Lapua40X
California Hunter Education Instructor
A little background.
I used my Hawkeye for slightly over a year and liked it very much. The only refitting I made was to center bore a length of nylon rod to replace the rifle's bolt so that the probe had better support when slipped into the barrel. But I'm getting old and bending over to peer into an eyepiece behind the rifle isn't as easy as it once was so I decided to try the Lyman Borecam.
The Hawkeye can be focused to provide a very sharp image and, once I adjusted my brain to work with the mirrored view (reversed as it is) it did an excellent job for my purposes. It offers a nice depth of field that I found took some of the strain out of focusing on surfaces I was interested in viewing. It requires some patience to assemble all the parts to the trombone style probe system (battery powered light source, slipping one tube over the other, etc.) but that may have been due to a flaw in my character. Patience is not my greatest virtue. The Hawkeye's probe can be rotated more than 360 degrees in any direction with ease and it has a notch in the rotational control ring that permits the user to rotate back to a previous point using "braille" techniques. But without an extra pair of hands, it's difficult to adjust the intensity of the light source while looking through the scope. When everything is adjusted the images are clear and as steady as the hands of the user can hold the probe in position. Taking pictures through the scope requires special equipment that increases the cost considerably. There was no need for a hard case to store and protect the Hawkeye because the box it ships in is plenty good enough to handle that responsibility.
The Hawkeye is comparatively expensive: $700 - $800 everywhere I shopped.
The Borecam is self focusing. However, IMO, its depth of field is not as broad as the Hawkeye. Satisfactory, to be sure, but just not quite as broad. Assembly of the components is child's play and involves plug, plug, plug, and go, using USB style connections. The package includes power adapters for virtually every conceivable electrical outlet in the world and adjusting the amount of light emitted to the area under inspection is as easy as simply pressing a single button on the portable console. Because it relies on a hard wired connection to the console, the probe of the Borecam resists being rotated. I found that annoying but I'll get used to it I'm sure. I also found that the guide I had used with the Hawkeye didn't work as well with the Borecam. Probably a depth of field issue described earlier. But because the probe doesn't rotate as freely as the Hawkeye it didn't matter much; the probe on the Borecam was actually easier to reposition without the guide. One of the best features I found is that I can record images instantly with a push of a button and view them on any device that can process digital images. While trying to adjust for depth of field, the image on the screen reminded me of those ultra-sound images commonly shown on TV. You know, the joyful expectant parent smiling at the first images of the fetus. But once of got the hang of it everything came together nicely. Much like the Hawkeye, I found that the box it ships in is plenty good enough to handle storage and protection of the system.
The Borecam is a darn good value, IMO, running from about $200 - $260 everywhere I shopped.
With an average price difference of over $500 I'm convinced I made the right choice by adding the Borecam to my shooting equipment inventory.
I used my Hawkeye for slightly over a year and liked it very much. The only refitting I made was to center bore a length of nylon rod to replace the rifle's bolt so that the probe had better support when slipped into the barrel. But I'm getting old and bending over to peer into an eyepiece behind the rifle isn't as easy as it once was so I decided to try the Lyman Borecam.
The Hawkeye can be focused to provide a very sharp image and, once I adjusted my brain to work with the mirrored view (reversed as it is) it did an excellent job for my purposes. It offers a nice depth of field that I found took some of the strain out of focusing on surfaces I was interested in viewing. It requires some patience to assemble all the parts to the trombone style probe system (battery powered light source, slipping one tube over the other, etc.) but that may have been due to a flaw in my character. Patience is not my greatest virtue. The Hawkeye's probe can be rotated more than 360 degrees in any direction with ease and it has a notch in the rotational control ring that permits the user to rotate back to a previous point using "braille" techniques. But without an extra pair of hands, it's difficult to adjust the intensity of the light source while looking through the scope. When everything is adjusted the images are clear and as steady as the hands of the user can hold the probe in position. Taking pictures through the scope requires special equipment that increases the cost considerably. There was no need for a hard case to store and protect the Hawkeye because the box it ships in is plenty good enough to handle that responsibility.
The Hawkeye is comparatively expensive: $700 - $800 everywhere I shopped.
The Borecam is self focusing. However, IMO, its depth of field is not as broad as the Hawkeye. Satisfactory, to be sure, but just not quite as broad. Assembly of the components is child's play and involves plug, plug, plug, and go, using USB style connections. The package includes power adapters for virtually every conceivable electrical outlet in the world and adjusting the amount of light emitted to the area under inspection is as easy as simply pressing a single button on the portable console. Because it relies on a hard wired connection to the console, the probe of the Borecam resists being rotated. I found that annoying but I'll get used to it I'm sure. I also found that the guide I had used with the Hawkeye didn't work as well with the Borecam. Probably a depth of field issue described earlier. But because the probe doesn't rotate as freely as the Hawkeye it didn't matter much; the probe on the Borecam was actually easier to reposition without the guide. One of the best features I found is that I can record images instantly with a push of a button and view them on any device that can process digital images. While trying to adjust for depth of field, the image on the screen reminded me of those ultra-sound images commonly shown on TV. You know, the joyful expectant parent smiling at the first images of the fetus. But once of got the hang of it everything came together nicely. Much like the Hawkeye, I found that the box it ships in is plenty good enough to handle storage and protection of the system.
The Borecam is a darn good value, IMO, running from about $200 - $260 everywhere I shopped.
With an average price difference of over $500 I'm convinced I made the right choice by adding the Borecam to my shooting equipment inventory.
