Bore Scope Arrived--What Am I Looking At?

[dusterdave173]

Ok Bore Scope arrived--3 minutes later I am looking at the bore of my 223 varmint / fun Savage barrel
First pix is the carbon ring at end of chamber and then a throat shot then down the barrel a few inches at a time--
Whew! I don't know what I am looking at or what i am looking for yet--This barrel was just "cleaned" I know Ha ha ha.
If I did abuse this barrel it was on my first prairie dog shoot last July--over 1100 rounds in two days many with a smoking hot barrel--I have learned to reload on this barrel as well--I have about 5K rounds on it to date--It still shoots pretty decent groups at 100 with my favorite load--on down the barrel about half way it shines up--no black--looks pretty decent.
So......Is it cooked? Is it normal? help me get started down the scope Rabbit hole
Thanks Gang

 

[mudduck]

Give it a good cleaning with jb. Then look again

 

[Adam in WI]

Lemme see if I can sum up the next eight pages...
1. It's a Savage, they're always ugly inside
2. If the accuracy you get is acceptable, what's the problem?
3. Get it all the way clean first
4. If you're looking for an excuse to buy a new barrel, just buy a new barrel...

Did I miss anything?

 

[PopCharlie]

You need to give it a good aggressive cleaning. Some copper and lots of carbon in the bore. It's going to take a good bit of scrubbing to get all of that carbon out. Especially since you've never gotten it all out and have a lot of rounds through it. I'd run a patch of a good penetrating oil through it. Let it sit for a minute. The wrap a patch around a worn-out bronze brush. Coat the patch with JBs. Then scrub 40 to 50 strokes (1 stroke = down and back). Then run a few wet patches of the penetration oil. Then dry patch it out and check it again. You're looking for bare metal, no black carbon streaks, no copper streaks. Repeat as necessary until you get to bare metal.

PopCharlie

 

[bobm]

Hopefully Adam's post cut this to under three pages.

Shoot the crap out of that barrel and have fun. Easy install barrels can be had by numerous makers.
Bore looks good for the punishment you gave it and the dogs.

 

[DGP4]

Cork the crown and fill the barrel with Free All. Let it sit for 2-3 days in a warm place. That will remove 80% of the shmootz.

 

[DShortt]

Honestly if it's shooting well I would clean that carbon ring out of the neck and not mess with the rest of it.
If you are simply curious about how it will shoot if you strip everything out then you're going to need Losso/JB bore paste and elbow grease. And a bunch of it. There's a lot of carbon in there and it's not going to come out easy.

 

[SSchnd]

I have had Kreiger and Shillen barrels with some heavy fire cracking that still shot great. Still have a Shillen 7.5R 20" on a back up upper for course matches. Still shoots great, boy its fire cracked. No amount of cleaning/JB or otherwise fixes that. Get that carbon ring out.
Welcome to the Mind F*** that is the bore scope user. It can get into the space between our ears.

 

[Dgd6mm]

Wash, rinse, repeat. Polish the throat area, get the carbon ring out. Live with the fire cracking. There's life left in that barrel for some pdogs and plinking.
We always run wet patches down our barrels before we leave the range. A little maintenance in the field goes a long way with every barrel.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

No bronze brush i see?

 

[dusterdave173]

OK! An hour later and it is so bright I can barely get a good pix inside--WOW! So That is what bore paste is for! I had some never opened it until today--LOTS of work and it is bright and clean--OK so next is how will it shoot? Stay tuned--if weather is good i will be at the range in the morning.
I got a load of 23.3 N133 --53g Vmax shooting around 3150 or so that just groups great and has very low ES--
This has been my LEARNING rifle--so naturally it has had to endure my ignorance while I try and learn. Good news is it will shoot sub MOA with every group and I say it is a half MOA like we all do--Truth is IT probably is but ME maybe not so much.
I had been thinking maybe I tortured it and knocked the edge off----- as it ( or ME ) had started to slip a little . yes I do want a new cool barrel but maybe I should "learn" a little more first.
Thanks for the help!!!

 

[rwj]

Nice job at cleaning so that you can see the true surface conditions! Paradoxically, it may not shoot as well until it is partially fouled again. You may to apply a light coating of Lock-Ease before shooting again to quicken the fouling process.

Save the photos as a baseline against which you can compare barrel condition after shooting more rounds.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Remember theres 5k rounds on it with 1000+ hard rounds on it.

 

[M-61]

2. If the accuracy you get is acceptable, what's the problem?

Yes!

 

[DShortt]

Obviously it's greatly improved but you still have hard carbon at the case neck end. There are many explanations about how to go about removing that on the site so I won't go through it again here. If you're going to check accuracy tomorrow you can always work on it then unless you decide it shoots better fouled. Either way you should get that out.

 

[acloco]

Looks normal.

Keep shooting for another 5 to 10K.

Almost every factory rifle barrel looks like this (chatter from button rifling).

 

[divingin]

My 6BR barrel gets that 1/3 to 1/2 length dark "staining". It's carbon, but it doesn't come out easily (brushing and Boretech Carbon doesn't seem to touch it.) That said, it doesn't seem to affect anything, either. I get it out when I use Iosso on the barrel (usually I go to that when I have copper I can't get), then turn around and put it back in. That barrel, like yours, has a lot of use: coming up on 6K rounds in the next couple/three weeks.

 

[dusterdave173]

OK--BIG learning day! I had some bore paste and had not used it--just could not believe car paste had a place inside a barrel--Until I could SEE in the barrel--All of the chemicals I have used --all the bronze brushing , everything I had done--was still leaving it looking like that in the first 1/4 to 3rd of the barrel--I went back soaked the chamber with Boretech then went to town with a bronze brush and got all of the carbon out of the neck area--The throat and bore gleam now--zero stuff in there. Second day of class at the range when I can get there. How many rounds until it starts grouping? Will it be better or not? But the one thing is I thought maybe I had ruined that barrel--It looks just fine now ( for a Savage anyway) At one point while on first PD shoot I had a soaking wet hotel towel wrapped around the barrel to keep it from turning into a branding iron--I had it steaming that towel! Dunk towel in cooler wrap it again and kept pouring rounds down range .
So....we will see.
If I was staring over again I would get a scope first day--I may learn that it shoots fine filthy dirty and that I did not need a scope--but I have to prove that to myself.
Lesson today
get a bore scope--without one it is like driving with a blind fold you have no idea what is going on in there--does it matter whats in there??? Stay tuned..
As always THANKS to all here for the help!!!

 

[ebb]

You only thought you knew how to clean a rifle till today! ^^^^^^^ i learned this at Indian Hammock in 2005 from a member here named Jon Newman and nobody believes me how much a bore scope can tell you.

 

[Old Navy]

Lemme see if I can sum up the next eight pages...
1. It's a Savage, they're always ugly inside
2. If the accuracy you get is acceptable, what's the problem?
3. Get it all the way clean first
4. If you're looking for an excuse to buy a new barrel, just buy a new barrel...

Did I miss anything?

Yes. It probably looked like that at 750 rounds. Both my Model 12s did.