Bought a Bore scope

My Hawkeye Borescope I invested in many years ago was, without a doubt, the best investment I ever made for my gun smithing hobby! I love collecting, cleaning, fixing, reloading for and SHOOTING! almost all of my military surplus rifles. The bore scope really is invaluable for many reasons. Hope you get a fraction of the use out of yours!

wow, that looks awesome, great resolution. thank you for sharing

Yea, this is a very popular model. I just bought the same one myself two weeks back. I haven't used it yet as I'm somewhat afraid of what I interpret of what I see. I'm thinking it would be easy to make mountains out of molehills. I'll likely try it on the Vudoo this week since it's my most underperforming rifle at the moment.

👍😎

Midger said:

What surprised me was all the scratches on the lands of my cz 457 barrels. These look to be from the factory because

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But how do the barrels shoot?

To me the borescope is a good tool for diagnosing existing problems, but it seems like sometimes it invents problems that didn't exist before as well.

A borescope is a tool looking for a solution. If a rifle shoots well, why jump the gun - literally pun intended.

KISS and shooting work well. Chasing a rabbit down a never ending hole.

Sometimes we need to consider the carbon based lifeform shooting the rifle before cussing the rifle.

kenny22 said:

But how do the barrels shoot?

To me the borescope is a good tool for diagnosing existing problems, but it seems like sometimes it invents problems that didn't exist before as well.

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Winner, winner chicken dinner. I use ours all the time and have seen all kinds of “defects” that don’t affect diddly squat. I have friends who get so wrapped in knots over things that don’t affect accuracy whatsoever, that don’t affect anything of any consequence whatsoever, that I have no reservation saying unequivocally that they would have been far better off if bore scopes were as rare as an honest politician.

I have a barrel sitting in my Bucket ‘O Barrels in my garage that looks like forty miles of bad road for the first eight inches. It looked like that for two years and another thousand rounds before I replaced it. It’s a 26 inch, factory taper, 22-250 off my 788 and it shot 1/2 inch groups from the day I first shot it until the day it was replaced. That isn’t always the case, but it works out that way often enough that it is fair to say that just because it looks bad, that doesn’t mean it IS bad.

How does it shoot?

After the S&G wore off I use mine for ensuring the barrel is clean anymore. Even that is probably overkill since I can tell from the patches.

I have learned a ton about pitting, cleaning and damages to bores with the use of mine. It adds a level of information in many ways to collecting, cleaning, repairing and overall understanding about barrels, firearms and overall use and value! If you don't want one, don't buy one!

Great photos, I have seen chambers and bores that "looked" perfect when viewed with a bore scope that didnt perform well at all and I have seen burred chambers and tool marked bores shoot well and vise versa, what it all comes down to is how the rifle performs.

Funny, I got one within the last month too. I'm not worried about the little machine marks and stuff either, but it is very interesting to see what the cleaning regime does and doesn't do. Especially with .22LR chambers that get crusty quick. We have club rifles that got to the point of not extracting because of the carbon ring buildup, other shooters I know have had same issue with their .223 service rifles.

One thing I noticed right away in the CZ 457 I just got was the incredibly deep rifling, deeper than any other rifle I've stuck the scope in so far, including my Kreiger match barrel. You can clearly see it comparing the CZ v Lilja barrel in the pics above. The CZ is the only .22 I have that the plastic storage rods I have to stand rifles up in the safes don't really fit. Had to cut one off and sand down to make the diameter smaller. Seems doubtful you could shoot one of these barrels out (especially shooting LRN bullets).

I also recently bought a Teslong rod version borescope. I've only played with it one evening but as soon as I get caught up on a few things I'm gonna have a look down my 457 and see how she looks.

I got one a few months ago to see how I am doing with my normal cleaning. So far it looks like I'm under cleaning centerfire rifles and pistols leaving some copper and sometimes what looks like carbon in the rifling if I only use a nylon brush. With the exception of the carbon ring in the chamber, I'm doing good or maybe over cleaning the rimfires.

It is easy to get hung up on anything unexpected in the barrel though. I just try to remember how each gun shoots and not worry so much if the inside is pretty or not.

LewisM said:

A borescope is a tool looking for a solution. If a rifle shoots well, why jump the gun - literally pun intended.

KISS and shooting work well. Chasing a rabbit down a never ending hole.

Sometimes we need to consider the carbon based lifeform shooting the rifle before cussing the rifle.

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I couldnt disagree more here. A borescope can be an invaluable tool for diagnostics as well as for, as was mentioned, a deeper understanding of firearm barrels. There are many things youll see with a borescope that youll never see with the naked eye looking in one end or the other, or by looking at patches, not that there is anything wrong with those thinhs but being ablebto actually watch and document a bores degradation over time is an enlightening experience. Being able to see the results of your cleaning regiment can allow you to streamline it and save yourself time and money. Seeing damage done by others or tour cleaning tools can yell you what not to do. Evaluating an old bore before a purchase can give you bargaining power.
No, borescopes have many purposes.

I like my Teslong and have found other uses for it like checking for case head separation on brass. When looking at buying a used gun it's nice to hook it up to my phone and check the barrel before spending lots of money. One last thing, it's helped me with my cleaning regiment, now I know what works, what doesn't and when to stop.

It is a tool...use it.
Enjoy the knowledge you gain by witnessing what various bore conditions support what level of accuracy. You will be amazed at how scary a bore can appear yet shoot very well. It's very helpful to evaluate your cleaning routine.
(pay attention to the focal length of the mirror, adjusting it in & out can make it easy to get outstanding pictures as shown above.)

Don't fall for the 'I don't want to know routine'. 🙈🙉🙊

Man I'm going invest in one of those, I've been eyeballing one of those and you've remind me of one👍