Re: Is Nickel Boron worth it?
Brother, you know its better if it costs more!! Gawd!
Nah, just kidding. I guess it depends of how much you hate cleaning. I've had a POF that was all coated with some sort of shiny silver shit, and the damn bolt carrier would fall out every time I opened up the action for cleaning. It was easy to clean, I guess. I've also got a rifle with a chrome lined barrel, plus full Fail Zero BCG, hammer, and receiver that is coated with shiny shit as well, and it runs like a raped ape and is easy to clean also.
But then again, my life got a whole lot better when I got an air compressor with a water trap on it. Now, cleaning mostly consists of liberally dousing the crap out of my gun with gun scrubber, then attacking the remaining carbon with a copper brush, stainless if need be. After its bone dry, I douse it with TW25 liquid and a touch of TW25 grease, and it is good to go til the next cleaning. I find that as long as you douse your gun with lube (use a barrel cap, close dust cover and always leave a mag in, if you carry it) that it is easy to clean-I guess the lube gives the carbon something to stick to.
So, like the guy above me said, if you dig it, go ahead, but I don't think it makes the gun that much easier to clean and I don't think it extends the life of and AR that much. My Fail Zero rifle runs bad ass, but it is showing a ringed, or striped pattern in the receiver walls where it seems like the coating is wearing away quickly. I think the already hard bolt surface against the soft aluminum will cause wear, regardless. I really dig coated 1911s, where the frame and slide are made of quality steel and the coatings add lubricity and extend the life of the gun. I suppose you have to wear through the coating before you get metal on metal friction? Go talk to USPSA shooters see how long hard chromed guns last. Yeah, I know, I said hard chrome, not NiB, but to me anything other than a typical military parkerized finish does pretty much the same thing-protect from corrosion, lubricate, and extend the life of the machine part that it is applied to.
On that MicroSlick thing, I am genuinely intrigued by that. My pals at Alamo Tactical have been doing that on bolt carriers and it comes out with a cool grey sheen and is doing what it is supposed to do, and I don't think it was expensive, either. I wonder how it would work on a whole pistol?? Hmm, maybe I need to find a donor gun......
YMMV, have fun.
