recent issue of SWAT magazine. Perhaps his is one of those that slipped by the inspection.