I was pleasantly ignorant about my rifle bore conditions prior to the internet. Now I wonder if I have a carbon ring, residual copper fouling, etc.... I load for my rifles for hunting but enjoy the process and challenges. Is a borescope a helpful tool for occasional use or is it mainly a tool for competitive shooters and gun dealers? See that the Lyman digital scope is only a couple of hundred dollars. Would it show a carbon ring. Is it a decent product? If threw down the money for a Hawkeye, would it be more useful as a regular part of my cleaning regimen? I really want to know if I have carbon rings. Can these be isolated without a borescope. Should one just assume a carbon ring is present and scrub away at it?
Borescope Should I get one?
- Thread starter CTK
- Start date
I can not imagine my shooting life without something to check the bore. Either one would be very valuable. I purchased my Hawkeye long before there was an alternative and don't regret it. Instead of buying the Lyman I purchased the Hawkeye 90º eye-piece and it is always attached. I like the optical quality but if I had it to do these days I would buy the Lyman, find out if it would to the job, and if not up to snuff sell it in favor of the Hawkeye.
R.Morehouse
Gold $$ Contributor
I have the Lyman and am very pleased with it.
Shynloco
You can lead a horse to water, but ........
IMHO,
A borescope is nothing more than another tool. It's great to have one if you know what you are looking at. But if you are unfamiliar with looking at portions of the inside of a barrel and haven't clue what to look for (even though you might be a self exclaimed expert and Gunsmith) what's the point unless you have money to burn. I am fortunate to have the assistance of two qualified Gunsmiths who have years of experience, one of whom competes and often places highly at competitive events. I can call them up and they will look down or check any barrel or weapon I take to them for free. They both have confirmed good and bad barrels for me and have replaced barrels as well as built some of my rifles. Personally I rely on them and their advice has always proven both useful and trustworthy. So if it makes you happy and you think you are qualified to use a borescope, go for it and have fun. Like Harry once said, "A man has to know his limitations."
Alex
A borescope is nothing more than another tool. It's great to have one if you know what you are looking at. But if you are unfamiliar with looking at portions of the inside of a barrel and haven't clue what to look for (even though you might be a self exclaimed expert and Gunsmith) what's the point unless you have money to burn. I am fortunate to have the assistance of two qualified Gunsmiths who have years of experience, one of whom competes and often places highly at competitive events. I can call them up and they will look down or check any barrel or weapon I take to them for free. They both have confirmed good and bad barrels for me and have replaced barrels as well as built some of my rifles. Personally I rely on them and their advice has always proven both useful and trustworthy. So if it makes you happy and you think you are qualified to use a borescope, go for it and have fun. Like Harry once said, "A man has to know his limitations."
Alex
Don't buy a bore scope
If you do don't look at all your hunting guns .
Smile. Larry
If you do don't look at all your hunting guns .
Smile. Larry
Jet
Gold $$ Contributor
I have access to a bore scope at work and would occasionally use it to get a look into my barrels, chambers, brass, etc. When the bore cam came out I read a bunch of reviews and it seemed like it would be fine for my needs. Bought one broke it out and looked down a few of my barrels. It gave a decent/adequate view of the barrel bore. Ran it into a PPC barrel with 100rds through it and it showed a huge carbon ring. Next day, took a look through the same barrel with the work bore scope and there was no carbon ring, only a discoloration. Looked again with the bore cam and the discolarotion looked like a huge carbon ring. I sent my bore cam back for a refund and bought a bore scope.
My opinion of the bore cam is it is okay for occasional use but doesn't provide enough detail to really identify issues.
If your budget allows buy a bore scope. If your budget is tight get the bore cam or ask to use a buddies.
Good shooting
Rich
My opinion of the bore cam is it is okay for occasional use but doesn't provide enough detail to really identify issues.
If your budget allows buy a bore scope. If your budget is tight get the bore cam or ask to use a buddies.
Good shooting
Rich
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You can see a carbon ring and fire cracking with the Lyman. Another + is being able to take pictures and see the condition of the throat area over time.
Chuck
Chuck
Only the paper will show the difference.
Larry
Spend the couple hundred bucks. Seen them online for $200. I bet most of us have easily spent that in garbage bore cleaning elixer. The Lyman is a digital picture. Not a true color optical. There is a big difference however, the digital pic is plenty good enough. Carbon and copper is easy to spot.
