Home colonoscopies save a ton of money.
Barrel manufacturers use borescopes?
- Thread starter 6.5 forever
- Start date
Wonder what the round count would’ve been if he cleaned it.?
I look at it like this: cleaning your barrel is similar to brushing your teeth. You maybe don’t brush after each meal and snack but brushing once a day beats the hell out of not brushing at all.
Do I clean my barrels? Yes. Have I turned it into some mystical routine. No.
DaveTooley
Gold $$ Contributor
For the accuracy minded among us let's assume you are diligent about cleaning the copper and powder fouling. The formation of heat checking is overwhelmingly dependent on case capacity vs bore diameter. A bore scope comes in handy to watch this develop. Many times I can feel it in a barrel by pulling a bore brush back through the chamber. It will feel a little gritty for lack of a better word. The judicial use of abrasives is the only way to smooth things out. Also it's better to start using abrasives earlier than later. Later runs the risk of copper being stripped off the bullet and deposited in the cracks. It's been my experience that once that happens there is no way to bring back the accuracy. I use a tight fitting patch on a jag ( no brushes ) and short stroke the throat and then lengthening the stroke as I work a short distance down the barrel. I finish with a good cleaning with solvent and a brush.
I have a friend that he and I own a borescope together, I have custody. He bought a new Sako 300 Win mag and only cleaned it with a bore snake. At around 125 rounds he was shooting an 18 inch group and had an elk hunt in 2 months. The Sako rep told him Butch's bore shine and it will be good as new. I agreed and he would not believe either one of us. I told him if he wanted to prove it if he sould buy a borescope. We compromised and split the cost of a new Hawkeye. It looked like the grooves were gold plated. In 30 minutes I had it cleaned and showed him the difference. He went to the range the next Saturday and called me from the bench, 3/4 of an inch at 100yds. Guys like Dave Tooley, and others that have cleaned thousands of guns over a lifetime know when one is clean, I did not. I can get one close but need to look sometimes every 3rd or 4th cleaning to make sure I am on the right track.
D Coots
Silver $$ Contributor
At the Supershoot one year I was listening in on a conversation outside the Shilen loading trailer. The Shilen guys, Buckys, , and Boyer were discussing evaluating a new barrel. Boyer was mostly listening. When the conversation died down he said....."there ain't but one way to know if a barrel is going to shoot."..... with that he went on about his business.
paperpuncher
Gold $$ Contributor
Cant wait for those pictures.......NOTHome colonoscopies save a ton of money.
I have barrels that don’t look very good through the scope but shoot just fine. None the less, I use a bore scope before buying a rifle and also for cleaning to see the fouling etc.
That looks like my Savage 22-250's twin. Man is it a shooter.
Ned Ludd
Silver $$ Contributor
Some do. This effect is B.A.D. (Borescope Anxiety Disorder). Fortunately, it's usually temporal. Even severe BAD cases rarely ever require more than antibiotics; i.e. no major surgery or organ transplants are typically necessary. As users become more familiar with what they're seeing in the borescope, the BAD usually just goes away. The risk of contracting severe BAD should not be a valid reason for not owning a borescope; it's on the user, not the borescope. If one doesn't own, or at least have access to a borescope, they are simply guessing about what's actually going on inside the bore. That's fine, it's a choice like any other and probably works well for many shooters that choose not to own a borescope. On the other hand, it's not like owning a borescope just to look inside the bore once in a while and check things out should cause anyone to be branded as a freak and made sport of. I own both a Hawkeye and a Teslong. My feeling is that the low cost of the Teslong units have made it so that anyone can really afford to own one if they so choose. Before Teslong, owning a borescope was considerably more painful.
I used mine today also. Looked through the spark plug hole for wear or scoring on a cylinder wall. Very useful. Unlike a cylinder when I took a look at a couple of my barrels, I had NO idea what I should be seeing or looking for. Never spent 2 seconds in a rifle barrel bore scope class. The rifles shoot very well. What I saw was I guess somewhat interesting.
I guess it’s another tool but honestly the end result is the size of the group. Nothing else.
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Bronsin
Silver $$ Contributor
If a gunsmith told me that, it would be the last time I darken their door, but then I probably would have figured that out with a phone call.
What amazes me is that anyone was able to clean a barrel properly and shoot really well before there were borescopes. I guess it was just luck.
Ok - guys - I'm ready for incoming - let it rip.
