Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Opinions on borescopes

I enjoy playing with my firearms and reloading like most of you on the Campfire. And always trying to improve accuracy out of my guns by playing with different handloads and so forth. Even though I clean my barrels with solvent , brushes and patches I've always wondered if I got every last bit of fouling out of the barrel. Now a days you can buy a bore scope, so my question is,,, would the lyman bore scope be ok for a gun nut like me or would I be wise to save up for the Gradient Hawkeye? Would the Hawkeye be that much better? Or is there another scope on the market that I don't know about. Thanks in advance. RRM

I have a Lyman and it works great.Before that I used my Brothers Hawkeye.To me it is not worth the extra money.

I’ve had a Lyman for about a year and it really does let you see if the bore is squeaky clean.

I have a pair of Hawkeye's with extra bright lights ( souped up Mini Maglites will do about as well but maybe with some color shift) and a right angle eyepiece. I'd surely suggest trying a second edition Lyman especially on sale and expect no reason to move up.

I've been using the Lyman digital borescope for a couple of years and I think it was a good buy. If I ever get to use a more expensive or sophisticated borescope, I may not think so highly of it but ignorance is bliss---at least in this case.

I’ve got three optical borescopes and the Lyman digital borecam.

I haven’t used the optical scopes in over a year. The Lyman is just too handy.

I'm glad I read this thread. I just ordered a Lyman borescope from Brownells for $178.

Thank you all for helping me make a decision on a bore scope. Sounds like one is in the near future for me. Thanks. RRM

I've had a Hawkeye a long time and am very satisfied with it. If the cheaper scopes work as well, go with a cheaper scope, but I would at least look at a Hawkeye for comparison before I bought anything.

Thanks, guys. You just cost me some money!

Helpful crowd we ALL are, huh?

Roger that! BTW, if anyone else wants one , Brownells has a sale price and free shipping.

Mr gaget I am, tell me what will a bore scope tell me? I'm one of many that doesn't keep his bore squeeky clean as my rifles seem to shoot better with a little seasoning . Thanks!

The one thing a bore-scope won't reveal is whether the barrel will be accurate.

It does work very well for seeing how well various cleaning products work, and the amount of throat erosion (if any). I also use mine when shooting bore-lapping bullets to smooth an erosion-roughened throat, to see when the rough portion has disappeared, and the make sure the bore's clean of ALL fouling when installing Dyna Bore Coat.

Shortly after I bought my Lyman I used it to examine the bore of a Model 70 HV I had purchased some time before. I worked on loads for that rifle for months, occasionally seeing something that encouraged me to go off in a direction that would be just another dead end. When I saw the bore up close for the first time, I knew why it wouldn't shoot---it looked as though someone had pounded a ball bearing through it and smashed some of the lands. A new (used) barrel from GPC fixed it right up and is now a pretty good shooter. The same story with a Ruger 77V in .220 Swift I had swapped for about eight years ago. MOA was achievable, but I thought it should shoot closer to a half inch. It turned out the bore was pitted from breech to muzzle, but I sure couldn't tell by just gazing down the bore. That one now has a PacNor on it and is shooting acceptably. In fact I'm going to fire a few more seating depth tests next time out to see if I have been in the right place or can tighten it up a bit more.

I've also found that my Model 70 Classic in .25-06 has a checkered bore about three inches ahead of the chamber, but it's still shooting very well. When it goes south, I'll know why, but for now I'm happy with it.

A borescope isn't going to make a rifle shoot any better, but I think it's pretty handy to have around. Glad I bought it.

RiverRider,

Good post!

The only minor comment is I've seen plenty of abysmal-looking bores shoot really well.

yes my hawkeye bore scope works well,but here`s a funny short story I purchased a brand new savage 300 win short mag s.s. and bedded the barrel right away and redid the trigger too. gun shoots 3/4 inch moa at 100 yards all day long, gun cost me around $400.00 a few years ago. now when I looked down the barrel of this Savage rifle man it looked ruff and that was even before I shot the rifle but this rifle does shoot well. now my dear friend wanted I better rifle in a 300 win.short mag so he purchased a Kimber rifle for over $800.00 and the bore looked super nice too new but the gun after and before being bedded shot terrible 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 groups ,friend paid twice as much as I did and ended up with a terrible rifle,and he was not happy . so sometimes even looking down the barrel tell s you little except if its burned out, >Mule deer is right it will never tell you what barrel is more accurate but those dang cheap Savage rifles are some real fool`ers. good luck,Pete53

I had a Lyman for a brief time and it worked well enough but I got to wondering,
If the bore has imperfections, what can I do about it?
If it shot well enough for me and I could clean it well enough or Dyna Bore Coat it and keep it shooting well, what difference could I make to the function of the rifle by looking at the bore?

I like to shoot a variety of rifles and cartridges but a bore scope didn't change anything for me and it was returned.

If I was buying some collectible rifles, I'd like to be able to check the barrel out to see if it's shot out but that's not me.

Hawkeye.....I see everything I need to....don't know why an advrage shooter would need one...but if you collect old guns it will pay for itself...especially old lever guns and 22s....I have taken mine to gunshows and it can be some leverage when a guy says it's got a pristine e bore...guess what....most are pitted or sewer pipes...some are better than expected...helps selling guns too to look a throat.

Guy brought a Hawkeye to a gun show, set up a table charging 5 bucks to borescope barrels. He pretty much got run out of the place by used gun dealers.....