“Once you have a chrome-moly alloy steel barrel, you just salt bath nitride it and it will have a case hardened layer that’s harder than the hinges of hell.”
What is the corrosion resistance of nitrided chrome-moly v. stainless steel or c ceramic barrel?
Nitrided barrels have better corrosion resistance than chromed barrels. They’re harder too.
Chrome lining is now the bottom of the heap in terms of durability and heat resistance in barrels. Stellite liners are the thing used in heavy machine guns (like M2’s) and nitriding is the new hotness in mil-spec weapons and bleeding edge high power competition rifles.
Chrome is so yesterday.
Ceramic just isn’t going to compete. It’s costly, it’s fragile, it’s hard to work with.