I’ve been shooting since 1955….reloading since 1964…because of a great deal I bought my first bore scope 2 years ago. Interesting but beyond that nothing. About the last ten years all I’ve heard is if you don’t own one….well. Hear that about lots of these ‘must have’ items.What amazes me is that anyone was able to clean a barrel properly and shoot really well before there were borescopes. I guess it was just luck.
Ok - guys - I'm ready for incoming - let it rip.
A fellow shooter I knew several years ago, poor guy, couldn't sleep at night after he purchased one of those gadgets and looked down the bore of his rifle. The rifle wasn't shooting poorly - just looked "bad".
When he "fixed" the bore with heavy brushing and heavy doses of Shooter's Choice and Sweets and it was bright and shiny - the rifle shot poorly until he had a bunch of rounds down the bore.
jelenko
Gold $$ Contributor
I'm not sure that's 100% correct. I'm wondering the way we were taught to clean our barrels came from people who did own a borescope.What amazes me is that anyone was able to clean a barrel properly and shoot really well before there were borescopes. I guess it was just luck.
Ok - guys - I'm ready for incoming - let it rip.
I do use them a lot as a final inspection to every chamber job I do. Ultimately though, I've had chambers and bbls that looked just awesome that never shot as well as some that didn't...or what looked like a rougher throat etc. In the end, about the only conclusion I can come to is how fast it breaks in and that may well be a stretch. What might look like a poor finish is very superficial compared to so many other things. You can't lay that on the smith when every bbl cuts different and there are so many things that can affect the final finish...which doesn't matter a bit in the end, as long as it's not bad. The reamer has some affect as does feed rate, lube, etc but so does blind luck, when it comes to the way it looks. As long as it shoots well and there are no obvious flaws that I can prevent or repair, it's really much more about how it shoots than what I or anybody else can see that doesn't matter...I'm yet to meet anyone that can determine any difference in how they shoot, but of course we do all we can to make them all they can be or else, you need a smith that does and that understands the difference.
I'd rather win ugly, than lose pretty. It's really nice to do both though. Frankly, we're splitting a finer hair than it would ever appear without this technology and the same technology is being used to chamber a bbl as we had 40 plus years ago. Biggest difference being the grinders used to make the reamers used. Production time of those reamers may well factor in to the final frog hair finish though. We are blessed way beyond what we were justa few years ago in that regard, imho.
Ya gotta remember that in an ABSOLUTELY PERFECT WORLD..the chamber is a mirror image of the reamer. My world isn't absolutely perfect but I do all I can to make it all it can be.
I'd rather win ugly, than lose pretty. It's really nice to do both though. Frankly, we're splitting a finer hair than it would ever appear without this technology and the same technology is being used to chamber a bbl as we had 40 plus years ago. Biggest difference being the grinders used to make the reamers used. Production time of those reamers may well factor in to the final frog hair finish though. We are blessed way beyond what we were justa few years ago in that regard, imho.
Ya gotta remember that in an ABSOLUTELY PERFECT WORLD..the chamber is a mirror image of the reamer. My world isn't absolutely perfect but I do all I can to make it all it can be.
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Been there done that too!
I shoot 600 and 1000 yds. My first Savage 12, 6.5 CM shot really good then I bought a bore scope. I thought I found a gold mine down my barrel. Cleaned it until it was spotless and went back to the range.
It shot worse than before I cleaned it. found out that after about 18 rounds my 3" groups came back at 600.
Now I shoot until the groups get worse then clean and foul it back up. That is about 350-400 rounds then clean, repeat.
Acyr
Gold $$ Contributor
OP asks, do barrel manufactures use bore scopes?
I make cut rifled barrels for a small company. Drill, ream and rifle. Yes, we do. Every single one.
That being said the barrel I won the 2020 F Class 600-yard Nationals with was one ugly barrel. 7 tenths of rachet and 7 tenths of choke and the chamber looked like someone drug a file across it. (This was before I worked there) So looks aren't everything.
If it shoots it shoots.
I make cut rifled barrels for a small company. Drill, ream and rifle. Yes, we do. Every single one.
That being said the barrel I won the 2020 F Class 600-yard Nationals with was one ugly barrel. 7 tenths of rachet and 7 tenths of choke and the chamber looked like someone drug a file across it. (This was before I worked there) So looks aren't everything.
If it shoots it shoots.
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