As the title says, which is better and why? I’ve searched and searched yet haven’t been able to discover any substantial difference between the two. Thx!..
Tomac
Tomac,
I’m trying out a Fail Zero now and from what I’ve heard these coating will begin to peal at some point. My buddies is already doing this now and after only about 300 rounds! So far the best coating I have in my battery is the hard chrome which is just a slick as any coating on the market.
So far with about 300 rounds my hard chrome version hasn’t chipped yet.
Mail Clerk
Yeah, I might just go back to hard chrome.
Tomac
Tomac,
Yeah dude there’s so many coatings on the market it can get anyone confused! Personally I’d save a few bucks and just get hard-chrome from now n. My personal views is that chrome cleans up much faster/better than any of the fancy nickle coatings. From what I hear even chrome will eventually chip BUT so far I haven’t seen it yet.
Mail Clerk
I haven’t tried one personally but I’ve heard and read good things about the Sionics BCGs with NP3 coating. Look into them before making a final decision.
I have 2 of the Sionics Bcg’s and over a 1,000 on each with no flaking of any kind and when I clean them off they look and feel new. Also they seem to hold the lube very well
was gonna say, IG says good things about the NP3 coating
I have a strong preference to hard chrome, but proper hard chroming is more difficult and expensive and involving in general. Just because something is hard chromed does not mean that it’s done properly, it just means it has the coating in some way, same as any other coating.
Of the two I prefer the WMD, but overall I am not a fan of NiB. NP3 is a better choice, and CVD/PVD are even better.
The SIONICS NP3 is superior to NiB from what I have seen. We have pictures posted that were taken in Atlanta and a video from a local AZ training group (Independence Training).
First and foremost, get a good milspec base bcg, then choose ctg of those. I don’t know details of brands listed but did a small amount of research on a failed nib bcg. All things equal, I would choose np3, then hardchrome, then phosphate over nib. It’s extremely hard, seems to trap carbon, and they seem to have a propensity to shear lugs, but it may be from the base bolt, not the coating.
The bolt I tested had one lug shear off and the user kept shooting until another sheared off. When I received the bolt, every lug had cracks at their base, visible to the naked eye.
I’m not an expert, just sharing what I found and reasoned from a sample of 1, and discussions online.
Why NP3? Thx…
Tomac
I have no experience with NP3 coated BCGs or Fail Zero, but my WMD that I picked up on clearance a couple of years back has had over 1000 rounds on it with no signs of flaking or chipping. It is slightly discolored, but still slick as snot. I’m interested in the Sionics BCG and will probably pick one of those up next.
I think Sionics is milspec other than coating, so that’s #1, a good base.
Speaking strictly coatings, np3 has a lower hardness and the embedded teflon should have better lubricity and fouling properties than nib. Almost like a slight drylube as it wears.
NiB is crazy hard to have rubbing on other metals. 72rc iirc where the bolt lugs were in the 50s.
NP3 on paper is the best for this application imo. Slick, not too hard, chemical resistant. Hardchrome lacks the teflon advantage, nib is, imo too hard. Fwiw, I use phosphate coated bolts right now. Next build I might pick up a sionics.
As for flaking/blistering (separating from the substrate), that would be a cleaning issue, no matter what coating
Have you noticed much wear on your parkerized bolts?
Not sure if directed at me. If so, yes, typical wear in usual areas.
FWIW, I have several Wilson Combat Np3 coated BCGs
Several thousand rounds on them with no wear…
love em
Then the extra hardness of NiB won’t matter much
Isn’t bolt hardness similar to bbl ext hardness?
I thought 2 parts with much differing hardness caused more wear. Also it seems the coating is so brittle it cracks causing propagation into the bolt. I don’t know that, and maybe the bolt was just bad, but there were cracks all over the coating, especially in high stress areas
And every lug was cracked at the base when I received it. It was shot a few times missing 1 lug and when the 2nd sheared off the shooter stopped, so I’m not drawing conclusions, just acknowledging a data point.
Parts rubbing on each other will cause wear whether they are of the same hardness or not. If the two are of a different hardness, the softer part suffers most of the wear. However, the rubbing between the bolt and barrel extension is really minimal, otherwise they would wear out fast anyway.
If the coating causes embrittlement, it can lead to fractures, just as you observed. I don’t know enough about NiB to comment beyond that