Chf and chrome barrel

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CHF barrels are basically double the price or more of nitride barrels and are made by names like FN and Daniel Defense. So, are they actually worth it or is it a sales gimmick?

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Think you are confusing two different technical aspects. First CHF is a production process for producing nearly finished barrels/chambers in fewer steps than traditional gun-drilling and lathe operations. It eliminates steps as the rifled barrel and chamber can be formed as the barrel blank is hammered over a mandrel in one process which means it is more cost effective for companies that can afford the equipment. That doesn't mean CHF barrels are inherently better or more/less accurate, that entirely depends on the QC of manufacturers. Nitriding is a surface treatment, like hard chroming, Parkerizing, etc. It has pros and cons like any metallurgical process. FN hammer forges barrels for defense contracts as well as their civilian products, I have a FN CHF barrel on an AR that used the same barrel blank spec'd for the M249 SAW. All that means is a slighly different alloy was used and has a thicker layer of HC, it might be a more durable barrel but also might deliver less accuracy as any kind of bore treatment introduces irregularities that can affect accuracy. Another AR of mine is a non-CHF, non-HC and it has never demonstrated issues with being consistently accurate with off-the-shelf ammo nor is it any harder to clean compared to my other AR. There is no simple or straightforward answer here, anyone who tells you a definitive simply doesn't know enough.

How do they get inside of the barrel to hammer and how big could that hammer be?

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Ironic since the military specs on the M4 and M16 requires button rifled barrels.

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FNH contract barrels are CHF except for ones they farm out. The Army did endurance testing on Colt non-cHF and FNH CHF contract M4's and both had a number of rifles fail. Colt barrels had a harder HC lining that was more uneven than FN barrels, FN's HC lining was more even but softer so the Colt barrels suffered from micro-cracking which degraded barrel life while the FN barrels simply flame-erroded at the throat and gas port faster which degraded the barrel life too.

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FNH contract barrels are CHF except for ones they farm out.

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FN is required by contract to only use button broached barrels on all M16/M4 rifles contracted for the U.S. military.

They are required to follow military specifications. If they allowed the change to CHF, then an ECN would have to be approved. No such Engineering Change Notice exists. In fact if you look at the FN manufactured AR15 that uses all components of the military version (besides full-auto components) you will see that one of those components is a button rifled barrel. Not a CHF barrel.

ETA: FN 15 - Military Collector M16

Also, the type of rifling has little to do with wear, when both are chrome lined.

Chrome lining extends the life of the barrel and makes it easier to clean. You can get chrome lined barrels that are CHF or button rifles.

You can get Chrome lined barrels just as accurate as any other method of lining a barrel, they will cost more money. Doesn't really matter, most chrome lined barrels are going to out shoot the shooter anyway.

The big advantage of chrome lining comes into play with full auto or rapid fire, where full auto can cook a non chrome lined barrel in literally seconds a chrome lined barrel holds up to sustained fire. YOU CAN STILL COOK A CHROME LINED BARREL, it just holds up substantially longer than non chrome lined barrels.

For my semi auto rifles almost all of them have chrome lined barrels. Anything else that isn't a machine gun, doesn't matter, if you aren't going to dump a mag, doesn't matter.

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You are hung up on something you don't understand very well. 

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Wrong. I've been working with military contracts including army, navy and coastguard before you were a gleam in your daddy's eye. You can not change the specifications of ANY design contracted for the military without an ECN. FNH's Technical Data Package specifically states using button rifling. There is no ECN to change that. I also noticed you completely ignored the link to where FN states they use button rifling for their military rifles.

ETA: Milspec also requires MIL-B-11595E steel to be used in all M16/M4 barrels. FN's CHF barrels are a proprietary steel and therefore can NOT be used as it is the wrong material; and again, no ECN has been approved.

Any reputable barrel maker will give you results where you won't notice the difference. If you were to burn out a barrel a thousand rounds quicker than another, the cost of a new barrel would be negligible compared to the cost of ammo you put through it.

All I know: The barrel on my old colt AR, is chrome magnetic particulate , it has had thousands of rounds fired through it, and is still super accurate, like brand new, maybe even better. I have never put any cheap ammo through it.