Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire $50 dollar borescopes vs new barrels

Just thinking that now the Teslong bore scope is available to every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the shooting world at a negligible price. Comparing that to when chronographs broke the $200 price barrier and every serious reloader or shooter of factory ammo suddenly had access to accurate velocity information.

All of a sudden, the consumer could see exactly how accurate the velocity claimed on the end of the box was.

Does a cheap bore scope mean that the barrel makers are going to have step up their game. Or will the consumer recognize that group size matters more than pretty pics from inside the barrel.

Here are some samples:
$350 rifle from Walmart. Weatherby Vanguard CM in 243 with 20 rds.





$1000 rifle from Gunbroker. Remington 5R SS in 260 unfired




And for comparison, a custom Kreiger SS with 20 rds down the tube




I think the factory Howa is actually the prettiest of the bunch. But I do not know yet which will shoot the best. I am just playing with the camera

Might just make one chase the rabbit down another hole.

If they won't shoot then maybe look.

Someone else had a thread just like this about a week ago.

Those bore scopes must be getting around.

I think the best thing I have found the borescope for is checking for throat erosion and how clean the barrel is.I checked one of my best shooting rifles and I was surprised to find quite a few really ugly tool marks,so you never know.Another thing I checked was how much room I have in my chamber for my brass to grow..Here is a pic of the neck of the brass in the chamber

I'm not so sure I want to see some of my bores... some of them likely shoot better than they should. Would be good for spotting the occasional carbon ring that develops.

Bb

I just got one last week and checked out a couple of barrels. I think it will come in handy for a number of situations. I got the $69 model with the rigid tube rather than the flexible cable.

Holy smokes - it is a rifle - with a bore looking slightly more or less like thousands of others. How does it SHOOT?

I remember a review of a cheap Remington rifle (770? 783? one of those) by Dave Petzal. He said the bore looked like a coal mine, but the rifle shot lights out. Makes me afraid to look in the bores of my rifles.

On the other hand, I have a Tikka Model 558 in 243 which has always shot wonderfully well. All of a sudden, it stopped doing so. I borrowed a friend's Hawkeye bore scope, and took a look at the throat. It looks fine. I was sure the throat of a 25 year old 243 was worn out. It's not. The mystery deepens.

Slugging a bore will tell you more information about how the bore will perform than a bore scope.

But there is no substitute for a bore scope for parts of a bore inspection such as copper, rust, is the crown damaged, what is the concentricity of the bore to the chamber at the neck and throat junctions, ..... what does the chamber surface look like.

I found my magnum rifles are a lot harder on the throat than my non magnums.So I learned I should shoot the magnums a whole lot less.Here is one of my 300 Win Mag throats

I got one of those for Christmas too.

I have a nice custom tube that hasn't been shooting. Took a peak inside and guess what? Little spots of rust within an inch of the muzzle!
Yes, this is worthwhile.

A couple of rules

More pressure = more wear period.

Hot barrels eat bores even worse - My rule that I pick up from old guys who knew more years ago - is if the barrel metal is already past 180 degrees I stop shooting.. But some guys will keep firing, and firing, and firing... and eat the bore.

When you pass 180 degree’s - if you touch the barrel, your reaction will be to yank your hand away before it gets burned... so if you can’t grab the barrel - stop shooting the thing.

I never let my barrels get that hot.I usually shoot three and switch to another rifle while that one is cooling.Heat is a bad thing for barrels.So it like this,say you have a 308 Win and your burning say 45grs of powder and your have say a 300 Win Mag and your burning 75grs,that 300 Win Mag is going to get a lot hotter.

Thus, what should/will be done about those little spots of rust? And, the result?

Given the basic purpose of the rifle, why would a person shoot those magnums a whole lot less?

I too got a Teslong scope and spent several days scoping my barrels. It was enlightening, some of my most accurate barrels looked awful, with Savage barrels being the worst, no surprise there.
I was surprised how much erosion some magnums had, also some pre-64 M70's in standard calibers had erosion, yet they shoot great.
I don't believe you can predict the accuracy by appearances alone. I did find flaws in several barrels. The best part of the borescope for me was to analyze cleaning methods and the effectiveness or lack of , with different products and procedures. It also made me appreciate stainless barrels more.

carbon fouling.

Just like I was thinking. Its well known since I was old enough to read, that mags are rough on bores, hence shorter bore life.

But whats a gun for? To look at or to shoot? They make more barrels and gunsmiths every day. Easy enough to re barrel one.

and what did you learn by how close or far MV was from touted? Drops are learned by actual shooting.

Pressure though, thats the realm of a chrono in a way, but SO many variables there too IMHO and then each book can give a different max speed IE pressure. Truly MV/pressure wise we will always be somewhat blind.

AND, the ads show what a cop had in his rifle... now most cops, WTF are they going to learn or do with a scope even if they see copper fouling. And exactly who says copper fouling is bad? I mean if you can shoot 5000 rounds in a 223 in a year and still win matches at the end of the day having never cleaned it the whole year...