I was wondering why ceramic liners haven't really caught on with major manufacturers? At least in their magnums. Could these liners significantly increase barrel life? Or is simply a cost/benefit problem...they're more trouble than they're worth?

I know for a fact that there are quite a few wildcats and even some factory mags that could really benefit from a liner like this.

Discuss...

Who makes ceramic liners for centerfire gun barrels?

George

I am not sure, but they were mentioned in Cartridges of the World for several high-instensity chamberings. They said, "until ceramic lines are en vogue..."

Here is a link to an article. Enjoy.

http://users.wpi.edu/~katz/coverpg.html

Just hit "next" at the bottom to start reading...took me a second to find

The trouble with some rifle manufacturers is that the only thing they will change on a rifle is what makes it sell better. Once it is sold they don't give a rip. I have never heard of ceramic barrel liners for normal hunting rifles. Fill us in on the history and usage of them.

OEH, I doubt they have been used on many normal hunting rifles. To be honest I just saw them referenced in COtW and then found the article linked above. In COtW they were referenced with what seemed to be an allusion to development for consumer purposes, which is what made me curious.

I was hoping with the wealth of knowledge here on AR that someone might know a lot about them and their potential advantages/disadvantages. All I know is for high-intensity chamberings, they seem to drastically prolong barrel life. That is all I have found out so far

It's not the rifling in the barrel that has the problem, but the throat ahead of the chamber.
Stelite inserts have been used, in some military applications, but the insert has to be formed so as to have the proper chamber dimentions on the inside after fitting, and a heat shrink fit into the barrel steel. A lot of very tight tolerances to consider, and very expensive to accomplish in reality.

I'm happy to see that I'm not alone in not knowing anything about ceramic liners.

I also don't know anything about ceramic barrel liners but do you think it is possible they would be too brittle in a hunting rifle barrel? Just thinking about how brittle carbide and ceramic tool inserts are.

this is all theory/experimental, that is why you have never seen it in a hunting rifle. They have been talking about ceramics in barrels at least since the mid-80's (first time I read of it).