It was fun for me to see the difference between factory hunting barrels and custom hand lapped barrels. I kept an open mind. I have a Winchester 70 barrel that shoots absolutely wonderful and the inside looks like the rumble strips on the side of the hwy. Dont care.
I threw away most of my gimmick "cleaning" mess. You get to see what works and what doesn't. You get to see just how much cleaning you have to maintain in order to consistently stay accurate. When I bought my scope I spent days cleaning. A lot of my factory tubes went to hell in a hand basket afterwards. I learned that squeaky clean isn't necessarily the best prescription for all barrels. I learned that keeping up with carbon fouling was most important for Me. It's also one of the most difficult to stay on top of sometimes. I've seen copper fouling covered by carbon covered by copper. I have no idea how I would ever be able to tell this by looking a patch. I'm just not that good.
It was fun for me to see the difference between factory hunting barrels and custom hand lapped barrels. I kept an open mind. I have a Winchester 70 barrel that shoots absolutely wonderful and the inside looks like the rumble strips on the side of the hwy. Dont care.
I threw away most of my gimmick "cleaning" mess. You get to see what works and what doesn't. You get to see just how much cleaning you have to maintain in order to consistently stay accurate. When I bought my scope I spent days cleaning. A lot of my factory tubes went to hell in a hand basket afterwards. I learned that squeaky clean isn't necessarily the best prescription for all barrels. I learned that keeping up with carbon fouling was most important for Me. It's also one of the most difficult to stay on top of sometimes. I've seen copper fouling covered by carbon covered by copper. I have no idea how I would ever be able to tell this by looking a patch. I'm just not that good.
I don't think I'll be getting one anytime soon. The 100 year old Winchesters are what they are and never get shot, the hunting rifles don't get shot enough to get excited about. Now for the match barrels that get shot, if they won't shoot from the beginning they are going back to who ever made it. I usually know about how far a good shooting barrel will go and push them as far as they will go and then just buy a new one. A a friend who is a very serious shooter told me once "barrels are expendable items". After a couple of days of being half grumpy about it I realized he was really right. I'll be saving my money to put toward a new barrel.
This is very true.
Side Story. I was at the rifle range yesterday and there was a guy shooting next to me with an older model leupold 3.5-10x50 AO. I mentioned to him how great of a scope that was and how nice it is to get parallax free. He said, "parallax, what's that? This is for focus"
Once I showed him how to adjust it for parallax, he shook his head and said, "what do I do in a hunting situation when I don't have a steady platform to get the parallax out?" He was really worried about this now. I told him, "sometimes it's better to not know about something" he laughed and now that I showed him what that AO is for it is going to bug him in his mind all the time now.
AckleymanII
Gold $$ Contributor
I have the Hawkeye and Lyman, with the price of the Lyman, every serious shooter should own one.
Alex Wheeler
Site $$ Sponsor
Save your money. I have one and still dont use it to check if my barrel is clean. There are plenty of other tells....
Ledd Slinger
Silver $$ Contributor
Looked through Hawkeye's many many times over the years, tho I never owned one. bought the Lyman a little over a year ago and really glad I didn't spring for a Hawkeye. The Hawkeye gives you a little better resoution because it is direct sight and not video feed, but I have absolutely no trouble seeing any sort of copper/carbon fouling or metal wear or imperfections in my barrels with the Lyman. My favorite thing is like someone else mentioned about not having to have your eye pressed up against it and lined up on the barrel like you do with the hawkeye. If you buy a portable USB cell phone/tablet power charging pack, you can take the Lyman with you anywhere.
Also very nice to be able to capture digital images with the Lyman and save them on your computer. One of my Uncle-in-laws had me take one of his rifles to my father in law for a future varmint hunt, and asked me to take a look at it because it wasnt shooting very well. I used image capturing feature to inspect his bore then send him images of the badly and unevenly washed out lands via email so he could see why his rifle wasn't shooting good.
Also very nice to be able to capture digital images with the Lyman and save them on your computer. One of my Uncle-in-laws had me take one of his rifles to my father in law for a future varmint hunt, and asked me to take a look at it because it wasnt shooting very well. I used image capturing feature to inspect his bore then send him images of the badly and unevenly washed out lands via email so he could see why his rifle wasn't shooting good.
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